Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-06-28

bottled in the Mediterranean.
This is a large bottle, it is true,
but it is believed by the naval Of
ficers that Camara could be
hunted down as successfully as
was Cervera with his flying squad
ron. Operating in a sea surround
ed by a country whose sympathy
inclineS towards Spain, the Amer
lean squadron necessarily would
be entirely self-contained and self
reliant, being fully provided with
store ships and colliers to avoid
the necessity of running counter to
the neutrality laws of the various
Mediterranean ports.
Commodore Watson should reach
Admiral Sampson by Thursday
morning, or perhaps earlier, for
the Newark, having been extern
sively repaired, is now swift war
ship. The start will be made
from off Santiago just as soon as
the squadron can be gotten ready,
and this, fortunately, owing to the
completeness of the naval mObil-
ization, will be in a very short
time.
There is no intention Of weaken
ing the Havana blockade by the
withdrawal of Commodore Watson
with his flagship. To prevent this,
Secretary Long has ordered Com
mOdore Howell to proceed imme-
diately to the American fleet off
Havana TO take command of the
H. ~, 49,
son. Commodore Howell is at
present in command of the coast
patrol fleet and he will take the
entire fleet with him, that is, all of
the larger vessels, to reinforce the
blockade of the Cuban coast. He
is already on his way south from
the New England coast and should
reach Cuban waters by the end Of
the week.
The officers of the eastern
squadron are as follows: Com
mander in chief, Commodore ]. c.
Watson; battleship Iowa, Capt. R.
d. Evans; battleship Oregon. Capt.
Charles E. Clark: flagship Newark.
Capt Albert S. Barker; cruiser
Yosemite, Commander w. H. En-
DRY; cruiser Yankee, Commander
w. H. Brownson; cruiser Dixie,
Commander c. H. Davis: collier
Scanda. Commander E. w. Wat
son: collier Alexander. Command
err w. E. Burwell; collier Abarenda,
Lieut.. Commander w. H. BufOrd.
Washington, June 27.-The adj
ictp Jov G,o
decision TO send an American
squadron to the Spanish coast and
into the Mediterranean. Several
times since the war broke out ru-
mors to this effect have circulated,
out the project had not matured;
it required the Spanish movement
toward the Philippines by Cam
aras squadron to decide the Navy
Department to adopt this bold
stroke.
The first announcement to-day
was received with incredulity.
There was a suspicion that the
story was being fioated to deceive
the Spanish government. How
ever, when later in the day the de-
tail of the vessels selected to con-
stitute Commodore Watson's East
ern Squadron was announced and
official orders were given to provis
ion the fleet for four months, it
became apparent to the last doubter
that the government was in earn
est in this purpose to dispatch the
fleet to Europe The three vessels
elected as GOLFERS have started al
ready to Newport News for coal
1t will require about a week to get
this down to SIMPSONS fleet, so if
the start is to be made from that
point it will be impossible for Com
modore Watson to get away before
the Fourth of July. This would
seem to be an suspicious date for
the beginning of an expedition that
will for the first time in the worlds
history start from the new world
to attack continental Europe.
No attempt is made to deny that
the government is influenced in or
dering this movement by a desire
to cheek the progress eastward of
the Cadiz fleet Ii was not believed
that the Spanish admiral could be
guilty of the folly of uncovering
his own home ports in this fashion,
but inasmuch as he seems deter
mined to do so, the naval ssrate-
gistS could not do less than take