In June, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, quite late one night, an ensign in the United States Navy who was in command of a 500-ton blockading armed tug, stationed off Cardenas, on the north coast of Cuba, discovered the lights of a steamer to the northward and headed to intercept the vessel at maximum speed. It was his duty to identify the stranger and become assured she was not an enemy nor a neutral making an effort to run the blockade.
It was soon apparent that, while the speed of the ship carrying the lights was not equal to that of the blockading vessel, the old adage “a stem chase is a long one” applied and it must be hours before the two vessels would be close enough to get the information so essential to the young officer unless the one being chased slowed her engines very materially.
During that war, ammunition was not so plentiful that small craft could be supplied with blank shells for saluting or for other purposes and the small blockading vessel had no blanks in her magazines.
However, loaded cartridges make a noise when fired and the young “Tugboat Skipper” decided to burn less coal by burning some powder, taking care the 6- pounder gun he used was pointed well clear of the vessel being chased. It appeared the report of the shot did not reach that vessel, for no change in her speed could be detected; so another “blank” was fired, this time quite in the direction of the stranger, but with an elevation designed to insure that the shell would pass well overhead of that ship.
The effect was all that could be desired in connection with the speed of the chase but not so gratifying to the young American when the ship ahead stopped, put her rudder over, and swung broadside to show the silhouette and guns of a man-of-war! She also turned on her searchlight to illuminate her sides and also to show up the vessel that had been chasing her.
There could be no doubt in the mind of the one who had ordered those shots fired as to the identity of the chase; he had been in company with that particular ship for some months in South American waters, five years before, and he recognized with a bit of a heart thump that he had been chasing, and almost fired into, H.M.S. Talbot, a smallish cruiser!
Quite an interesting conversation by megaphone ensued, not unmixed with what some shore-going persons see fit to call seafaring language; no one was really profane but certainly the words “hell” and “damn” would have been found in a stenographic report of that conversation. From the Talbot the attention of the young American officer was forcibly invited to the 'two top lights carried by the Talbot, indicating a man-of-war. To which kind insinuation the American replied that certainly he had seen them and was equally positive as to what they were intended to convey in the way of information; he further stated that the United States of America was at war with Spain; that the United States, by notification to the world and by having vessels to enforce that blockade, was blockading the coast of Cuba, which belonged to Spain; that the vessel under his command was one of the blockading force.
He then added, for the better information of the officer at the other end of the conversation, that any merchant ship desiring to run the blockade could hoist two top lights in an effort to deceive those responsible for maintaining the blockade; he insisted that he did not plan to be so deceived and that while he was fully informed now as to the identity of the ship he had been obliged to heave to, he could only express his deep regret on account of the necessity for the act and hoped the apology which he tendered then and there would be accepted.
The apology was accepted, much to the relief of the American, who could not detect any real sincerity, though there was plenty of warmth, in the acceptance. The two ships separated and went on their ways, the American to return to his stated blockading beat, but at a greatly reduced speed.
Many vessels passed that portion of the Cuban coast and many were the ships intercepted and boarded; but none proved to be the legitimate prize which would have been so acceptable to the personnel under the command of the lonesome young officer on the blockade.
Some of the newspaper reporters who hung about the Cuban coast at that time learned of the “Talbot incident” and informed their papers; there were several “stories” written about it; some of them were illustrated by imaginative pictures which closely approached the kind called cartoons; the sizes of the two vessels were exaggerated, Talbot size up and the small craft indicated very much smaller in comparison than she really was. Illustrated magazines in England copied some of these and produced others; with comments in text of a more or less scathing nature. In the pictures splashes of falling shells were indicated, whereas no one could possibly have seen the splashes made by those two “blanks” that were fired; it was really quite too dark!
A few years later, when that ensign had become a lieutenant, he attended a stag banquet in Belfast, Ireland, sitting alongside a very large and jovial Irishman who drank considerable wine but who kept quite sober. One of the hosts brought up the matter of the encounter with the Talbot as a subject about which all could laugh; when the laugh was over another American officer at the table slyly indicated to my large friend that I was the youngster who had committed the crime against the flag of Great Britain.
