Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-04-25
FIRED ON TIE ELEEL.
MORO Castle INDUCED in Some Bad
Shooting.
Ships of Neutral Powers Allowed
to Pass in and Out of Havana
Harbor The Captain Of the
Buena Ventura Making a Big
Kick Over the Capture Of His
Ship-A Prize Court Of Inquiry
Appointed by This Government.

KEY WEST, Fla, April $3.50 p. M
from Spain was fired last night when
MORO Castle opened its batteries on the
United States l-eet. This news was
brought here this afternoon by the tor
pedo boat Ericsson, which left the fleet
at 10 o'clock this morning, and reached
here this afternoon at O'clock. Captain
Usher of the Ericsson, says his boat was
ordered out early last night on scout
duty. The fleet was lying about eight
miles off Havana. Lights were out and
all hands were ready for action. The lit
tie craft scudded swiftly toward the en-
envy and brought up almost under MORO S
guns, being enabled to reach such Il
close point because for the first time in
years MORO light was then burning Al
IL p. m. the Spanish artillery roared out
ITS FIRST WELCOME
to the American fleet. The firing was
done more in a tentative way than as
an attack Not a shot found a billet,
and the American fleet, disdaining Spain $
wretched gunnery, maintained a dignified
SlitllCt OSiplc Tie lillilS bCodh q 'lN''7
paper dispatch boat, which had lost its
bearings in the cloudy night, got within
three miles of MORO Castle, and before
she knew here whereabouts the boat
found MORO firing on her. She was saved
by the unskilled craftsmanship of the
Havana gunners,. getting away unscath-
ed and eventually bringing up with the
fleet. Havana had not been pombarded
up to the time the Ericsson left. The
squadron lay spread out in a line about
eight miles long, maintaining the block
ade.
According to a proclamation the slips
of neutral powers are allowed TO
PASS IN AND OUT.
A third capture was made this morn
ing at dawn, however, when the Erics-
son caught a little Spanish two-masted
fishing schooner carrying crew of five
men. The torpedo boat had no prize
crew to put aboard, so she chased her to
the fleet and tied her up alongside the
Cincinnati
Captain Luzarraga, of the Buena Ven
tura, declares his vessel is not subject to
capture by the United States, holding that
she is owned by an English firm, was
bound for neutral ports, and that war
had not been declared when she sailed.
Her crew is still on board the Dolphin,
but those of the Pedro remain on board
the latter. The captains and crews Of
both vessels, thirty-two in all, await the
disposition of the
PRIZE COURT OF INQUIRY.
which was appointed to-day, by wire, by
United States Judge Locke, Jacksonville.
G.. Brown Patterson and two other attor-
neys of Key West. constitute the court.
Captain Lyon, of the Dolphin, asked
Mayor Maloney if sufficient protection
could be guaranteed the Spanish sailors
if they went ashore The Mayor consult
ed with the leading Cubans and was as
sured they would not be molested: but
they remain aboard. The Mangrove has
gone out, equipped with a corps of ex-
pert electricians. 1t is reported she is
assigned to cut the cable between Jamaica
and Cuba, so that all dispatches to or
from the Spanish government must go
through Key West.
The torpedo boat destroyer Eagle. of
the mosquito fleet, arrived here from New
York this afternoon.