Nearly hit by shrapnel shells.

The Spanish skipper instantly brought his vessel about, but while she was still rolling in the trough of the sea, with her sails flapping, an 8-inch shrapnel shell came hurtling through the air from the water battery, a mile and a half away.  It passed over the Morrill between the pilothouse and the smokestack and exploded less than fifty feet on the port quarter.  The small shot rattled against her side.  It was a close call.

Two more shots followed in quick succession, both shrapnel.  One burst close under the starboard quarter, filling the engine room with the smoke of the explosion of the shell, and the other, like the first, passed over and exploded just beyond.

The Spanish gunners had the range and their time fuses were accurately set.  The crews of both ships were at their guns.  Lieutenant Craig, who was in charge of the bow 4-inch rapid-fire gun of the Morrill, asked for and obtained permission to return the fire.  At the first shot the Vicksburg, which was in the wake of the Morrill, slightly in-shore, sheered off and passed to windward under the Morrill’s stern.

Another narrow escape.

In the meantime, Captain Smith also put his helm to port, and was none too soon, for as the Morrill stood off a solid 8-inch shot grazed her starboard quarter and kicked up tons of water as it struck a wave 100 yards beyond.  Captain Smith said afterward that this was undoubtedly an 8-inch armor piercing projectile, and that it would have passed through the Morrill’s boilers had he not changed his course in the nick of time.

All the guns of the water battery were now at work.  One of them cut the Jacob’s ladder of the Vicksburg adrift, and another carried away a portion of the rigging.  As the Morrill and the Vicksburg steamed away their aft guns were used, but only a few shots were fired.  The Morrill’s 6-inch gun was elevated for 4,000 yards and struck the earth-works repeatedly.  The Vicksburg fired but three shots from her 6-pounder.

The Spaniards continued to fire shot and shell for twenty minutes, but the shots were ineffective.  Some of them were so wild that they roused the American “Jackies” to jeers.  The Spaniards only ceased firing when the Morrill and Vicksburg were completely out of range.

If all the Spanish gunners had been suffering from strabismus their practice could not have been worse.  But the officers of both the Morrill and Vicksburg frankly admit their own recklessness and the narrow escape of their vessels from destruction.  They are firmly convinced that the pursuit of the schooner was a neatly planned trick, which almost proved successful.

If any one of the shots had struck the thin skin of either vessel it would have offered no more resistance than a piece of paper to a rifle ball.