SMOKE FROM OUR CAMP FIRE. 



G. O. S. 



The Camp Fire Club had eaten its 

 second dinner. The embers had pushed 

 back their chairs, and lighted their cigars 

 when the Chesterfield of the Club, Mr. Win. 

 E. Coffin, proceeded to introduce, in order, 

 the guests of honor. These were Captains 

 Evans and Chadwick, of the Navy; Col. 

 Jas. M. Bell, of the First Cavalry, a veteran 

 Indian fighter and a Santiago hero, and 

 Major W. G. Bates, of Gen. Greene's staff, 

 who had just returned from Manila. 



Captain Evans told the story of the de- 

 struction of Cervera's fleet in so graphic 

 and so forcible a manner that we could 

 hear the booming of the guns, the shrieking 

 of the shells and the explosion of the mag- 

 azines in the Spanish vessels. Captain Bob 

 talks as well as he fights, and everybody 

 knows how he does that. In introducing 

 him Mr. Coffin told how, when Captain Bob 

 was wounded in both legs at Fort Fisher, 

 the surgeons placed him on the operating 

 table and told him they would have to am- 

 putate them. 



Bob still had his belt on and drawing his 

 six-shooter, told the Doctors that only the 

 survivors of the medical corps could am- 

 putate any part of him after he got through 

 shooting. The surgeons reconsidered their 

 decision, dressed his wounds properly, and 

 that is why he' was able to command the 

 Iowa in the late unpleasantness. 



Captain Bob said that when the Spanish 

 fleet steamed out of Santiago harbor that 

 Sunday morning, he picked out as his spe- 

 cial target, the Vizcaya, because Captain 

 Eulate had made his boast, while lying in 

 the harbor, that within 20 minutes after 

 emerging from it, it would be towing the 

 Iowa into Cadiz. 



Captain Bob said he opened his broad- 

 sides on each of the ships as they came in 

 sight, but when the Vizcaya showed up, he 

 steamed straight for her, determined to ram 

 her, whatever might be the result to his 

 own ship. The enemy's vessels were over a 

 mile away at this time, and Evans headed 

 in toward the shore at an cmgle which he 

 calculated would enable him to intercept 

 the Vizcaya by the time each had run her 

 distance. Bob soon found, however, he 

 could not make the necessary speed. He 

 had been 18 months at sea without a chance 

 to dock his vessel and have her hull scraped. 

 He said her bottom was covered with oys- 

 ters as big as his fist, and this was why it 

 was impossible to run as he had hoped to 

 have done. 



He called his chief engineer and asked him 

 if he could not make better speed. The engi- 

 neer replied that all the draughts were wide 



open, that the furnaces were at white heat, 

 and that the engines were turning for every 

 pound they could produce without danger 

 to the ship. Captain Bob told him to put 

 on the force draughts, to dump into the 

 furnaces every pound of coal they would 

 hold, and to give him all the power the 

 engines could possibly make, no matter 

 what the result might be. The chief engi- 

 neer went below and obeyed orders, as a 

 good seaman always does. 



The great battleship carved her way 

 through the water at such a speed as to 

 throw the spray clear over her quarter deck, 

 and the men crowded each other in their 

 eagerness to work the guns for every shot 

 that could possibly be fired from them. The 

 old tar on the bridge was watching through 

 his glass the result of the firing. The' dis- 

 tance from ship to ship was changing so rap- 

 idly that it was difficult to keep the range, 

 yet whenever a shot fell short of the en- 

 emy's ships, Bob ordered the gunners to in- 

 crease their elevation. When he failed to see 

 any splashes, he knew the shots were smash- 

 ing the ships. 



He soon found that, handicapped as he 

 was with barnacles, it would be impossible 

 to ram his chief antagonist, as he had 

 hoped. He therefore put his helm hard 

 down, and turned his prow in the same di- 

 rection as the Spanish ships were headed. 

 This gave him a better opportunity to work 

 his port broadsides, and his men to re- 

 double their energies in operating the guns. 



The world knows the result. 



The Vizcaya, as well as the other Spanish 

 ships, was soon on fire, and fbmes and 

 smoke were bursting from every hatchway 

 and every port hole. Her commander, real- 

 izing that the end was at hand, head 1 ' her 

 in shore and when she struck, the survivors 

 leaped into the surf. 



The Iowa ran alongside of her and Cap- 

 tain Evans sent his boats to save the crew. 

 It was only by the most heroic work on the 

 part of the Iowa's men that the survivors of 

 the Vizcaya's crew could be saved. The 

 sight was a pitiable one, and Captain Evans 

 .said he could not help thinking, in the midst 

 of all that carnage, what a sorry looking 

 outfit the Vizcaya was to tow anything any- 

 where. 



He said that when his yawl brought Eu- 

 late on board the Iowa, that gallant com- 

 mander knelt before him, drew his sword, 

 kissed the hilt of it, and handed it over to 

 him. " Many eyes were dimmed with tears, 

 for there was not a man on my ship who did 

 not know that old warrior was parting with 

 everything he valued in this world. I told 



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