Foster's Daily Democrat

BRITISH SHELLS FOR DEWEY

Captain's Story of an Alleged Occurrence After Battle of Manila.

Mr. J. J. Ligon, a retired capitalist of St. Louis, has just received a letter from Captain John C. Williams, commander of the English steamer Winston Hall, in which he tells how 133 cases of 6-inch shells, belonging to England, found their way aboard the American fleet just after the battle of Manila, at a time when Dewey badly needed that kind of ammunition, says the New York Sun. While Captain Williams does not mention the name of his informant, it is hinted that it came from an officer aboard a British cruiser in Manila Bay.

Captain Williams writes: "After Admiral Dewey had sunk the Spanish ships in Manila harbor and captured the forts at Cavite he found that the last shell for his 6-inch guns had been fired. Among other vessels anchored not far from Dewey's fleet was her majesty's ship Immortalite, Captain Sir E. Chichester. There were also two German warships lying near. In addition to the 6-inch shells, Admiral Dewey also wanted sand for scrubbing decks, paints, etc., so he decided to send his boats to the beach for some, and sent three boats off after dark. They were towed by a steam launch, and anchored close to the beach. The launch returned to the ship, leaving no one in charge of the boats. About midnight the launch returned for the boats, and found them filled with bags of sand. One was towed to the Raleigh, the other two to the flagship, and before daylight 83 bags of sand had been hoisted up and stowed away on Dewey's ship and 50 on board the Raleigh, and all this without Admiral Von Diederich being one whit the wiser.

"About three months after this one of the United States warships went up to Hongkong. Before going into dock she landed 133 cases, and each case contained one or two 6-inch shells; the broad arrow of England appearing on each. I will leave you to guess how one of your ships had shells with this mark on them."