BATTLE OF MANILA.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10044, 24 May 1898, Page 5

BATTLE OF MANILA.

DESCRIBED BY AN EYEWITNESS.

A THRILLING SPECTACLE. THE CRUSHING DEFEAT OP THE SPANISH. Received May 23rd, 10.20 p.m. Melbourne, May 23. The " Argus " publishes a graphic account of the battle of Manila, written by an eye-witness. Tbe night being moonlight was a bad one for the attacking squadron. The cruisers were painted the light grey of the Confederate troops in the great Civil War, and this neutral tint harmonising with the gleam of the sea in the moonlight, masked the approach. As the supposed locality of the mine fields was approached, the Olympia gave the signal to the fleet to follow her, and steamed ahead faster, the men with light quick-firers in each of her fore tops and those at the 6-pounders on deck being specially on the lookout for torpedo boats. It was an anxious period for the flagship, for at any moment a mine bursting under her steel-shod keel might hurl her to destruction. She passed through the crisis safely, and the signal for the general action at close quarters was given from the Olympia. The Americans formed a fighting line in single column, each ship 400 yards from the other, steaming six knots. To those who watched the fight, the strain of that ten minutes' calm before the storm was painfully intense. A puff of smoke from the Cavite shore I batteries marked the first shot, but the i excited Spanish gunners, unable to bear the strain of waiting, fired too | soon, and the shot, falling far short of I the fleet, went richochetting harmlessly to the right. j Other shots were equally ineffective. The Americans, reserving their fire, came grimly on. At 4500 yards the Olympia brought a broadside to bear and opened the duel with her eightinch gun. Reaching the end of the Spanish line, the Olympia swung inward, shortening the range this time to 8000 yards, and again opened a terrific cannonade, the perfect precision with which each following ship came round in the wake of the leader speaking eloquently of the cool deliberation with which they were being handled. The accuracy and rapidity of the fire were marvellous, the sides of the American ships being a continuous flame of fire. An unbroken stream of 2501b shells was hurled .upon the doomed Manila squadron. Five times the American squadron steamed thus up and down the front, and shattered the Spanish lines on each run. Tbe guns were served with an accuracy almost incredible. Realising that fighting under such conditions meant certain destruction, Admiral Montiojo made a heroic effort to get at closer quarters with the enemy, and picking the American flagship by her pennant, made a gallant dash for the Olympia. The big American ship simply concentrated four big guns and ten 5-inch quick-firers on the unfortunate Reina Christina, and brought her up riddled. An Bin shell burst in the engine room, severing the steam pipes, while the hull, being unprotected by armour, was shot through and through. Blood ran in streams on the shell-splintered decks. A few minutes later she took fire. One of the most graphic episodes of the earlier part of the combat was the gallant attempt by a small Spanish torpedo boat to sink the McCullooh and.other American storeships, which clustered out of the range in the rear of their cruisers. Rushing out from the shelter of the mole, the torpedo boat dashed straight at the McCulloch, but in broad daylight and well under the fire of the cruisers, the effort was as unavailing as it was brave. It being no time for chivalry, a nail-iron splintering shell fell upon the little boat and blotted her out of existence. The work of silencing the forts occupied thirty minutes. In the batteries the dismantled guns and the dead gunners told of the awful havoc of the American fire, which was even more deadly in concentration than that in the first battle.