224 



DEWEY, GEORGE. 



more of his ships became disabled, was open to 

 him. His nearest home port, San Francisco, was 

 7,000 miles away, and it behooved him either to 

 conquer a base "where he could lie in safety and 

 obtain coal or ignominiously sail for home. His 

 orders were brief and to the point. "Capture or 

 destroy the Spanish fleet," the dispatch read, and 

 Dewey was not the man to waste time in idle spec- 

 ulation. The squadron took advantage of China's 

 failure to proclaim neutrality and lay for two days 

 in Mirs Bay, until final preparations could be com- 

 pleted and" final information acquired. Waiting 

 only for the arrival of Mr. Williams, the United 

 States consul, the squadron headed direct for the 

 Philippines. The cable from Manila to the main- 

 land was still intact, and it was assumed correctly 

 as it afterward proved that the Spaniards were 

 advised of Dewey's movements up to the time of 

 his departure from Mirs ; but they did not count 

 upon the precise manner in which a graduate of 

 the Farragut school of maritime warfare would 

 conduct subsequent operations. 



The fleet arrived off the entrance to Manila Bay 

 in the dark of the last night of April, and instead 

 of lying to in the open, as the Spanish admiral no 

 doubt expected him to do, Dewey led the way with 

 his flagship, the " Olympia," directly into the har- 

 bor mouth, past the fortified island of Corregidor 

 whose batteries might wake up at any moment, and 

 over unknown fields of mines and torpedoes whose 

 locality could only be guessed. 



The Spanish outlook on Corregidor could not 

 have been very alert, or else it trusted to luck, and 

 luck went against it. The head of the column was 

 nearly abreast of the lighthouse before an alarm 

 signal was fired and an answering flash came from 

 the mainland ; but the ships moved on, and not a 

 gun was discharged while the grim procession ad- 

 vanced up the narrow strait. 



By some unexplained accident, a life buoy was 

 dropped overboard from one of the leading ships, 

 perhaps from the flagship itself, and as it was one 

 of the automatic-lighting variety, the squadron was 

 startled by seeing a bonfire on the surface of the 

 water immediately in the track of the advancing 

 ships. The nature of the blaze was quickly detected 

 by the sharp-eyed lookouts, and barring a slight 

 precautionary sheer to port or starboard, as the 

 case might be, the squadron moved on, only alarmed 

 and exasperated by the smoke of the ' McCulloch," 

 which insisted upon igniting from time to time at 

 the top of her smokestack and making an admirable 

 target for the enemy's gunners should they be dis- 

 posed to take advantage of it. Three times this 

 provoking smoke flared up, and at last came the 

 first shot of the battle 01 Manila from a battery 

 only half a mile distant from the passing squadron. 

 There was no halt in the progress, and no accelera- 

 tion of speed, but with a few answering shots the 

 fleet passed on, leaving the Spanish gunners to waste 

 their unmiunition, if they chose to do so, upon the 

 dark waters of the bay. 



Thence onward until daylight the fleet steamed 

 at a slow rate, calculated to bring them off the city 

 at about daybreak, and as the first light of morning 

 appeared in the east the masts of the shipping off 

 Manila became visible. The men were at quarters, 

 and coffee was served while the squadron steamed 

 through the fleet of merchant vessels toward the 

 Spanish war ships that could now be seen off the 

 fortress of Cavite. Then battle flags were broken 

 out, and with the "Olympia" in the lead the 

 squadron headed in without a moment's pause in as 

 regular order as if they were engaged in a holiday 

 parade in Hudson river. The Spaniards began 

 firing as soon as our fleet came within range, but 

 Dewey's orders were not to reply until signal was 



made from the " Olympia." When the American 

 firing did begin it was terrific, and the superiority 

 of the American gunners was at once apparent as 

 the range was caught up and heavy projectiles be- 

 gan to hammer the sides of the Spanish war ships. 



The commodore led the procession on his flag- 

 ship, and after delivering the full weight of his 

 battery against fleet and forts turned and was fol- 

 lowed by all the ships in succession, passing five 

 times up and down the line of fire from the Spanish 

 ships and fortress. The expenditure of ammuni- 

 tion was so rapid and destructive that the commo- 

 dore feared some of the magazines must be nearly 

 exhausted, and so, after passing the fifth time, he 

 led the way out of the range and was followed by 

 the rest of his fleet. This was the real reason for 

 the lull in the fight, not because he deliberately 

 stopped, as has been reported, to give his men their 

 breakfast. However, when he had satisfied himself 

 that the ammunition was sufficient, he improved 

 the opportunity and gave the men their breakfast 

 before returning to finish the work that he had 

 begun. This was effected in short order, and a lit- 

 tle before 1 o'clock in the afternoon the victory was 

 complete, the last Spanish flag came down, and the 

 American squadron anchored just outside the fleet 

 of foreign merchant vessels whose crews had watched 

 the whole action with absorbed interest. The com- 

 modore had obeyed his orders the enemy's fleet 

 was totally destroyed. Negotiations folio wed through 

 Mr. Ramsay Walker, the British consul in Manila, 

 and from that time until the final surrender of the 

 city not a hostile act was committed by the Span- 

 iards, thanks, no doubt, to Capt.-Gen.' Augustine, 

 who was then in charge. 



The telegraphic cable that connects Manila with 

 Hong-Kong and the rest of the world was as yet 

 uncut, and Dewey notified the Spanish authorities 

 that he would not interfere with it provided they 

 would allow him to use it to communicate with his 

 own Government. This they declined to do, so that 

 the commodore had the best of all reasons for 

 promptly sending one of his ships to grapple the 

 cable and prevent any further mendacious messages 

 to the Government at Madrid. The cable, however, 

 had already been utilized to telegraph the probable 

 annihilation of the American fleet by the Spaniards, 

 and such was the first news of the engagement that 

 went out to the world. A true version of the affair 

 was not transmitted until Dewey sent one of his 

 vessels back to Hong-Kong with his official report. 



As soon as the news went abroad, the great 

 powers of Europe, represented by strong squadrons 

 in Asiatic waters, telegraphed to their respective 

 flag officers to proceed to Manila and supervise the 

 doings of this Western upstart who had presumed 

 to trespass upon their preserves. A Frenchman was 

 the first to appear, and he was promptly followed 

 by a fleet of German ships that would probably have 

 overmatched our own squadron had it come to blows. 

 These Germans immediately began to make the sit- 

 uation very uncomfortable for Commodore Dewey. 

 They established obtrusively friendly relations with 

 the Spanish authorities, and not until Rear Ad- 

 miral Dewey (for he had now received his promo- 

 tion) notified Vice-Admiral von Diederichs that he 

 regarded his actions as verging upon unfriendliness, 

 were the objectionable and defiant practices dis- 

 continued. He distinctly intimated that he would 

 expect the German admiral to pursue a different 

 course in the future. This message, it is understood, 

 was backed up by such friendly relations with the 

 British squadron that had then arrived in the har- 

 bor, that from that day there was less cause for 

 complaint. 



Some time necessarily elapsed before re-enforce- 

 ments could reach Manila from San Francisco, and 



