the sides of the Oquendo, the Vizcaya, est in our squadron, she might be sure to and the flag-ship. The Spanish fire sank head off the swiftest Spanish ship. In under that of the American gunners, shoot- the lead with the Brooklyn was the Texas, ing coolly as if at target practice, and holding the next position in the line. But sweeping the Spanish decks with a fire the Oregon was about to add to the laurels which drove the men from the guns. On she had already won in her great voyage went the Spanish ships in their des- from ocean to ocean. With a burst of perate flight, the American ships firing speed which astonished all who saw her, rapidly and steadily upon them, always and which seemed almost incredible in a closing in, and beginning now to gather battle-ship, she forged ahead to the secspeed. The race was a short one to two ond place in the chase, for such it had now of the Spanish ships, fatally wounded in become. The Teresa and Oquendo had the first savage encounter. gone to wreck, torn by the fire of all the ships. The Vizcaya had also suffered severely, but struggled on, pursued by the leading ships, and under their fire, especially that of the Oregon, until, at a quarter past eleven, she too was turned to the shore and beached, at Acerraderos, 15 miles from Santiago, a shattered, blazing hulk.

In little more than half an hour the Spanish flag-ship Maria Teresa was headed to the shore, and at a quarter past ten she was a sunken, burning wreck upon the beach at Nima Nima, a distance of about 6 miles from Santiago. Fifteen minutes later, and half a mile farther on, the Oquendo was beached near Juan Gonzales, a mass of flames, shot to pieces, and a hopeless wreck. For these two ships of the Spanish navy, flight and fight were alike over.

At the start, the Brooklyn, putting her helm to port, had gone round, bearing away from the land, and then steamed to the westward, so that, as she was the fast

In the mean time the two torpedo-boats, coming out last from the harbor, about ten o'clock, had made a rush to get by the American ships; but their high speed availed them nothing. The secondary batteries of the battle-ships were turned upon them with disastrous effect, and they also met an enemy especially reserved for them.

tle avail, and which has made the English-speaking man the victor on the ocean from the days of the Armada.

When the Vizcaya went ashore at a quarter past eleven, only one Spanish ship remained, the Cristobal Colon. She was the newest, the fastest, and the best of the squadron. With their bottled steam, all

The Gloucester, a converted yacht, with no armor, but with a battery of small rapidfire guns, was lying inshore when the Spaniards made their break for liberty. Undauntedly firing her light shells at the great cruisers as they passed, the Glouces ter waited, gathering steam, for the destroyers. The moment these boats appeared, Lieutenant Commander Wainwright, the Spanish cruisers gained at first, while unheeding the fire of the Socapa battery, drove the Gloucester straight upon them at top speed, giving them no time to use their torpedoes, even if they had so desired. The fierce, rapid, well-directed fire of the Gloucester swept the decks of the torpedo-boats, and tore their upper works and sides. Shattered by the shells from the battle-ships, and overwhelmed by the close and savage attack of the Gloucester, which fought in absolute disregard of the fire from either ships or shore, the race of the torpedo-boat destroyers was soon run. Within twenty minutes of their rush from the harbor's mouth the Furor was beached and sunk, and the Pluton had gone down in deep water. At the risk of their lives the officers and men of the Gloucester boarded their sinking enemies, whose decks looked like shambles, and saved all those who could be saved. There were but few to rescue. Nineteen were taken from the Furor, twenty-six from the Pluton; all the rest of the sixty-four men on each boat were killed or drowned. It is worth while to make a little comparison here. The Furor and Pluton were 370 tons each, with a complement together of 134 men. They had together four 11-pounders, four 6-pounders, and four Maxim guns, in addition to their torpedoes. The Gloucester was of 800 tons, with ninety-three men, four 6-pounders, four 3-pounders, and two Colt automatic guns. The Spanish ships were fatally wounded probably by the secondary batteries of the battle-ships, but they were hunted down and destroyed by the Gloucester, which, regardless of the fire of the Socapa battery, closed with them and overwhelmed them. There is a very interesting exhibition here of the superior quality of the American sailor. The fierce, rapid, gallant attack of the Gloucester carried all before it, and showed that spirit of daring sea-fighting without which the best ships and the finest guns are of lit

