And so the hours went on until it was about half-past nine. Then an officer on the Brooklyn called to the lookout aloft:
"Isn't that smoke moving?"
The answer came back with a yell that made everybody jump:
"There's a big ship coming out of the harbor!"
In a second the groups of officers and men were on their feet and wide-awake. The Spaniards were coming! Nobody now wanted to be at home or to go a-fishing. There were bigger fish coming into their net.
"Clear the ship for action!" cried Commodore Schley.
From every part of the ship the men rushed to their quarters. Far down below the stokers began to shovel coal like mad into the furnaces. In the turrets the gun-crews hurried to get their guns ready. The news spread like lightning, and the men made ready like magic for the terrible work before them.
It was the same on all the ships as on the Brooklyn, for all of them saw the Spaniards coming. Down past the wreck of the Merrimac sped Cervera's ships, and headed for the open sea. First came the Maria Teresa, the admiral's flagship. Then came the Vizcaya, the Oquendo, and the Cristobal Colon, and after them the two torpedo-boats.
"Full speed ahead! Open fire!" roared the commodore from the bridge of the Brooklyn, and in a second there came a great roar and a huge iron globe went screaming towards the Spanish ships.
It was the same on the other ships. Five minutes before they had been swinging lazily on the long rolling waves, everybody at rest. Now clouds of black smoke came pouring from their funnels, every man was at his post, every gun ready for action, and the great ships were beginning to move through the water at the full power of the engines. And from every one of them came flashes as of lightning, and roars as of thunder, and huge shells went whirling through the air toward the Spanish ships.