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Updated: July 12, 2025
We manned the "cat falls" and got under way at once. On the way down to the wrecks, the ship was cleaned, so by the time we reached the ruins of the Spanish vessels, the "Yankee" was spick and span. We passed the wrecks of the two torpedo boats, passed the mouth of Santiago harbor, till finally we came to the "Almirante Oquendo" and the "Maria Teresa," fifteen miles west of old Morro.
The inscription on the inner side of the lid, without contractions, was: "Ilustre y Esclarecido Varon Don Cristobal Colon" "Illustrious and noble man, Christopher Columbus." The letters "C C A" were interpreted as signifying "Cristobal Colon, Almirante" "Christopher Columbus, Admiral."
Amid the commiseration of his friends, among whom was, of course, Terence O'Meara, Jim, together with other sick men from the flagship's crew, was put into a steam-launch and conveyed to the gunboat, from the deck of which he watched, half an hour later, while comfortably seated in a deck-chair, the departure of the Chilian squadron, consisting of the Blanco Encalada, Almirante Cochrane, O'Higgins, Chacabuco, Magellanes, and Abtao, the last-named being filled with combustibles so that she might serve, if necessary, as a fire-ship.
On the 5th of October he again set sail, and after having taken the bearings of the Bay of Almirante, he anchored opposite to the village of Cariaz. There he remained until the 15th of October, the repairs of the vessels meanwhile going actively forward.
"Provisions and beef for the barracks at Alforan," he quoted. "No fault of the butchers, Almirante mio, that the beef awaits you not. But you are come in time to save the cattle. Get us aboard your vessel, senor, at once. You first, caballeros a priesa! Come back for me. The boat is too small." The dory conveyed the two officers to the sloop, and returned for the large man.
A midshipman on the Almirante Oquendo, who managed to get ashore after his ship was beached, told this story: "The flagship opened fire while we, being the last, were still some way from the harbor mouth, yet before we cleared the entrance we got struck by a few shells.
Suddenly the Almirante Oquendo turned toward shore. The Brooklyn and Oregon kept after the Cristobal Colon, leaving the Texas to dispose of the Almirante Oquendo. But the latter was in flames and the flag at her stern was pulled down. The Texas was approaching when the Spanish ship was torn by a tremendous explosion. The Americans broke into cheers.
The Almirante Cochrane did not reply for several minutes, but silent and grim as death itself, she held steadily on her course toward the monitor. Then, when she had approached to within a distance of a little over a mile, she in turn opened fire with both her forward turret-guns on the Huascar, and the battle of Angamos had begun in real earnest.
It was on the 20th of August that Columbus, having the day before seen the last of the dim blue hills of Jamaica, sighted again the long peninsula of Hayti, called by him Cape San Miguel, but known to us as Cape Tiburon; although it was not until he was hailed by a cacique who called out to him "Almirante, Almirante," that the seaworn mariners realised with joy that the island must be Espanola.
Almirante! from which circumstance he inferred that he had fallen in with Hispaniola, of which he was not till then assured. At the end of August, he anchored at a small island which looks like a sail, which he therefore named Alto Vela, being twelve leagues from Beata . The other two ships being out of sight, the admiral sent some of his men to the top of this island to look out for them.
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