Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1898-06-10
slosnEE AZ SANTIAGO.
Defed spanish Batteries and Saw the
Spanish Cruisens.

New 1Ork. June 4.-lne tnltee
States auxiliary cruiser st. Paul, Cap
tain Sigbee commanding, has arrived
in port. Captain Sigsbee went ashore
and thence proceeded to the navy
yard. Captain sigsbee refused TO be
interviewed regarding the recent ser
vice Of his ship in the vicinity of San
tiago de Cuba. az which port, IL has
been said, Captain Sigsbee ran the st.
Paul into the mouth of the harbor and
obtained the FIRST definite information
of the presence there OF the Spanish
Admiral Cervera's squadron.
After visiting Commodore Bunce at
the navy yard, Captain Sigsbee re-
lapsed from his reserve sufficiently to
say TO reporter:
~ had target practice right along
from the first day / arrived at Santiago,
on May %, and while none of my men
have been in the service long, l am
well satisfied with their work ut the
guns.
eve have not been in any fight so
far, but my men will give a good ac-
count of themselves. 1t was on the
25th we captured the Restormel. 1
knew that the spaniards needed coal
very badly, and | made every effort to
see that they did not get it.
"While off Santiago with Schley, l
saw two more Spanish cruisers, and
schley saw two torpedo boats. There
is 20 question that they are bottled up
as tight as can be in Santiago harbor.
81 went in so close that l made
sketches of their Notifications, which
| am sending TO Washington.
"Their guns could easily have reach
ed me, but the batteries made no at
tempt to fire, for what reason l do not
know. 1t may be the Spaniards did
not want to reveal the strength and
location of their guns. am going TO
Washington with dispatches from the
fleet, and as soon as we have coaled
and provisioned, we shall put to sea
again This probably will not be for
three or four days.
"As soon as | arrived outside the
harbor of Santiago, there were indica-
tions Of Cervera's fleet on the inside,
beyond the hills.
~ Rugged the mouth of the harbor
so closely that il would have been i'm
possible for anything ahoat to sneak
out without our seeing them.
cit was either the third or fourth
day after our arrival that l saw two
Spanish vessels, which / was sure were
the Vizcaya and the Cristobol Colon.
They crept cautiously into the stream
and got to the middle of the channel.
AsIsoon as they caught sight of me
they scampered back as rapidly as
they could steam.
"As soon as we arrived off the har-
Dor l announced my presence by the
courtesy of salute, taking as my tar
get one of the Spanish forts. 1t
evidently did not intend to accord
me the courtesy due in return, for its
guns remained silent When l was
satisfied with the practice my men had
had l steamed the st. Paul out of
range and resumed scout duty outside
the mouth of the harbor.
at was directly under the guns of a
fort, and within easy range that took
the Restormal, with 24O0 tons of coal
on board. This coal was evidently in
tended for the Spanish fleet and fer
the Restormel TO run our blockade and
enter Santiago harbor would of itself
have been good evidence that the Span
ish feet was there. We had to FIRE
several shots at her before she hove to.
put prize crew aboard and sent the
collier to Key West