Show p SANTIAGO ENGAGEMENT WAS MERELY A PRELUDE More Serious York When the Dynamite Cruiser Vesuvius Arrives SAMPSON THERE WITH SIXTEEN SHIPS BUT CERYERA MAY HAVE ESCAPED Not a Single Vessel Was Struck Nor An American Injured iv In Tuesdays Bombardment l J Copyright IS93 by the Associated Press On Board the A R Dispatch Boat Dandy Port Antonia Jamaica June L7 a mFor an hour yesterday afternoon the Massachusetts Iowa Jew Orleans and Vixen of Comr adore Schleys squadron exchanged shots with the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera and with the land batteries guarding the harbor of Santiago de i Cuba behind which the fleet is hiding The engagement was the first which has occurred between the two naval forces and was but a prelude to serious seri-ous work In the latter part of the week Nc attempt was made by the Americans Ameri-cans to bring off a general engagement It being their desire to locate the batteries bat-teries on the hills above the harbor and to determine the position of the Spanish fleet Shortly before 10 oclock Commodore Schley left the Brooklyn for the Massachusetts on board of which battleship bat-tleship he remained during the fight At 2 oclock the signal to form column was posted on the flagship and the New Orleans Iowa and Vixen fell in in the order named The Massachusetts steamed slowly until about five miles west of the harbor har-bor entrance when she turned in toward to-ward the shore and when about 5000 yards off she turned east again and bore down on the harbor the New Orleans being closenip and the Iowa half a mile behind The flagship I gradually increased her speed and was soon running through the water at the I rate of en knots an hour She drew closer and closer to the batteries and to the anxious watchers on the other ships it seemed that she would never open fir flrfBIG GUNS ROARED When however she had passed the harbor entrance by 500 yards great cloud of white and yellow smoke burst from the two 13inch guns in her after turret and two shells rose over the hill one of them striking the Spanish flagship Cristobal Colon as she lay at anchor and the other falling close alongside The two guns on the forward turret were then fired and their shells exploded ex-ploded and threw up great geysers of spray close to the Colon All the shore batteries took up the challenges and began a rapidfire on the Massachusetts Massa-chusetts hut she was soon beyond their range and the batteries thereupon turned their guns upon the New Orleans This cruiser had been directed di-rected to pay attention to the batteries and to draw their fire as much as possible possi-ble and she obeyed her instructions to the letter letterHIT HIT THE BULLSEYE Her first shot located a large battery on the hill above Morro It flew straight into the fort and must have caused much damage as a great cloud of dust and debris rose as the shell burst A couple more shots sent part of the walls of Morro flying iifto i the air and then the New Orleans confined con-fined herself to the batteries her fire being rapid and extremely accurate Every shot she made made trouble for Spain The Iowa like the Massachusetts devoted de-voted her attention to the ships in the harbor Their 13inch shells made the water fly all about the part of the harbor har-bor in which the Cristobal Colon lay The latter however was not seriously damaged and kept up her fire until long after the American ships steamed out of range After the Iowa came the little Vixen which apparently had no business in a fight where battleships were engaged But she scudded along after the Iowa like a fox terrier following a mastiff and when at the proper point she let fly with her onepounder and glided away proudly conscious of having done her best After the Vixen had passed the forts the Massachusetts turned again to the westward followed by the other shins in the same order the one exception being the yacht Josephine which was ordered to keep out of the trouble The ironclads bore down on the harbor har-bor once more The tlagship kept on until less than 4000 yards from shore and then her shells again began to heave up the waters of Santiago harbor har-bor This time the shore batteries were better served and the Spaniards replied re-plied to the warships fire In energetic fashion But nearly all the shots of the batteries fell short Then came the New Orleans once more her long black guns doing fearful fear-ful work and tearing up the ground all around the batteries in the most savage sav-age manner The Spaniards dropped shells close to the Iowa as she came by for the second time sending a stream ofshells into the harbor as she did so WILD FIRING The Spanish warships with the exception ex-ception of the Cristobal Colon were behind be-hind the hills and could not see the enemy who threw shells around them with such rapidity that they knew he was somewhere on the other side of the hill and then hopefully raised the muzzles muz-zles of their guns and banged away The result was what might have been expected Their fire tore the bosom of the Caribbean sea but it harmed nothing noth-ing else After the Massachusetts had passed the point where she could fire into the harbor with advantage she returned to the open sea the other vessels following follow-ing her That fight was over as far as the Americans were concerned Spanish honor however demanded that some further destruction of gunpowder gun-powder be made and the ships boomed I and the batteries roared long after the American vessels were entirely out of range I i The affair soon became ludicrous as I Continued on Page 2 S SytiK3 v Jtt J ri Ir 1J41 rxy r Y n 4 t t I 1 I 1 < 1 t gin C f l i 1 ef i 19 ji 1 t t0 v atf a Y J J I Jt n yin t Irv ojI I c I THESE ARE THE BLUFFS SCHLEY HUST PASS TO FIND CERVERA Showing Morro Castle on the right and Socapa Battery on the left The view is not drawn to Scale but it gives an idea of the strength of the harbor and defenses i i j I r I SANTIAGO fNGAGfMENT I Continued from Page L nearly all of the Spanish shells fell from two to three miles from the vessels I ves-sels at which they were amod Worse gunnery was never seen Not an American vessel was struck and not a sailor Injured although fully 300 I shots were fired by the Spaniards the Americans firing not over onefourth of that number in return reur VESUVIUS IS COMING It is likely that the latter part of the I week meet more serious work The 1 dynamite cruiser Vesuvius is coming down and an attempt will be made Diner Di-ner to explode the triple row of mines extending across the harbor mouth With these out of the way Commodore Schley will sail into the harbor for a j death grapple with the fleet and batteries I tcles I |