The New York _Evening Post_ thus describes the condition of panic
on our ships at the beginning of the Spanish War:
Almost any officer who served in the fleet before Santiago
could relate not one, but a great many incidents that occurred
where the men of our ships would have slaughtered each other if
the good little angel that sits up aloft (and our exceedingly
bad marksmanship at that time) had not protected us from the
mistakes (incomprehensible to landsmen) which caused our
ships to fire at each other, at colliers, dispatch-boats,
torpedo-boats, and at nothing at all--and all this in the clear
atmosphere of the tropical seas.
Such was the effect of the long, nervous tension that thousands
of shots were fired at pure fantoms of the imagination. The
broadsides of powerful battleships repeatedly burst into a
furious cannonade that was arrested only with the complete
annihilation of the supposed enemy. For one of our ships to
approach the fleet at night was to run a grave risk. The sea
was alive with Spanish torpedo-boats. Signals, lights, etc.,
were misunderstood or disregarded. The enemy might have obtained
possession of them and displayed them for our confusion. There
were many narrow escapes. Several of our vessels were struck
by shells, but the luck that followed us throughout the war
prevented a disaster. I could mention the names of officers who
have never been able to comb their hair down flat since the
particular night on which they came within an ace of sinking
a friend--with whom they have never since ceased to exchange
congratulatory drinks. (Text.)--New York _Evening Post_.
(2296)
=Panoply=--See ARMOR.
=Paper, Invention of=--See ANTIQUITY.
=Papers, The Opinions of=--See REPORTS TO ORDER.
=Paralysis=--See SALVABILITY.