The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-07-08
scHLEYs MAsTERFuL STROKE.

=
ish commander whose hundred and ten
great guns might just as well have been
tin gutter-tubes for all the firing they
ever did and for all the objects they hit
when they We're fired Cervera's s.gal-
liant dash for liberty" the newspapers
call it. A cornered rat would take the
gauntlet of dozen terriers and give the
great admiral points on how to puncture
the pursuers at every jump. Cervera in
his entire campaign offered battle at no
time, and accepted it nowhere. With a
big armor-clad squadron, with tremen-
dous guns and unequaled speed. he sped
the seas like skate, and skipped away
whenever Yankee gun got into his hori-
zon. He held unchallenged the whole
Transatlantic steamer route and South
American seacoast, yet the Paris eluded
him over the first. while along the latter
the Oregon, Marietta and Nictheroy sep
arately made their course past his feet.
The Nictheroy, without mounted gun
aboard, actually took the hazard of Ger
vera's torpedo boat Terror and bluffed it
away into cover at Bahia. The career of
Cervera in these waters was always pitt
ably, even contemptibly weak and irres-
olute. And now he is hailed for valor
who had not plucked trophy of war for
the brow of his country! His ships, fly
ing in explosive terror like ours with
firecrackers at their tails, are heralded as
having fought valiantly!'
In order to rescue Cervera from proba-
BILE, irrevocable obloquy his sally from
Santiago must be given higher motive
than that of a Jail breaker. We have ex-
pressed respect for Cervera as strate-
gjst. In the light of the latest maneuver
his well-planned purpose from the start
becomes perfectly clear, and but for
Schley's vigilant and lightning work the
Spanish admiral would have scored the
crowning triumph of the war to date.
AS it is, the American War Boards
tactical erratics seem to have been en-
tirely controlled by Cervera's strategical
wigwaggery.
But as TO Cervera's clear design: San
tiago is nearly 700 miles from Havana,
and Havana two months ago was alone
the objective point of the American plan
of conquest. Sampson was at Key West,
Cervera on the seas and Schley in Hamp-
ton Roads. SPANS hope was to success
fully hold Havana, but time was required
to reinforce, provision and strengthen it;
and it was to secure this required time
that Cervera set out in mysterious ways.
By concealment he kept both American
squadrons close in shore and the Strategy
Board 'sat sea-" In due time Cervera
affected to sneak into Santiago harbor,
but didn't in fact need to be stealthy. At
once the American plans against Havana
were dropped, but guns, money, troops
and provisions poured into that city from
Spain. Nobody heard anything more of
Havana-the cry was for Santiago. This
was Cervera's first victory, in that he had
lured the American attentions away from
Havana. The rush of American troops
for Santiago, which Cervera never meant
to defend. now forced upon the Spaniard
the exercise of new deception SO as to
further retard the American invasion.
The troop transports were actually some
days out for Santiago, when a phantom
fotilla of Spanish warships was seen off
sthe north coast of Cuba, and the Wash
ington War Board went into Mysteries.
The troops put back and lost ten days in
wait for arlnored conveys. That was
the second triumph of Cervera's strategy.
The third of the series was to have had
effect on Sunday. Except to take his
ships, there could be no excuse for attack
on Santiago, which in time would fall of
its own gravity. But the American as
saults of Friday and Saturday indicated
heavier lighting to come. If the city fell
while his ships lay in the harbor his fleet
was lost: and when the battle failed to
reopen on Sunday, Ceryera took that to
mean that Monday, July 4, had been de-
cided on for the browning assault. Ger
vera determined to carry into prompt ex-
ecution long considered strategem. He
did not design to destroy his ships; that
could have been done right there. He did
not design to fight; that he could have
done earlier. He did not design to escape
to sea; for to do this his ships would have
darted out in different directions from
the start. But, relying upon his greater
speed, he designed to dash ahead on
dead line for Havana harbor, knocking
out Watson's wooden blockaders, and
safely and triumphantly entering and
powerfully reinforcing that point.
The moral effect of Cervera's success
would have been incalculable, while the
material results would have been CON
founding. The American war plans for