This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
Sons of Gunboats—The Albay
(See page 825, July, 1945, Proceedings)
Admiral W. H. Standley, U. S. Navy (Retired).—The U.S.S. Albay was one of a number of small Spanish gunboats seized in the Southern Philippines and sent to Manila under naval convoy in the early part of 1899. Rumor by way of the “scuttlebut” was to the effect that the Army had first found these gunboats parked up some of the rivers, Rnd announced that they were going to put them in commission with Army personnel, and use them in stopping illicit trade among the islands. When Admiral Dewey heard of this he is reported to have informed the Army that they had no authority to operate “gunboats” as such, and if they did so, these boats would be considered as pirates, and it would be his duty to run them down and sink them. At any rate these gunboats were commissioned and operated by the Navy and not by the Army.
The Albay, one of the first of these gunboats to be put in service, was placed in commission in Manila in 1899 under the command of Ensign M. J. McCormack of fhe class of 1895. McCormack was ordered lo proceed with the vessel under his command to Iloilo, Panay, and report for duty to the Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Yorktown, Commander C. S. Sperry. When McCormack reported in obedience to these orders Commander Sperry decided that he Wanted the Albay operated with personnel from the “mother ship,” the Yorktown; accordingly I, the writer, was ordered to relieve McCormack, who, with his personnel when relieved, was directed to return to Manila. I took over the command of the A,bay in June, I think, 1899. The Yorktown had just returned from the Baler Expedition where Gilmore and his boat’s crew were taken prisoners on April 12, 1899, so the Yorktown was very shorthanded, and this was reflected in the crew selected to man the Albay. My officer personnel consisted of Pay Clerk “Sammy” Knowles and Midshipman John T. Beckner. Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class White was my leading deck petty officer, and Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Malin was my chief engineer. The rest of the crew, engineer and deck force, were equally inexperienced. To complete my crew I had a Spanish pilot about fifty summers young, who had come down from Manila on the Albay. On account of his stature we dubbed him “Bustamenti.” This pilot could not speak English and I spoke little Spanish; however, he had no difficulty in making me understand that he hated “insurrectos,” and had great fear of falling into their hands.
Because of the cramped and uncomfortable living conditions, officers and crew practically lived and slept on deck. I shall never forget the night when a tropical downpour sent us below decks for the first time to sleep. By the dim candlelight, cockroaches, almost as large as sparrows, could be seen flying about, and occasionally one, as if to resent out presence, made a dive-bombing attack on our mid-section and usually with marked accuracy.
The absence of modern luxuries such as electric iceboxes, cold storage, and limited space necessitated that we live on ship’s stores supplemented by such provisions as we could get from captured vessels or from shore. My operating area was comparatively limited, and resulted in frequent visits to the same locality. This enabled me to establish a hostage system for requisitioning supplies. I would capture a fishing canoe with two or three men in the crew. I would keep one of the natives on board and tell the others when they returned with chickens and fruit, for which I would reimburse them in kind, I would release to them the other member of the crew. Never once did I fail to get fresh provisions, and on one occasion they brought me the “fatted calf” which we butchered on board.
'flic Yorktown was based on Iloilo and my area of operations was in the waters between Panay and Negros, and between Negros and Cebu. My orders couched in usual naval phraseology were, “When fueled and provisioned and in all respects ready proceed to sea and stop all traffic between the Islands of Panay, Negros, and Cebu and between these Islands and Luzon in the North.” The reason was the belief that the insurrectos in Luzon were being aided financially by funds sent to them from the islands to the south.
The first event of note happened the first day out from Iloilo. Hardly was I out of sight of the harbor when I encountered a large schooner, which upon being boarded proved to be empty. She was so well built and so well fitted out that I felt she must have considerable value in cargo work around the islands, so I towed her into Iloilo. However, my guess was wrong. I found that she was an unwelcome addition to the vessels already tied up in the harbor. There were so many of these that the docks were overcrowded already, and I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not to bring in anymore prizes. These instructions were of course reflected in all my future operations on the Albay.
Upon getting rid of this schooner I again put to sea, and had hardly cleared the channel between Iloilo and the Guimiras Islands when we encountered a terrific tropical rainstorm, and “Bustamcnti,” the pilot, took us in for shelter to an anchorage in the mouth of one of the rivers. Early the following morning the anchor watch aroused me with the report that he could hear the shouts of many natives apparently coming down the fiver. Having in mind the fate which had befallen Ensign Wood on the Urdenila when he and all his crew were massacred in one of the Luzon rivers, I roused the crew and made ready to repel the seeming invaders. As they approached, however, it was evident they had no knowledge of our presence, and the low lying fog prevented them from seeing our lights. It was also evident from their conversation that they were fishermen on the way out to the fishing grounds. In order to be sure of their intent, I directed the signalman to fire a Very’s red signal star directly over the fishing boat. The effect of this shot was so startling that there was no cjuestion as to whether these natives knew of our presence or not, because every occupant of the boat immediately dived overboard into the river, but after a few moments, when nothing further happened, they re-boarded the fishing smack and went on.
