Part 15 (2/2)

Lieutenant John B. Bernadou was the commander of the ”Winslow” in the fight at Cardenas, at which Ensign Worth Bagley, his second in command, was killed. The story of the fight these young officers made, until Bagley was killed, Bernadou was wounded, and the ”Hudson” came and towed them out of danger, has been told again and again, and the tale of it will go down into the history of the Spanish-American War as one of the pluckiest of which there is record. Bagley, being the only naval officer killed during the war, was heard of from one end of the country to the other, but little was told of Bernadou, his commander.

Bernadou's early career showed in several instances the fearlessness of his disposition and the st.u.r.diness of his character. The boy's first idea was to go to West Point. Failing in this, he secured an appointment to the Naval Academy, where he entered with a fine standing, which he maintained until he was graduated. He was always a brilliant worker, and in gunnery and foreign languages showed a most remarkable apt.i.tude. To-day he speaks eight languages, and is one of the foremost men in the navy as an authority on smokeless powder.

THE MAN WHO NEVER KNEW FEAR

Bernadou's cla.s.smates say that he fears nothing on earth or water. His fearlessness overcomes any consciousness of self.

One afternoon in October, 1881, the United States steamer ”Kearsarge,”

Captain G. B. White, lay at anchor in Hampton Roads. The weather had been stormy for a day or two, and the wind had kicked up a heavy sea. There was a strong tide running, and the vessel swung out on a long cable. A seaman by the name of Christoverson, who was boat-tender in one of the cutters swinging at the lower booms, went out and down the Jacob's ladder.

In stepping to the thwart his foot slipped, and those on deck saw him disappear under the gray water.

There was a hoa.r.s.e cry of ”man overboard.” Seaman Robert Sweeny, who saw the accident, running out along the boom, plunged in without delay, just as the man came up the second time. Bernadou, then a cadet-mids.h.i.+pman, heard the cry, and rus.h.i.+ng to the gangway, saw the terrible struggle of Sweeny with the drowning man as the tide swept them out towards the sea. Bernadou tossed off his coat, and was overboard in an instant.

Christoverson, in his fierce struggle, carried Sweeny down with him, the latter only breaking away to be carried down again.

Bernadou by this time was within reach, and catching the drowning man from behind, managed to relieve Sweeny until a line was thrown to them, and they were finally hauled aboard in an exhausted condition. For this act both Bernadou and the sailor received the recommendations of their captain and the thanks of William H. Hunt, then the secretary of the navy.

ONLY NAVAL OFFICER KILLED IN THE WAR

Worth Bagley's career at the Naval Academy was a triumph of the heart rather than of the mind. While he loved the service and hoped some day to fill a useful place in it, he found more to attract him in football and athletics than in calculus and least squares. But no man who ever entered was more beloved than he, and no man had better friends in the service and out of it. He was turned back twice, but entered, in 1891, the cla.s.s of '95, in which year he was graduated. He was a member of the ”Five B's,”

composed of Bennett, Barnes, Bagley, Breckinridge, and Baldwin, men who were close friends while they were at the Academy.

But football was Bagley's ruling pa.s.sion. During this time, too, the great series of games between West Point and Annapolis, between the army and navy, over which the entire United Service went mad, were played, and Bagley was on the victorious team of '93, and was named for the ”All-America” team.

Bagley roomed during the four years' course with his chum Breckinridge, who was washed off another torpedo-boat, the ”Cus.h.i.+ng,” and drowned, as he was trying to get into Havana a few days before the blowing up of the ”Maine.”

”Worthless” Bagley (as his intimates called him) and Breckinridge were never left much to themselves in their quarters, for their room was always crowded during recreation-hours with cadets skylarking or asking advice or a.s.sistance. There was another intimate and cla.s.smate of Bagley, D.

R. Merritt, who was killed in the ”Maine” disaster a few days after the drowning of Breckinridge.

ROOSEVELT SAVED BAGLEY FOR THE NAVY

When Bagley came up for graduation at the end of the four-years' course the doctors thought they discovered an irregular movement of the heart, and recommended that he be dropped. Bagley took his case to Theodore Roosevelt, then a.s.sistant secretary of the navy.

Roosevelt, looking at him through his gla.s.ses with a quick, critical glance, said,--

”You are Bagley, the football player, are you not?”

Bagley said he was.

”Well, you are to stay in the navy while I am here. The service needs more men just like you.”

Then Bagley went on his two-years' cruise, and when he came back he was pa.s.sed through without question.

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