The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1898-04-23
THE DOOM OF HAVANA
Former Stronghold Cannot Stand
Against Modern Guns.
EASY MARK FOR OUR FLEET
Once Formidable MORO Castle Re-
gnrdcd as Incapable of Success
fully Resisting the American At
tnck-DescriptiOn of the Harbor
and Its FUrtifications.

|
experts is well illustrated in the state
ment which a prominent army officer re-
Gently made to the press. He said that
! the time was when the city of Havana
was one of strong places of the world.
! That was in the days when battleships
/ carried as many as l20 popguns, against
whose puny fire towering walls of mas
sive granite served as an impregnable
| defense. Modern ordnance, with its
monster shot and almost fabulous range,
has changed all that, and today Havana
is not only not the mighty fortress that
| ii once was. but, despite the fact that
vast sums have within the last two years
\ been squandered on its defenses il can
| now hardly be considered as capable OF
offering any serious resistance to attack,
/ either by land or sea. The seaward de-
fenses of Havana may be divided into
| two classes-those within the harbor and
| at its entrance, which are interesting on
ly from an antiquarian and picturesque
aspect. and the modern works. armed
with few pices of heavy breechloadng
| ordnance, which. since the beginning of
| the war, have been erected along the
shores east and west of the harbor
| mouth. Best known of all the forts of
| Havana is the world renowned MORO
| Castle. the marvelously picturesque me-
| diaeval stronghold that crowns the rock
| eminence at the left of the entrance to
| the harbor. a hundred years ago its mas
sive bastiOns bristling with the heaviest
artillery of the period. frowned def
| ance 10 the navies OF the world. Now
| the MORO. stripped of all armament save
/ "A few harmless cannon. serves only as a
pTiS I'll. as a garrison for recruits from
/ Spain and as a signal station and pedes-
/ tai for the great lighthouse that towers
! above the seaward height of the fortress
! just across the eastern ditch. Dividing
| il from the castle proper is an outworb
/ known as the Velasco Battery.
! Across the harbOr from the MORO
stands the quaint old Castillo de La Pun
Ia. a square Fashioned stone fort. mount
ing three or four old PARROTS and a soli-
tary l5-inch Rodman of the kind which is
now being removed from forts Hamilton
and WadswOTth 10 make room for modern
ordnance. Beyond the Punta. all the way
/ to the Cavaieria ..Aarf. the shore is
/ fairly encrusted with the remains of bat
/ teries. in their day most formidable. but
now stripped of their armament and used
only as barracks or stOrehouSes.
/ The walls of the stupend0us fortress
/ known as La Cabaua crown the heights
/ on the eastern shore Of the harbOr from
near the southern sallyport OF the MorrO
/ all the way to the village OF Casa Blanca
| in an unbroken paIisade of gray and white
stone. stained here and there with broad
splashes of vivid red
La Cabana is now nothing but a vast
prison and place OF execution. Origi-
| nally designed 10 mount hundreds Of
guns. il now possesses only a salutng
I battery and five small rifles with 2 few
ancient pieces, which are only ayailab BILE
| for defense against a land attack. The
! condition of La Cabana's ordnance may
be inferred from the fact that the garri-
/ son, after supeThuman eXertions, was only
able to return the Names national salute
OF twenty-one guns with nineteen strag-
/ Cling shots. delivered in what one of the
American officers declared to be the
! 'raSSedest salute | ever heard.
Most formidable of all the modern de-
/ fensive works Of Havana is the great sand
( battery at Playa del Chivo. on the sea-
coast. about three-Quarters Of a mile to
the eastward Of the MORO. 1t was re-
/ Gently declared by an American naval
expert who made a critical examination
of all the new batteries as the "onIy one
in the construction of which the least
giimmer OF intelligence had been
shown The battery mounts two mag
nificent Pinch hrupp rifles. which. how
ever. are destitute OF all protection save
what is afforded by a broad but very
low parapet of sand.
Half a mile further to the eastward is
an unfinished battery of similar con-
struc ton, mounting four S-inch guns and
a few small mortars. Both these bat
teries cold be readily taken in flank and
carried by troops landed i'm the unpro-
teCted little haven at Coiimar. three
miles TO the eastward of Havana. On
the heights in the rear of the first bat
terry are several large powder magazines.
completely exposed to the fire of ships
To the westward of the harbor lies a
chain of batteries, extending from La
Punta all the way along the shore to the
mouth of the Almendares River. where
there is another sheltered landing place
with no other defense than the ancient
castle of Carmelo. erected in 1919. the
oldest building of European construction
in the New World. A force landed here
could proceed along the shore road under
cover of the guns of the fleet and march
into the city, carrying one battery after
the other on the way
OF this range of works the first be-
ginning at the eastward, is the Reina bat
terry, a stone structure not unlike our
Castle William. and, like it, armed with
a few antique pieces of ordnance. Next
to it, and within the outskirts of the city
is the Santa Clara battery. an earthwork
which ranks next in importance to the
big Playa del Chivo battery. 1t mounts
three old style 10-inch Krupps and two
12-inch OrdoneZ guns. These latter were
built in Spain on a system that has moth
ing to recommend it beyond cheapness of
construction, consisting as they do of a
steel tube re-enforced, incredible as it
may seem, with nothing better than a
cast iron jacket.
Within a stones throw of Santa Clara
is little masonry battery, mounting four
breech loading mortars of only S-inch
caliber. The battery is of such light con-
struction as to offer only a trifiing pro-
lection to the guns. Further westward
at the foot of II street. in the suburb of
Vedado. is another battery mounting two
l0-inch and two 6-inch modern rifles.
AS the main defense of the city against
land attack are the antique castles of
Atares and Principe, in the latter of
which is small battery of modern NOR
tars, whose fire is capable of being Ii
rected seaward.
AS Havana is the storm center OF in
terest, it is desirable that its relations TO
the general subject of the war should be
understood Not long ago, a naval strate-
g1St OF high reputation said the following:
Many factors enter into the solution of
every problem involving the conduct of
a war, and the science of strategy con-
Germs itself with the employment and
combination of the means which the diff
ferent branches of the art of war afford
for the purpose of favoring projects of
operations and of directing great military
movements.
In strategy three things demand espec-
ial consideration:
l. The base of operations.
9. The objective, and
3. The line of operations.
ho