And so the hours went on until it was about half-past nine. Then an officer on the _Brooklyn_ called to the lookout aloft:
"Isn"t that smoke moving?"
The answer came back with a yell that made everybody jump:
"There"s a big ship coming out of the harbor!"
In a second the groups of officers and men were on their feet and wide-awake. The Spaniards were coming! n.o.body now wanted to be at home or to go a-fishing. There were bigger fish coming into their net.
"Clear the ship for action!" cried Commodore Schley.
From every part of the ship the men rushed to their quarters. Far down below the stokers began to shovel coal like mad into the furnaces. In the turrets the gun-crews hurried to get their guns ready. The news spread like lightning, and the men made ready like magic for the terrible work before them.
It was the same on all the ships as on the _Brooklyn_, for all of them saw the Spaniards coming. Down past the wreck of the _Merrimac_ sped Cervera"s ships, and headed for the open sea. First came the _Maria Teresa_, the admiral"s flagship. Then came the _Vizcaya_, the _Oquendo_, and the _Cristobal Colon_, and after them the two torpedo-boats.
"Full speed ahead! Open fire!" roared the commodore from the bridge of the _Brooklyn_, and in a second there came a great roar and a huge iron globe went screaming towards the Spanish ships.
It was the same on the other ships. Five minutes before they had been swinging lazily on the long rolling waves, everybody at rest. Now clouds of black smoke came pouring from their funnels, every man was at his post, every gun ready for action, and the great ships were beginning to move through the water at the full power of the engines. And from every one of them came flashes as of lightning, and roars as of thunder, and huge sh.e.l.ls went whirling through the air toward the Spanish ships.
Out of the channel they dashed, four n.o.ble ships, and turned to the west along the coast. Only the _Brooklyn_ was on that side of the harbor, and for ten minutes three of the Spanish ships poured at her a terrible fire.
But soon the _Oregon_, the _Indiana_, the _Iowa_, and the _Texas_ came rapidly up, and the Spanish gunners had new game to fire at.
You might suppose that the huge iron sh.e.l.ls, whirling through the air, and bursting with a frightful roar, would tear and rend the ships as though they were made of paper.
But just think how it was at Manila, where the Spaniards fired at the sea and the sky, and the Americans fired at the Spanish ships. It was the same here at Santiago. The Spaniards went wild with their guns and wasted their b.a.l.l.s, while the Americans made nearly every shot tell.
It was a dreadful tragedy for Spain that day on the Cuban coast. The splendid ships which came out of the harbor so stately and trim, soon looked like ragged wrecks. In less than half an hour two of them were ash.o.r.e and in a fierce blaze, and the two others were flying for life.
The first to yield was the _Maria Teresa_, the flagship of the admiral.
One sh.e.l.l from the _Brooklyn_ burst in her cabin and in a second it was in flames. One from the _Texas_ burst in the engine-room and broke the steam-pipe. Some burst on the deck; some riddled the hull; death and terror were everywhere.
The men were driven from the guns, the flames rose higher, the water poured in through the shot holes, and there was n.o.body to work the pumps. All was lost, and the ship was run ash.o.r.e and her flag pulled down.
In very few minutes the _Oquendo_ followed the flagship ash.o.r.e, both of them looking like great blazing torches. The sh.e.l.ls from the great guns had torn her terribly, many of her crew had been killed, and those who were left had to run her ash.o.r.e to keep her from going to the bottom of the sea.
In half an hour, as you may see, two of the Spanish ships had been half torn to pieces and driven ash.o.r.e, and only two were still afloat. These were the _Vizcaya_ and the _Cristobal Colon_. When the _Maine_ was sent to Havana, before the beginning of the war, a Spanish warship was sent to New York. This was the _Vizcaya_. She was a trim and handsome ship and her officers had a hearty welcome.
It was a different sort of welcome she now got. The _Brooklyn_ and the _Oregon_ were after her and her last day had come. So hot was the fire that her men were driven from their guns and flames began to appear.
Then she, too, was run ash.o.r.e and her flag was hauled down. It was just an hour after the chase began and she had gone twenty miles down the coast. Now she lay blazing redly on the shallow sh.o.r.e and in the night she blew up. It was a terrible business, the ruin of those three fine vessels.
There was one more Spanish ship, the _Cristobal Colon_. (This is the Spanish for Christopher Columbus.) She was the fastest of them all, and for a time it looked as if Spain might save one of her ships.
But there were bloodhounds on her track, the _Brooklyn_, six miles behind, and the _Oregon_, more than seven miles away.
Swiftly onward fled the deer, and swiftly onward followed the war-hounds. Mile by mile they gained on the chase. About one o"clock, when she was four miles away, the _Oregon_ sent a huge sh.e.l.l whizzing from one of her great 13-inch guns. It struck the water just behind the _Colon_; but another that followed struck the water ahead.
Then the _Brooklyn_ tried her eight-inch guns, and sent a sh.e.l.l through the _Colon"s_ side, above her belt of steel. For twenty minutes this was kept up. The _Colon_ was being served like her consorts. At the end of that time her flag was pulled down and the last of the Spanish ships ran ash.o.r.e. She had made a flight for life of nearly fifty miles.
This, you see, is not the story of a sea-fight; it is the story of a sea-chase. Much has been said about who won the honor at Santiago, but I think any of you could tell that in a few words. It was the men who ran the engines and who aimed the guns that won the game. The commanders did nothing but run after the runaway Spaniards, and there is no great honor in that. What else was there for them to do? They could not run the other way.