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THE FUTURE CITIZEN
A Tribute to The Enlisted Men of The Navy
i
By
RICHMOND P. HOBSON
_ | hurling the crew into the sea.
EPRE SEN 1 A-j 'There was but little chance ot
tive Richmond P. (j allnc j 1 j n g a b oa t a nd
Hobson, "
naval
who as
a naval officer
sank the Merri-
mac at Santiago
harbor, becoming
by thinmeans one
of the heroes ol
the Span i sth-A-
merican war, in a tribute to the en
listed men U. S. navy on the floor
of the House. He spoke with so
sympathetic a voice that there were
women in the galleries who touched
their eves and men on the floor of
the House who were noticably af-
fected. This splendid speech fol
lows and is worth reading:
Mr. Speaker, I desire simply to
add my work ol tribute to the mem
ory of the men, the plain privates
who fell in Mexico—the first blood
shed in this trouble.
I had the honor of serving with
the plain privates for 18 years. 1
remember well how I was first im
pressed as to the character and spirit
of the plain private, lc was on a (
cruise. A gale had been blowing
for 48 hours and the sea was run
ning high. The midshipmen on
deck were sent over the masthead.
They were all seasick, and it was
thought that it would help them
out of the trouble to give them a
little exercise, so the officer of the
deck ordered them over the mast
head. He did not think to warn
them not to come on the lee side,
which you should never do in a
gale of wind. You should go up
on the weather side and come down
on the weather side. Hut the
order was given for the midship
men to go over the masthead. They
promptly did so and half of them
had gotten over the cross trees
was
but little
chance of a boat living in such a
sea. But the second life boat was
called away. 1 shall never forget
the promptness, the agility, and
even the lighthearted way in which
the second boat with crew comrades
knowing full well how meager
were their own chances of ever get
ting back, started.
I have seen seaman jump over
board to save a comrade, so m mv
of them that the officer of the deck
had to order that no more go over
board—a superfluity exposing their
own lives to try to save a comrade
That was my rntoduclion to the
spirit of this plain private. And
remember, gentleman, they are
really nothing but boys. The aver
age age in the fleet off Mexico to
day is 21 years.
Perhaps 1 ought to give another
personal tribute to this plain pri
vate. A matter came up—a lit tit
incident : a little expidition—in my
day. Being a naval constructor,
knowing how to build ships. I
naturally knew how to sink ships.
The question of sinking a ship
ca ne up, and naturally I wanted to
be associated with it. Several men
were wanted, and Admiral Samp
son issued a call for seven men.
The call was issued by a signal from
the flagship and more than a thou
sand responded.
The main trouble I had from that
time to the time we started in was
refusing the appeals of men—some
of them had been my old shipmates
— pleading with me on persona'
ground- ; others on oilier grounds,
all begging me to let them go in.
Yes, young Poinsett and his com
rades, who so gladly gave up their
young lives yesterday, made me
when, as the ship lurched, one ot I think of those seven men as they
them—a nephew of Admiral Schley
a classmate of mine—lost his hold
and fell. He struck the top s til and
went overboard. A very heavy
sea was running. Promptly the
life boats were called away. The
crews responded. They were
scarcely half lowered when the sea
which was running very heavy
threw the boat keel up and down
lay with me on the deck as the ship
was slowly sinking. Only two
torpedoes went off. We had ten,
but the wiring and the batteries
connected with the others had been
broken and cut away and crushed
before the time came to fire them.
Only two went oft’. So we went
down slowly right under the muz
zles of their cannon. The original
plan was that afrer firing the tor
pedoes we would quickly get away
from the ship in the lifeboat and
thus try to escape; but the lifeboat
was shot away, and I changed my
plan entirely, but did not explain
it to them.
Well do I remember those seven
men there. Shell followed shell,
tearing everything to pieces above
us, below us, on both sides of us.
My men, would say. ‘‘Nowcan we
be off?” I would say, “No, no man
move until further orders.” When
the boiler went they said, “Can we
go?’ I said, “No man will move un
til further orders.” At last the ship
gave a lurch, just before she was
going down, and heaved as though
she would turn over on us, and we
heard the gurgling and the rushing
sound of the whirlpool approaching
and they said, “Can we get off
now?” And I said, “No, stay
with me.” And »hey staved with
me, gentlemen, every last one of
them, and went down with me, no
man knowing whether he would ev
er come up again.
Now, J have another little mem
ory, an aftermath though: tint
comes up. By 11 o’clock that day
we were in the Morro. All the
men were in one dark cell—seven
men in one dark cell. I knew it
was a question of their health, and
I called upon the commander to let
one of ’hem come to me.for instruc
tions about taking care of their
health, They sent Charette, After
he got his instructions about taking
care of their health he put his heels
together and saluted and said, ‘Sir,
the men asked me to bring you a
message.” It looked as though
they were getting ready to execute
us. Everything looked that way.
There was that one chance to send
me a message. What do you sup
pose the message was?
I will not describe how we had
stayed in the water after we came
up, climbing to the edges of an old
raft with our bodies submerged,
hiding as the Spaniards in launches
closed around us. My men knew
they would kill us if they discover
ed us. For hours we remained.
Again and again, the men wanted
(Continued,011 page seven)
Fault is a thin^ anybody can find, but some quicker than others on account of intimate fam liarity