The Boys of '98 Part 15

The sh.o.r.e there is low, and covered with a dense growth of high gra.s.s and reeds. The lighthouse stood on an elevation, behind which, as well as hidden in the long gra.s.s, were known to be a large number of rifle-pits, some masked machine guns, and 1-pounders. These the Spaniards deserted as fast as the s.h.i.+ps' fire reached them. As the enemy's fire slackened and died out, the boats were ordered insh.o.r.e.

They advanced in double column. The launches, under Lieutenant Anderson and Ensign McGruder of the _Nashville_, went ahead with their sharpshooters and gunners, looking eagerly for targets, while the cutters were behind with the grappling-irons out, and the men peering into the green water for a sight of the cables. At a distance of two hundred feet from sh.o.r.e the launches stopped, and the cutters were sent ahead.

The first cable was picked up about ninety feet offsh.o.r.e. No sooner had the work of cutting it been begun than the Spanish fire recommenced, the soldiers skulking back to their deserted rifle-pits and rapid-fire guns through the high gra.s.s. The launches replied and the fire from the s.h.i.+ps quickened, but although the Spanish volleys slackened momentarily, every now and then they grew stronger.

The men in the boats cut a long piece out of the first cable, stowed it away for safety, and then grappled for the next. Meantime the Spaniards were firing low in an evident endeavour to sink the cutters, but many of their shots fell short. The second cable was finally found, and the men with the pipe-cutters went to work on it.

Several sailors were kept at the oars to hold the cutters in position, and the first man wounded was one of these. No one else in the boat knew it, however, till he fainted in his seat from loss of blood. Others took the cue from this, and there was not a groan or a complaint from the two boats, as the bullets, that were coming thicker and faster every minute, began to bite flesh.

The men simply possessed themselves with heroic patience, and went on with the work. They did not even have the satisfaction of returning the Spanish fire, but the marines in the stern of the boat shot hard enough for all.

The second cable was finally cut, and the third, a smaller one, was grappled and hoisted to the surface. The fire of the Spanish had reached its maximum. It was estimated that one thousand rifles and guns were speaking, and the men who handled them grew incautious, and exposed themselves in groups here and there.

"Use shrapnel," came the signal, and can after can exploded over the Spaniards, causing them to break and run to cover.

This cover was a sort of fortification behind the lighthouse, and to this place they dragged a number of their machine guns, and again opened fire on the cutter. The shots from behind the lighthouse could not be answered so well from the launches, and the encouraged Spaniards fired all the oftener.

Man after man in the boats was. .h.i.t, but none let a sound escape him. Like silent machines they worked, grimly hacking and tearing at the third cable. During half an hour they laboured, but the fire from behind the lighthouse was too deadly, and, reluctantly, at Lieutenant Anderson's signal, the cable was dropped and the boats retreated.

The work had lasted two hours and a half.

The _Windom_, which had laid out of range with a collier, was now ordered in, and the surgeon called to attend the wounded. The _Windom_ was signalled to sh.e.l.l the lighthouse, which had not been fired on before, according to the usages of international law. It had been used as a shelter by the Spaniards. The revenue cutter's rapid-fire guns riddled the structure in short order, and soon a sh.e.l.l from the 4-inch gun, which was in charge of Lieut. R. O. Crisp, struck it fair, exploded, and toppled it over.

With the collapse of their protection the Spaniards broke and ran again, the screaming shrapnel bursting all around them.

At the fall of the lighthouse the _Marblehead_ signalled, "Well done," and then a moment later, "Cease firing."

The only man killed instantly was a marine named Eagan. A sailor from one of the boats died of his wounds on the same day. Commander Maynard of the _Nashville_ was grazed across the chest, and Lieutenant Winslow was wounded in the hand.

The list of casualties resulting from this display of heroism was two killed, two fatally and four badly wounded. The Spanish loss could not be ascertained, but it must necessarily have been heavy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: U. S. S. CHICAGO.]

CHAPTER VI.

CARDENAS AND SAN JUAN.

_May 11._ The Spanish batteries in Cardenas Harbour were silenced on May 11th, and at the same time there was a display of heroism, on the part of American sailors, such as has never been surpa.s.sed.

A plan of action having been decided upon, the _Wilmington_ arrived at the blockading station from Key West on the morning of the eleventh. She found there, off Piedras Bay, the cruiser _Machias_, the torpedo-boat _Winslow_, and the revenue cutter _Hudson_, which last carried two 6-pounders.

Shortly after noon the _Wilmington_, _Winslow_, and _Hudson_ moved into the inner harbour of Cardenas, and prepared to draw the fire of the Spanish batteries on the water-front. The _Wilmington_ took a range of about twenty-five hundred yards.

The Cardenas land defences consisted of a battery in a stone fortification on the mole or quay, a battery of field-pieces, and of infantry armed with long-range rifles. The gunboats were equipped with rapid-fire guns.