The huge Irishman brought one of his enormous hands down on the back of the lieutenant and said: “That’s the kind of men we want in the Anglo-American Alliance!” It was some days before the effects of that friendly blow had fully disappeared.
In January, 1935, the young “Tugboat Skipper” had become a rear admiral and was commandant of the Fifteenth Naval District, with headquarters at Balboa, Canal Zone. He went by plane to the Atlantic end of the Panama Canal to welcome Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, Royal Navy (Retired), who was passing through en route to visit a friend in Costa Rica.
Admiral Bayly had commanded the Queenstown Base during the World War and many American officers served under his command; their eagerness to meet him thereafter is the best possible proof of the respect and affection they had and have for him; some of these officers were attached to the United States naval units at the Canal Zone when Admiral Bayly visited Coco Solo and entertainments were arranged for him.
Upon being presented to Admiral Bayly, the American Rear Admiral informed him that he had heard so many fine things about him from his fellow-officers that he felt he already knew him; and that, furthermore, his son had had the honor of serving under his command during the World War, at Queenstown.
This established friendly relations and the two officers were in conversation for about an hour when Admiral Bayly remarked his association with American naval officers had been most pleasant except once. He then related that, in 1898, he had been in command of H.M.S. Talbot and had been held up at sea, on the north coast of Cuba, when he was transporting some British refugees out of Havana, by a very small American armed tug one dark night. He had been sent for to use the megaphone, “it being considered he could do the subject the best justice in forcible language!”
Admiral Bayly described the incident quite at length, in a most amusing manner, and the two officers laughed about it. Then the younger one said: “Admiral, would it be of interest to you to talk again to the officer who was at the other end of the megaphone conversation you have so cleverly and accurately described?” Admiral Bayly: “It certainly would interest me; I have longed for many years to tell him what I thought of him!” American Rear Admiral: “You have been talking to him for an hour and I hope you will not stop, now that you know him as the one who was so rude to you during the Spanish-American War!”
It should be quite easy to understand the surprise and interest exhibited by Admiral Bayly; they were evident and quite natural; but his frequent reference to the incident thereafter was amusing; it appeared “he could not get over” the meeting of these two for the first time after so many years, nearly thirty-seven.
After the Spanish-American War the young officer who had commanded the armed tug returned to the Naval Academy where he had served as an instructor before that war. The Superintendent of the Academy was Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, U. S. Navy, who had been given that detail in recognition of the wonderful work he had done during the war in command of the armed yacht Gloucester. The Superintendent and the young officer played “cowboy pool” in the afternoons, when duties permitted.
The Superintendent was, ex officio President of the Naval Institute and he tried many times to convince his younger opponent it was his duty, as the “Baby Captain” during the war with Spain, to write of his experiences during that war, for publication in the Naval Institute Proceedings. The young officer did not wish to do this, assuring the older one that he had no desire to appear before a general court-martial in the capacity of defendant, as might be the case if “all were known.”
Lieutenant Commander Wainwright assured him this could be avoided and the decision was finally placed upon the “best two out of three” games of cowboy pool; if the older officer won the article was to be written, and vice versa.
The younger officer was so anxious to win the two games that he quite naturally lost and the article was published, attracting some attention because it was so very different from the run of the mine in that publication. Some reprints were made and in 1935 the American Rear Admiral gave one of them to Admiral Bayly, particular attention being invited to the brief description of the incident in which the Talbot played such an important part.
Admiral Bayly wrote a note expressing appreciation and also expressing pleasure at “meeting the only U. S. naval officer who had had the honor of firing over a British man-of-war without having the fire returned.” In reply the American thanked Admiral Bayly for not making his wife a widow in 1898.
The article to which reference has been made is entitled: "Some Experiences on a U. S. Naval Tugboat"; it was written by Ensign W. S. Crosley, U. S. Navy, now Rear Admiral Crosley, and the writer of this proof that “It’s a Small World.”