The Portland daily press., 1898-05-16
FOUND No CUBANS.
How the Gussie' Expedition Failed
To Land Arms.

Key West, Fla, May 15.-The steamer
Gu ssie which left Tampa on May 10 with
two companies of the First infantry on
board in charge of 1000 rifles and 100000
rounds of ammunition, intended for the
insurgents in the province of Pinar del
Rio, remained off the coast of Cuba
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, con-
voyed by the auxiliary gunboat Manning,
in vain attempt to land her cargo.
Captain j. 81. Dorst of the staff of Cen
eral Miles and formerly United States
military attache at Vienna, headed the
expedition. which returned here this
morning. Her commander, who appeared
to be much crestfallen, having failed to
accomplish the mission entrusted to him,
refused to discuss the matter beyond adj
uniting the failure and saying the Gussie
will return to Tampa, Fla.
Previous to leaving Cuban waters, the
Dorst texpeditionary force hada skirmish
with Spanish cavalry near Gabanas, IS
miles west of Havana, wherean attempt
was made to land part of the cargo. On
Friday morning Captain Dorst abandoned
the attempt at that point and steamed
eastward 60 Matan0as, where an arrange
menu mad been made with the insurgents
to send supplies ashore at Point Nav. a
mile or so east of the entrance of the
harbor. The Gussie and her CONVOY yes-
tterday morning, steamed in under abont
two miles off shore when the rattle of
musketry from considerable force of
Spanish soldiers, concealed behind un-
derbush ashore warned them that they
ll n9rYuo no xv e
landed. The Spanish troops seemed to
have been furnished with information of
the contemplated landing at both points.
After this second failure, Captain
Dorst decided to abandon the attempt. to
land the arms and ammunition and re-
turned to Key West, where, as already
cabled, he arrived this morning A more
aboard the Gdssie it would DO hard to
find.
Soon after the arrival of the Gussie,
Captain Dorst was rowed ashore and re-
ported the failure of his expedition by
cable to the war department..
Naval officers here say that If Captain
Dorst had secured the co cooperation of
some of the ships blookading squadron at
the point selected for the landing, the
shelied and'a way would have been
cleared for the landing Of the soldiers
and the cargo they had In charge.
The United States gunboat Machias,
which was lying off Matanzas on Friday
night, reported that signal lights we've
seen ashore east of Point Sabilla and
some Of her officers say they believe the
insurgents, having ascertained that the
rendezvous at Point Maya had been dis
covered by the enemy, desired landing
to be made at another point. But Captain
Dorst held to his original plans and Mound
the Spanish troops awaiting him.
Captain Dorst says the failure of the
expedition was due to the fact that the
Cubans were unable to meet the landing
party at the rendezvous and the Amerl-
cans could not land supplies with no one
to receive them.
The arrangements for making land
ing at Cabanas were made ten days ago
by Captain DOrst with General Delagdo
in command of the insurgent forces in
the province of Pinar del Rio, and the
supplies to ba landed near Matanzas were
to be conveyed to General Gomez by a
force of insurgents encamped three miles
back from the coast line. Both the
Cuban parties were unable, apparently to
appear at the rendezvous owing to the
activity of the Spaniards.
Captain Dorst is convinced that the
Spaniards have good system of COM
munication along the coast and they can
quickly mass enough troops TO prevent
the landing of small force, such as the
one he commanded, and the captain be-
lieves the only way arms and ammunition
can be sent to the insurgents Is to land
them under cover Of warships with guns
sufficient to beat Off any attack.
The captain says the company which
landed through the surf at Cabanas had a
| narrow escape Soldiers were fired upon
by Spanish cavalry concealed in the
tangled nnderbush and the fire was re-
piled to with the result that one Spanish
officer and three men were hit. Only one
man on the, American side was wounded.
The Wasp and the Manning shelled the
woods and covered the retreat of the
soldiers to the Gussie.
On Friday the Spaniards tried to hit
the Gussie from masked battery and
some of their shells burst close on board,
but none OF the fragments struck. The
American party captured prisoner of
in a Ehook Oft f!oh