FIRST BATTLE ON THE OCEAN.
The news that war had been declared against practically the whole
civilized world was correct.
In a thousand ways Uncle Sam tried to settle the many existing troubles
without an appeal to arms, and had failed in each and every instance.
Other nations looked with keen envy upon our growth and development.
"We must cut that nation down," they said. "If we do not it will,
sooner or later, rule us all, commercially and otherwise."
Yet the United States had no intention of ruling any nation without the
people's consent.
Freedom had been given to Cuba and the Philippines, and some years
later these islands had begged to be admitted, first as territories and
then as states.
They saw how much it would be to their advantage to form part of our
glorious Union. They saw that the United States was destined to become
the one great world power.
Even when this great war broke out--the like of which the world had
never before witnessed--several large countries of South America, as
well as several smaller countries of Central America, were knocking for
admission into the Union. Brazil, Chili, Peru and Honduras were among
those who wished to enter.
Mexico had come in through the solicitation of the people of Texas, and
after her admission the bitter Mexican war of 1848 was forgotten.
And nothing was now heard of the contest against the Filipinos.
Aguinaldo was dead, yet in the main square of Manila an imposing
monument had been erected to this remarkable military personage who had
done so much and yet so little for his countrymen.
The appeal to arms created a tremendous excitement, both in the cities
and in the country places.
In New York the whole population went wild, and a grand "war march," as
it was termed, took place. The city at that time was built up solid as
far as Yonkers, and the marchers proceeded as far as that, while some
of the columns went over the four bridges uniting New York and Brooklyn
and the two bridges reaching from Manhattan Island to the New Jersey
shore.
The decorations were magnificent, and Oscar Pelham and Andy Greggs came
down from Bridgeport to see them. Banners were flung from the tops
of all the big buildings, including the Empire, which was fifty-six
stories high, and balloons were anchored a mile in the air, each ablaze
with electric lights, turning night into day.
It was felt that the war would be carried on principally on the ocean,
or rather, on the oceans, and for that purpose every available warship
was put into service with all possible speed.
Enlistments in the navy were followed by enlistments in the army, until
our soldiers and sailors numbered over a million men.
The soldiers were armed with the Miles-Gilford electric repeating
rifles, which were known to shoot with great accuracy up to two
thousand yards.
The rifles of the sharpshooters were fitted with telescopes, and many
of the sharpshooters could pick off an enemy at a mile distance with
ease.
It was felt that the combined navies of the world would come first
to our Eastern seacoast, and the coast defenses were put in the best
possible condition without delay.
The forts at Sandy Hook and on Long Island were armed with the latest
improved Hotchkiss bomb guns, which could carry projectiles weighing a
thousand pounds a distance of sixteen to eighteen miles.
But it was felt that these fortifications were not sufficient, and
others were speedily projected, taking in the whole coast from Nova
Scotia to Florida, as well as Cuba, Porto Rico and other islands in
that vicinity.
Our naval vessels, as said before, were as good as any on the face of
the globe, and included the submarine boat, Holland, the one first
accepted by the government in 1900, and also the Hollands III., V.,
VI., IX. and X., the II., IV., VII. and VIII. having been destroyed or
condemned.
Much was expected of the Holland boats, especially in night work, when
they might run out to any foreign warship and wreck her with one or
more powerful torpedoes attached to her hull.
Those who managed the submarine vessels were enthusiastic about them,
and had good reason to be.
One day Andy Greggs came into the shipyard wild with excitement.
"Something awful has happened!" he cried, as soon as he met Oscar.
"What is it?" demanded the young inventor.
"The Holland I. has been blown up into a million pieces!"
"Andy, you can't mean it."
"It's true."
"Who did it, some of the foreign warships?"
"No, one mean, miserable skunk of a man did it all."
"And who was he?"
"An Italian named Gabretti. He was employed on the boat as an engineer.
The foreign governments bought him up, it's said, for a hundred
thousand dollars, and he blew her up by connecting an electric battery
with the torpedoes she was carrying."
"And were the crew killed?"
"To a man. Gabretti had just time enough to get into a steam launch
when the Holland sailed skyward. The steam launch was followed by the
cruiser Massachusetts, but escaped in the darkness, and it is surmised
that the Italian went on board one of the foreign warships cruising
around the Atlantic Ocean."
This news, startling as it was, was true.
Bitter was the denunciation of the Italian engineer, who was a
naturalized citizen, and who had thus proved a traitor to his country,
and the government immediately offered a reward of fifty thousand
dollars for his capture, dead or alive.
"I'd like to earn that reward," said Andy Greggs.
"I would like to capture him," returned Oscar Pelham. "The traitor!
He ought to be tortured to death!" Oscar came from a long line of
true-blue patriots, and to his mind a traitor was the worst thing to be
imagined.
The loss of the Holland I was a sore one for the United States, for
during the past year England, Germany and France had constructed
submarine boats of more or less efficacy, and it was now felt that we
were at a disadvantage so far as this class of vessel was concerned.
But worse news followed. In two days came word that all the other
submarine craft were either blown up or seriously damaged.
Soon came the news that a great fleet of foreign warships had been
sighted off the coast of Nova Scotia. The guns at the forts in this
vicinity had tried to reach the flotilla, but failed, for the foreign
vessels had kept well out to sea.
The foreigners were headed southward, and it was felt that they would
probably attack Boston or New York.
The foreign vessels numbered at least fifteen and to combat them the
United States sent out twelve of their best warships, including the new
Columbia, an armored cruiser of eighteen thousand tons displacement and
carrying a battery of twelve twenty-pounders and sixteen twenty-inch
guns.
The foreign fleet was sighted off Montauk Point and it was seen to head
directly for New York Harbor.
It was on a rainy Saturday that the two fleets met, twenty miles off
Sandy Hook.
The foreign ships had tried to enter New York Harbor under cover of the
darkness the night before, but the powerful searchlights at Sandy Hook
had exposed them, and one ship had been sunk by the guns from the forts
and another had struck a submerged mine and been literally split in
twain.
It was thirteen vessels to twelve, and the fight opened with a
terrific bombardment from both sides which lasted for nearly an hour.
The din could be plainly heard in New York, where it sounded like
rolling thunder, and the top of every tall building was covered with
spectators, with first-class telescopes, watching the magnificent
contest.
At the end of an hour it looked as if the Americans had the better of
the fight and those on shore were jubilant in consequence.
"We'll lick 'em out of their boots!" shouted more than one old veteran.
"It's America against the world, and we are bound to come out on top!"
At this time but one American vessel, the Chicago, had sunk. Of the
foreigners, a German and a French vessel were blown up, while a large
Russian man-of-war and an Italian cruiser were in flames from stem to
stern.
But now the fortunes of war turned swiftly.
For some unknown reason, the French and the German submarine boats
which had accompanied the expedition had been delayed in getting to the
battle ground, having run foul of some wreckage off the coast of Long
Island.
Now they came up, and after some minute directions from the admiral in
command of the Allies, as the foreigners were termed, both boats sank
promptly out of sight.
It was afterward learned that the French submarine vessel could do next
to nothing. She tried to sink the Indiana, but was promptly discovered
and two fifteen-inch shells soon put her out of existence forever.
Not so, however, with the German craft, a boat fully the equal of any
of the ill-fated Hollands. She came up silently under three of the
American warships, and half an hour later every one of those gallant
cruisers was wrecked and hundreds of those on board were killed.
The shock was so unexpected that the Americans for the moment knew
not what to do. Then another ship was blown up, and the few which
remained had to withdraw to New York Harbor, where they were under the
protection of the guns of the numerous forts.