CHAPTER X DEWEY AT MANILA GOOD WORK OF THE BALTIMORE'S MEN AIDED BY THE BRITISH IN We began our preparations for war in the 154 Gottfried Blocklinger was his executive officer. The ship reached Hong Kong on that Friday morning (April 22d) when Sampson led his squadron from Key West, and the echo of the Nashville's gun in capturing the Buenaven tura was heard in Commodore Dewey's cabin on the Olympia in Hong Kong harbor. The capture of the merchant ship was an act of war that would travel like a tidal wave to break in blood on the beach at far Manila. There was need of the Baltimore for instant service, and here she was in Hong Kong, but unfortunately foul-bottomed and short of coal and other supplies. To the dry-dock, therefore, Dewey sent her, and her captain and executive officer were the men for the hour; moreover, she was in a British port. Rarely in the history of navies has such swift work been done. At the end of forty-eight hours she had been docked, cleaned, painted, and floated again, and every needed article taken on board. That was accomplished by Sunday, April 24th, and it was remarkably lucky so, for on that day the Spanish Government issued its formal decree, declaring that war existed with the United States, and in consequence of the notice thereof which was telegraphed to neutral governments, the Governor of Hong Kong, as the representative of Her Majesty's Government, was obliged to notify the belligerent Dewey to leave tne harbor. Under the rule, Dewey was allowed twentyfour hours in which to leave, but at 2 o'clock that afternoon the war-ships Boston, Captain Frank Wildes; the Concord, Captain Asa Walker, and the Petrel, Captain Edward P. Wood, sailed away. With them went the revenue cutter, Hugh McCulloch, Captain Daniel B. Hodgsdon (of the revenue service), which was assigned to despatch-boat service, and two transports, the Nanshau and Zafiro, which had recently been secured by Commodore Dewey with 3,600 tons of coal, and six months' supplies for the squadron between them. At 10 o'clock on Monday the flag-ship Olympia, Captain Charles V. Gridley, followed by the Baltimore and the Raleigh, Captain Joseph B. Coghlan, sailed away also. Of the temper of the people our squadron left in Hong Kong, Gunner Joel C. Evans, of the Boston wrote (see Century for August, 1898): "When we were leaving port for Manila the captain of the Immortalité (British) shouted to Captain Wildes: 'You will surely win. I have seen too much of your target practice to doubt it.'" Evans adds, "I believe the Russian, German, and French naval officers thought Spain would conquer." Uniting his forces at Mirs Bay, in Chinese tojo, was to come out to destroy the American squadron on the open sea. Dewey was in search of the Spanish squadron, and by making his landfall on the coast of Luzon in the morning he would have a whole day for running down the coast, and so be in no danger of leaving the Spaniard concealed in some place behind him. The wisdom of so doing is apparent, even to a landsman who examines the chart of the island, for there are several hiding-places on the coast, Subig Bay, thirty miles north of Manila Bay, being especially adapted for what may be called a nautical ambush. Some preparations for a battle were made before leaving Hong Kong. The ships were painted lead color, for one thing, and some of the boats were swathed in canvas, and nettings were stretched to stop splinters. Moreover, the ammunition-tubes were armored, as far as possible, by winding chain cables around them. On the way over, the men, with few exceptions, had their hair cut close to their heads, both for the sake of coolness in a hot climate and to facilitate the work of the surgeon in dressing probable scalp wounds. Now that they were on the coast the crew went to work with axes on the woodwork of the ships. Cabin partitions were cut away, and with doors, trunks, chests, curios—everything that could throw a splinter when struck by a shot-was cast over |