CHAPTER XX

SURRENDER OF SANTIAGO AND AFTERWARD

DEADLY ACCURACY IN FIRING AT A TARGET FIVE MILES AWAY AND OUT OF SIGHT BEHIND THE HILLS OUR SHIPS AT MANZANILLO, AND A POETIC TRIBUTE TO THREE OF THEMTHE CAPTURE OF NIPE-WHEN ENSIGN CURTIN OF THE WASP DEMANDED AND OBTAINED THE SURRENDER OF PONCE BY TELEPHONE.

ALTHOUGH the Spaniards in Santiago very quickly learned that Cervera's squadron had been destroyed, they showed a disposition to continue a stubborn resistance rather than an inclination to surrender, and in proof of this is the fact that late on the night of July 4th they sent their 3,000-ton cruiser Reina Mercedes to add to the obstruction made by the Merrimac in the channel inside the Morro. And it should be said here, that their stubbornness was due to a knowledge of the growing weakness in our army through the effects of fevers. They were not sure their torpedoes could keep Sampson out now that their squadron was gone. It hap pened that night that the Massachusetts and the Texas were on guard, the Massachusetts

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experience. The Mercedes soon drifted, unmanageable, to one side of the channel, and grounded and sank, leaving a part of her deck still above water. She was hit by five of our largest shells.

The soldiers in the forts were on duty for the occasion, apparently, for they returned our fire as vigorously and as ineffectively as ever. An eight-inch shell from a mortar did fall on the Indiana, passing through to the berthdeck, where it exploded, with the effect of showing that eight-inch shells weighing but two hundred and fifty pounds are useless for such work. However, a fragment did dent the ward-room punch-bowl somewhat, and it was carefully preserved and mounted in silver, for use as a cover to the bowl it had so nearly ruined.

Another ship that was lost to the Spaniards. about this time was the Alphonso XII. She sneaked from Havana on July 6th, but was headed off at Mariel, twenty-five miles west, by the Castine, Captain R. M. Berry, and overhauled by the Hawk, Captain J. Hood, the Prairie, Captain C. J. Train, and the Badger, Captain A. S. Snow, in the order named. was driven ashore and set on fire by the attack. She was of about three thousand tons displacement, and had no mean battery (six six-inch and two three-inch guns), but she was no match for our auxiliaries. Her crew escaped ashore.

She

On July 10th, our squadron bombarded the city of Santiago. There had been truces and conferences between our land forces and the Spanish without avail, and the non-combatants were finally warned out. Then the New York, the Brooklyn, the Indiana, and the Texas, ranged up facing the hills, set their guns for a range of 9,000 yards and began firing on the city they could not see, but whose location was accurately plotted on the chart. In all one hundred and six shells (chiefly eight-inch) were fired, and all but three fell in the city. It is admitted that the terrible accuracy of this fire convinced the Spanish General Toral that he could not hold out much longer. The ships could with absolute certainty destroy the whole city.

On July 18th, at 7.30 o'clock in the morning, the Wilmington, with Captain C. C. Todd as senior officer, led the Helena, Captain W. T. Swinburne, Scorpion, Captain A. Marix, Hist, Captain L. Young, Wompatuck, Captain C. A. Jungen and the Osceola into the harbor of Manzanillo, that is found some distance west of Santiago. A right brave attack had been made on this port by the Hist, Captain Lucien Young, with the Hornet, Captain J. M. Helm, and Wompatuck, on July 1st. They faced five well-armed gun-boats, besides pontoons armed with six-inch muzzle-loaders, and succeeded in