THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 386 astheyricochetted alongside,it wasclear that the Americangunners had the range, and that the Colon would soon be a mere target for the heavyguns of four big ships, for the Texas and New York were nowcomingup to the helpof Schley. Captain Moreu thereforestruck his flag, and the boats of the Oregon pulled alongside to take navy as a volunteer just betore the war. He came from Brooklyn, and by his owndesire was posted to the ship namedafter his nativecity. He was engaged in range-finding duty during ■ theaction, and was standing beside Commodore Schley and Captain Cook, who commanded the ship when he was killed. The commodore thus described the incident :— " As Istood talking withCaptain Cook whilewefinished the Vizcaya, it seemed that our shots were falling a little short. Iturned to Ellis, who stood near, and asked him what the range was. He replied, 'Seventeenhundredyards.' Ihave pretty keen eyesight, and it seldom deceives me as to distances, andItold himIthought it was slightly more than that. 'Ijust took it, sir,butI'lltryit again,' he said, and stepped off to one side, about eight feet, to get the range. He had just raised his instrument to his eye when a shell struck him full in the face and carried away all ofhis head above the mouth."

possession.

When the American boardingofficer came on deck the Spaniards were beginning to get their boats out, and a marked list to starboard showed that the Colon was sinking. Men were sent below to try to discover where the leak was, and to close some of the water-tight doors in the bulkheads,whichwerefound open. But nothing couldsave theship;she wasgoingdownrapidly. The wounded were got into the boats first, then the rest of the officers and crew were transferred to the American fleet. The Colon heeledover towards the land and sank sideways, leavingher port side out of water and awash, her decks nearlyvertical, the long muzzlesof her quick-firers on the port side pointing skywards. It is all but certain that her water-line belt was unpierced by the American fire, and that she was sunk by oneof her own engineers, who was resolved thatifhe couldhelpit the Colon should not float after her surrender and fly the Stars and Stripes. He therefore, without orders from his captain, opened the sea cocks and let the water into the ship.

As the Colon surrendered, there wasa striking scene on board the Texas. Captain Phillips, her commander, called his crew on deck, and speaking in a clear, ringing voice, told them he had not called them up to join in the cheers that hailed the surrender of the last of the Spaniards, but he asked every man to take off his hat and offer silent thanks to God for the great victory, and for their own personal safety during the fight. All hats were off for a brief interval,and then the men threw them in the air,cheeringtheir captain. Thus in less than four hours the Spanish fleet had been utterly destroyed. The Colon was sunk. The three other cruisers lay burning on the rocks nearer Santiago, columns of black smoke a thousand feet high curling up from their wrecksagainst the green hills and the blue sky. One torpedo boat was a wreck on the shore, the other had gone to the bottomin deep water. And this success had been won with practically noloss to the blockading fleet. The total number of casualties from the fire of the Spaniards was two, onekilled and one wounded, bothon boardthe Brooklyn. Besidesthese,nine men had been more or less seriously injured by having unwittingly placed themselves in the line of concussion of their own heavy guns.

The only ships actually hit were the Iowaand the Brooklyn; the former was struck several times, but no one was injured. The hits on the Brooklyn numbered twenty, mostly on the armour, funnels, and ventilators, the projectiles being small shells that did very little damage. The seaman killed was asignalman namedEllis, a well-educated young man who had joined the All the ships were soon crowded withSpanish prisoners,most of them more or less seriously wounded. The total numberof Spaniards who surrenderedwas 1,600. About 150 of those who swam ashore made their way to the city of Santiago. Man)' others were killed on land by the Cubans. The total loss of Cervera's fleet was about 350 killed and it>o wounded,out of 3 totalcomplement-of some 2,300 men.

During the action the American ships had fired in all 6,500 shells. A careful examination of the Spanish wrecks was afterwards made, and all the hits counted. There were probably some others not included in this enumeration, as on the three cruisers that wereburned much of the upper works had disappeared, and a good deal of the Colon's side that had been exposed to fire was under water. For the number of guns in action and the damagedone the total of hits was surprisingly small, amounting to only about 3 per cent, of the shots fired. The 13-inch guns,of which there were eight in