the American ships were gathering and increasing their pressure, but the Colon gained most of all. She did, apparently, comparatively little firing, kept inside of her consorts, hugging the shore, and then raced ahead, gaining on all the American ships except the Brooklyn, which kept on outside to head her off. When the Vizcaya went ashore, the Colon had a lead of about 6 miles over the Brooklyn and the Oregon, which had forged to the front, with the Texas and Vixen following at their best speed. As the New York came tearing along the coast, striving with might and main to get into the fight, now so nearly done, Admiral Sampson saw, after he passed the wreck of the Vizcaya, that the American ships were overhauling the Spaniard. The Colon had a contract speed 5 knots faster than the contract speed of the Oregon. But the Spaniard's best was 7 knots below her contract speed, while the Oregon, fresh from her 14,000 miles of travel, was going a lit tle faster than her contract speed, a very splendid thing, worthy of much thought and consideration as to the value of perfect and honest workmanship done quite obscurely in the builder's yard, and of the skill, energy, and exact training which could then get more than any one had a right to expect from both ship and engines. On they went, the Americans coming ever nearer, until at last, at ten minutes before one, the Brooklyn and the Oregon opened fire. A thirteen-inch shell from the great battle - ship, crushing her way at top speed through the water, fell in the sea beyond the Colon; the eightinch shells of the Brooklyn began to drop about her; more big shells from the Oregon turret followed; and then, without firing another shot, the Spaniard hauled down her flag and ran at full speed ashore upon the beach at Rio Tarquino, 45 miles from Santiago. Captain Cook of the Brooklyn boarded her, received the

surrender, and reported it to Admiral their opponents. According to the conSampson, who had come up finally just tract speed, the Spanish cruisers had a in time to share in the last act of the drama. The Colon was only slightly hurt by shells, but it was soon found that the Spaniards, to whom the point of honor is very dear, had opened and broken her sea-valve after surrendering her, and that she was filling fast. The New York pushed her in nearer the shore, and she sank, comparatively uninjured, in shoal water.

great advantage over all their American opponents, with the exception of the Brooklyn, and of the New York, which was absent. If they had lived up to their qualities as set down in every naval register, they ought to have made a most brilliant fight, and some of them ought to have escaped. They also had the advantage of coming out under a full head of steam, which their opponents lacked, and yet in less than two hours all but one were shattered wrecks along the shore, and in less than two hours more that one survivor had been run down and had met the same fate. It is no explanation to say, what we know now to be true, that the Colon did not have her 10-inch guns, that the Vizcaya was foul-bottomed, that much of the ammunition was bad, and the other ships more or less out of order. One of the conditions of naval success, just as important as any other, is that the ships should be kept in every respect in the highest possible efficiency, and that the best work of which the machine and the organization are capable should be got out of them. The Americans fulfilled

So the fight ended. Every Spanish ship which had dashed out of the harbor in the morning was a half-sunken wreck on the Cuban coast at half-past one. The officers and men of the Iowa, assisted by the Ericsson and Hist, took off the Spanish crews from the red-hot decks and amid the exploding batteries and ammunition of the Vizcaya. The same work was done by the Gloucester and Harvard for the Oquendo and Maria Teresa. From the water and the surf, from the beaches, and from the burning wrecks, at greater peril than they had endured all day, American officers and crews rescued their beaten foes. A very noble conclusion to a very perfect victory. The Spanish lost, according to their own accounts and the best estimates, 350 killed or drowned, 160 these conditions, the Spaniards did not; wounded, and ninety-nine officers and 1,675 men prisoners, including, of course, those on the Furor and Pluton, as already given. The American loss was one man killed and one wounded, both on the Brooklyn. Such completeness of result and such perfection of execution are as striking here as at Manila, and Europe, which had been disposed at first to belittle Manila, saw at Santiago that these things were not accidental, and considered the performances of the American navy in a surprised and flattering, but by no means happy, silence. At Santiago the Spaniards had the best types of modern cruisers, three built by British workmen in Spanish yards, and one, the Colon, in Italy, while the torpedo-boat destroyers were fresh from the Clyde, and the very last expression of English skill. The American ships were heavier in armament and armor, but much slower. The Americans could throw a heavier weight of metal, but the Spaniards had more quick-fire guns, and ought to have been able to fire at the rate of seventy-seven more shots in five minutes than

the Oregon surpassed all that the most exacting had a right to demand; the Colon and Vizcaya did far less; hence one reason for American victory. It is also said with truth that the Spanish gunnery was bad, but this is merely stating again that they fell short in a point essential to success. They fired with great rapidity as they issued from the harbor, and although most of the shots went wide, many were anything but wild, for the Brooklyn was hit twenty-five times, the Iowa repeatedly, and the other ships more or less. When the American fire fell upon them, their fire, as at Manila, slackened, became ineffective, and died away. Again it was shown that the volume and accuracy of the American fire were so great that the fire of the opponents was smothered, and that the crews were swept away from the guns. The overwhelming American victory was due not to the shortcomings of the Spaniards, but to the efficiency of the navy of the United States and to the quality of the crews. The officers and seamen, the gunners and engineers, surpassed the