A DARING DEED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 26 April 1907, Page 4

A DARING DEED.

Ensign Gillis, son of Kcar-Admiral Gills, of the United States Navy, stands in the forefront of American heroes whose deeds will form an intensely interesting chapter of the history of the war ;bctwecn the United States and Spain (says a writer in the English Illustrated Magazine). Admiral Cervcras, when "bottled up" in Santiago, sent a Schwartzkopf torpedo against an American warship, the i.'ortcr. A few more rolls of the Porter in the heavy sea, and lunge forward of the torpedo on the crest of a wave, and there would be a shock and a detonaif tion, and then a rushing of water over | the sinking fragments of the ship. it did not take Ensign Gillie- a moment to see and comprehend tho danger to its fullest extent. In an instant he had tossed off his coirt and boots, and before the commander of the Porter eotud remonstrate with or catch him, the brave young ofliccr had plunged into the shark-infested sea. Over Gillies' head broke the crests of the heavy seas, but his stroke was strong, and he brushed the. waves aside in contempt. (In tile top of a great, sea the "nose" of a torpedo appeared, pointing straight for the side of the Porter with the fatal firing-pin protruding. A few sturdy strokes and Gillies reached the side of the torpedo. Throwing his left ami over the hack of the missile, he reached out his right hand, feeling forward for tho mechanism which would screw up the ring-pin. In a few minutes after Gillies had reached the torpedo the firing-pin mechanism was screwed up, and the great mass of explosive rendered absolutely harmless. The charge of 1101b of guncotton would have sent to the bottom a much larger ship than the Porter.