On one occasion I took as my guest for the cruise in the Albay a Government official by the name of Wally Evans. During the cruise we encountered a Chinese trading boat loaded with all sorts of goods and trinkets for trading with the Philippine natives. Following the usual practice, and while Evans and I were inspecting the contents of the boat, we put the two Chinese members of the trading boat’s crew in our small boat, and directed the coxswain to take these men to shallow water from which they could wade ashore and dump them off. We waited until the boat was on her way back, then we covered the contents of the Chinese boat with coconut oil and set it on fire. We did not reckon with the distance the boat had to come, nor how rapidly the coconut oil would cause the fire to spread, so when the boat finally reached us Wally Evans, “Bustamcnti,” and I were overboard hanging to the anchor line to keep from being burned up.
On another occasion I encountered a bark of some 250 tons burden loaded with hemp, hides, copra, housa clolh (native Philippine cloth), and other items of considerable value. I put the crew of this bark in their own boats and sent them ashore, and then I inspected the bark for papers and bullion, and then set it afire. I don’t know just what the value of this bark and cargo was, but I am quite sure it was considerable. One small Filipino boy claimed that he was not a member of the crew, but that he was an American sympathizer, and that he was on the way to market tliishousa cloth. I lent a sympathetic ear to his story, and finally took him and four cases of this housa cloth on board the Albay, planning to land him when I returned to Iloilo. However, when I arrived back on Iloilo and was on shore reporting my return to the Commanding General, this Filipino boy was able to get his four cases of housa cloth on shore, and that was the last I heard of the housa cloth.
Another time when I was proceeding to an anchorage in a night on the northwest coast of Negros, and I had just let go the anchor when I observed a small schooner being chased by a native boat. It was obvious that the schooner was being chased by native pirate boats that infested the area, and I was anxious to capture one of these pirate boats. I immediately hove up anchor and gave chase. The pirate boat turned and headed for the beach, and I followed, and when I observed that the boat would reach the shore before I could overhaul I fired a 6-lb. shot across his bow, with the result that the crew abandoned the boat and swam ashore. Fhe water was shallow and I could not approach the shore. However, 1 sent Ensign Bechner in the small dingy to find out what the boat had on board and to destroy her. When Ensign Bechner neared the boat, fire was opened upon him from the shore. My 6-lb. gun on the bow was mounted so that the forcstay interfered with its train, and to train the gun on the opposite bow I had to turn the ship. In order to protect Ensign Bechner I went ahead on the starboard engine in order to swing the ship, and with my anxiety as to the safety of Bechner I neglected the soundings, and I suddenly found I had run the ship aground. The tide was falling rapidly, and before I fully realized the situation I was so hard and fast aground that I was unable to get oil with my engine power alone. When the boat with Ensign Bechner returned, having sustained no damage either to personnel or boat, I put out a stern anchor and endeavored unsuccessfully to haul the ship off, and I realized that I was stuck there until the next high tide. The ship drew 9 ft. of water aft, and I inquired °f Bustamenti what the rise and fall of the tide was in that locality, and he told me 19 ft. With the result at low water I found myself a mile inshore. Of course this necessitated hauling all fires, and taking other safety precautions. From the appearance of the bottom it looked as if the large rocks would make the underwater hull of the Albay look like a sieve. However, these lumps, which appeared like rocks, were lumps of clay, so the Albay rested through the night as if in a cradle with no damage whatever to her hull. From the voices heard on shore, and the firing, I was apprehensive that the natives would endeavor to board us during the night, so the entire crew manned the rail with rifles ready during the entire night. We had two Maxim Nordenfeldt guns, one on either rail, and Bustamenti asked permission to man these guns. These guns were made to fire with five barrels and with one swing of the lever you could load all five barrels and fire them with one pull of the trigger. No natives appeared in the open; however, regularly every five minutes Bustamenti fired a salvo from his waist guns.
In August, 1899, the Yorktown was ordered north, and Admiral Sperry gave me orders to proceed to Manila. Just before we emerged into the China Sea from the inland passage we got warnings of the approach of a typhoon, and luckily I decided to run for shelter in a small harbor on the north shore of Marinduque Island. We had just barely entered the harbor when the typhoon struck us, and was of such violence that I feel sure had she been caught in the open sea the Albay could not have survived. Shortly after we had anchored in this sheltered harbor, a native boat approached with some eight or ten natives apparently without arms on board. The actions of these men on the approach of the boat made me suspicious of them, so I had my crew armed with rifles ready and waiting, but not in sight. When the boat came alongside there in the bottom of the boat were arms for every one of these natives. Whereupon I had my armed guard show themselves, and when the natives shoved off they had none of their arms left. I feel perfectly sure that they had in mind the capture of our small gunboat. When the going was safe we proceeded to Manila, I was relieved of the command by Ensign Wurtsbaugh, and I returned to the York- lown. So ended my cruise on the Albay.