d treated him with the deference due his rank.

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. I was in the forward central torpedo room, and
as, according to orders, the port holes were shut, I could see but
little of what was taking place outside. We did not at once use our
torpedoes, for shortly after the action began, a heavy projectile
crashed through the upper deck and destroyed the shield near which I
was standing. I was knocked down by the force of the explosion,
receiving a slight leg wound from a fragment of the shell, while a
splinter of the starboard gangway was driven into my chest near the
heart. On recovering my feet, I found that the starboard torpedo tube
was smashed and that the deck was strewn with dead and wounded, a few
of whom were seeking to go up the gangway, which was also destroyed.
Very shortly we all had to clear out of the room, as it became
impossible to breathe there, owing to a lot of material taking fire. I
sank, half choked, on the upper deck, but was revived by someone
turning a hose on my head.

"On rising again, I found myself close to the second commander, Don
Victor Sola, who was encouraging the crew, and Senor Nunoz, who put
his arm around me, exclaiming, 'They are making a man of you to-day.'
At that moment a heavy shell burst behind me, small particles lodging
in my neck. This shell killed Don Victor Sola, whom I saw fall on his
face without uttering a word. Right across his body fell that of the
first gunner. When Captain Lazaga heard that the forward magazines
were ablaze he followed the lead of the Teresa, heading for land and
running the vessel ashore. I went back to the torpedo room and
stripped. When I got back on deck, my companions were gone, so I got
through the port cannon embrasure and slipped down a chain into the
water."

The destruction of the Spanish fleet at Santiago was as complete as
the destruction of the Spanish fleet at Manila. Commodore Schley was
the senior officer in command, and it was fitting that the man who
"bottled-up" Cervera's fleet should be the one to destroy it. After
peace was declared, he was promoted to be a rear-admiral, and the
people of the United States presented him with the costliest sword
ever given a military