Firing commenced at one o'clock, and when the Cardenas batteries were silenced at two in the afternoon, the _Wilmington_ had sent 376 sh.e.l.ls into them and the town. Her 4-inch guns had been fired 144 times. She had aimed 122 shots from her 6-pounders, and 110 from her 1-pounders, over six shots a minute.

When the _Wilmington_ ceased firing she had moved up to within one thousand yards range of the Spanish guns, and there were only six inches of water under her keel. The _Wilmington_ draws nine feet of water forward and ten and a half feet aft. When the soundings showed that she was almost touching, her guns were in full play, and the Spaniards had missed a beautiful opportunity. The Spanish gunners must have miscalculated her distance and misjudged her draught, else they would have done more effective work at a range of two thousand yards.

During the engagement, when the commander of the _Winslow_ found that he could not approach close enough to the Spanish gunboats to use his torpedo-tubes to any advantage, he remained under fire. At that time he could have got out of harm's way by taking shelter to the leeward of the _Wilmington_.

Captain Todd, from his post of duty in the conning-tower of the _Wilmington_, saw a Spanish sh.e.l.l, aimed for the torpedo-boat, do its deadly work. The sh.e.l.l struck the water, took an up-shoot, and exploded on the deck of the _Winslow_. There is little room for men anywhere on a torpedo boat, and if a shot strikes at all it is almost sure to hit a group. Such was the case in the _Winslow_. The exploding sh.e.l.l cost the lives of Ensign Bagley and four seamen; it also crippled the craft by wrecking her steam-steering gear. Later her captain and one of his crew were wounded by separate shots.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TRAGEDY OF THE WINSLOW.]

Ensign Bagley was killed outright, two of the group of five died on the deck of the disabled torpedo-boat, and the other two died while being removed to the _Wilmington_.

The signal, "Many wounded," went up from the staff of the _Winslow_, and Pa.s.sed a.s.sistant Surgeon Cook of the _Wilmington_ boarded the torpedo-boat.

The _Hudson_ tied up to the _Winslow_ and towed her out of danger, escaping unscathed. The wounded men were tenderly cared for on the cruiser, and that night the revenue cutter steamed out of Cardenas Bay, bearing the dead and wounded to Key West.

William O'Hearn, of Brooklyn, N. Y., one of the _Winslow's_ crew, thus tells his story of the battle to a newspaper correspondent:

"From the very beginning," he said, "I think every man on the boat believed that we could not escape being sunk, and that is what would have happened had it not been for the bravery of the boys on the _Hudson_, who worked for over an hour under the most terrific fire to get us out of range."

"Were you ordered to go in there?" he was asked.

"Yes; just before we were fired upon the order was given from the _Wilmington_."

"Was it a signal order?"

"No; we were near enough to the _Wilmington_ so that they shouted it to us from the deck, through the megaphone."

"Do you remember the words of the commander who gave them?"

"I don't know who shouted the order; but the words as I remember them were, 'Mr. Bagley, go in and see what gunboats there are.' We started at once towards the Cardenas dock, and the firing began soon after.

"The first thing I saw," continued O'Hearn, "was a shot fired from a window or door in the second story of the storehouse just back of the dock where the Spanish gunboats were lying. A sh.e.l.l then went hissing over our heads. Then the firing began from the gunboat at the wharf, and from the sh.o.r.e. The effect of sh.e.l.l and heavy shot the first time a man is under fire is something terrible.

"First you hear that awful buzzing or whizzing, and then something seems to strike you in the face and head. I noticed that at first the boys threw their hands to their heads every time a sh.e.l.l went over; but they soon came so fast and so close that it was a roaring, shrieking, cras.h.i.+ng h.e.l.l.

"I am the water-tender, and my place is below, but everybody went on deck when the battle began. John Varvares, the oiler, John Denif and John Meek, the firemen, were on watch with me, and had they remained below they would not have been killed.

"After the firing began I went below again to attend to the boiler, and a few minutes later a solid shot came cras.h.i.+ng through the side of the boat and into the boiler, where it exploded and destroyed seventy of the tubes.

"At first it stunned me. When the sh.e.l.l burst in the boiler it threw both the furnace doors open, and the fuse from the sh.e.l.l struck my feet. It was a terrible crash, and the boiler-room was filled with dust and steam. For several seconds I was partially stunned, and my ears rang so I could hear nothing. I went up on the deck to report to Captain Bernadou.

"I saw him near the forecastle gun, limping about with a towel wound around his left leg. He was shouting, and the noise of all the guns was like continuous thunder. 'Captain,' I cried, 'the forward boiler is disabled. A sh.e.l.l has gone through it.'

"'Get out the hose,' he said, and turned to the gun again. I made my way to the boiler-room, in a few minutes went up on the deck again, and the fighting had grown hotter than ever. Several of the men were missing, and I looked around.

"Lying all in a heap on the after-deck in the starboard quarter, near the after conning-tower, I saw five of our men where they had wilted down after the sh.e.l.l struck them. In other places were men lying groaning, or dragging themselves about, wounded and covered with blood. There were big red spots on the deck, which was strewn with fragments and splinters.