The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-07-08
| / TENDS TIE BLOCKADE,
President Mol inley Issues 4
Proclamation.
TO SURROU D CUBA.

i3S52ss 4AVOaoAU0bAVuB Sg=&
ITO SURF OUND CUBA q: a.
/ ehips Formerly ON the North A tlantic
Coast will be Used for the
Nsw Patrol. II 81 ..z .
Arlington, D. g., June 2s.-f3y proc.
Ilamation issued today the President rave
notice of the intention bf the government
Ito assume the formidable task Of block
aiding about 500 milessok Cuban coast
line IN addition to the sections already
isbloekaded. This increases the extent 81
the blockade fully four-fold, 1t having
been confined heretofore to stretch of d
little more than 100 miles ON the north
and the single portsof Cienfueeos on the
south coast of the island. The demands
upon the navy in the way of ships to pa
troi the coast, however, will not be nearly
50 IN proportion to the territory COW
cred AZ IN the case Of the initial blockade
for the reason that the new blockaded
coast line lies entirely within the great
blight on the South Cuban coast, In which
the water is generally very shallow and
the ports are few into which "a vessel Of
any draft could enter The most impor-
Itant OF these ports are Manzanillo, Trini-
dad and Tunas. Fl IT =
I. West of Trinidad is Cienfueeos, which
y already blockaded effectively. From
|: tnat point westward for nearly 40 miles
mere IS no point to be blockaded until Ba-
i ta6ano is reached This port is distant
only about forty miles from Havana ;by
| rail and is believed to have been the prin-
clpal source of food supplies for the Span
ish capital. For $50 miles west of this.
clear over to Cape Frances, the western
edge of the blockaded territory, there are
no ports for deep vessels of any consid-
cradle draft. and even if there were, the
country in the interior, Pinar del Rio, is
IN the hands of the insurgents and supplies
| could not be sent through to Havana.
The purpose Of extending the blockade
westward to Cape Frances was to COM
mand a channel between the west side of
the isle of Pines land Cape frances, and
! thus render much easier the task of the
blockading vessels.
Havana Reports Conficting.
The reports which have reached the
President as to the exact state of affairs
! in Havana are conflicting; in some cases
the town was declared to be on the verge
Of starvation, in others, food Supplies
were said to be still abundant. As mat
ter Of fact the truth probably lies be-
tween these extremes, and while sup
plies Of q certain character are yery
scarce in Havana there is no lack of
others. 1t is known, for instance, that
while Hour may be scarce, large quaint
ties or beef have reached Havana. Most
OF this has come from Mexico and it has
usually been brought over to the Isle of
FINES and trans-shipped into light
draught boats to Batabano, whence f is
carried by rail into Havana. Only a day
or two ago word reached here that 500
mead OF cattle were rounded up at point
on tne Mexican coast near Yuca.an
awaiting transportation to Batabano.
There has been no running of the
blockade by these cattleships notwitb-
standing the Spanish stories to the con
trary; all Of the ships that have entered
juban ports with, supplies have done so
at places not within the blockade, such AZ
Batabano and Manzanillo.
Inc vessels for the additional blockade
service Will be supplied almost entirely
from the patrol feet which under Commo-
dore Howell has been guarding the North
Atlantic coast from Maine to South Car
DINA. The service has been abandoned
because the only available Spanish war
ships are with Admiral Camara. thou
sands OF miles away from the nearest
point on the Atlantic coast. The vessels
are already on their way southwark, hav-
ing been reinforced by several of the new
adapted, because of their light draft. for
blockade duty in the shallow waters lying
behind the Isle of Pines and Cuba.
Siesbee's Good Work.
The blockade of San Juan proclaimed
today IS in reality already in effect. having
been initiated by Capt Sissbee last weeE
when he turned back from that port 4.
British steamer laden with supplies. The
difficulty of maintaining blockade at
thus port, in the face of the Spanish forts
and three Spanish war vessels in the har-
Dor, would be considerable had not Can't
ESigsbee BY disabling the most formidable
one OF. these vessels made the task easier,
AS it is, the character of vessels required
to maintain the blockade at San Juan nee
essarily must be of a type superior to the
ships required for the blockade on the
southern coast Of Cuba. Probably some
such vessel as the Detroit or the Mont
gomery will be assigned to the task. -
In defeating the Terror. Capt. Sigsbee
has rendered a most important service to
our navy, and indeed, to all navies.: He
has not only deprived SIMPSONS fleet of
apprehension of AN attack in the rear
some dark night by this vicious little boat,
but he has demonstrated that an auxili-
airy cruiser is amply able to take care of
herself against torpedo gunboat, show
ing that the offensive power of this craft
has been very much overrated. The tor
pedo gunbOat was an untried quality in
naval warfare up to this time. Swifter
than torpedo-boat, seaworthy, and pos
sessed OF the armament of which the tor
pedo-boat is void, the torpedo gunhoat has
been terror in imagination to all naval
men: The presence of such a Spanish
gunboat, the Temerario, in the river
Platte, in the pathway of the Oregon on
her cruise around South America, was for
several weeks a cause for great anxiety
at the navy department.. Now Capt Sigs-
bee has: shown ;that$wit an unarmored
cruiser, rmed with only 5-inch guns. the
torpedo gunboats are not feared at least
not in daylight. VIZ S
The Terror is of English build, having
been turned out at Clyde bank in 1895
She is a low-lymg steel craft with steel
tunnels; is 80 tons, 22O feet long. . feet
beam and 5 feet 6:inches draft The boat
it filled with engines and boilers her
her at a speed Of 2S knots with Norman
boilers. While the ordinary torpedo-boat
carries onfysa little 1-pounder gun, the
torpedo gunboat is armed with q fOrmida-
BILE battery for vessel Of her size, con
sisting Of two .14-pounders, two 6-pound-
ers and two 1-pounders, all quick-6ring
and having two 14-inch torpedo tubes on
deck. Ss s4 H *s IS @ T.
The; other Spanish cruiser referred to
by Capt. iSigsbee in his reportsas joining
in the attack upon the ST. Paul is sup
posed here to be the Alfonso XII. an iron
bark-rigged cruiser built in 1887 Of 1000
tons. While an old vessel, she, has a
pretty good battery made up of fourteen
Hbntoria guns of various calibers, FIVE
machine guns and two torpedo tubes. =.
AS soon .as Capt. Sigsbee's report came
| to hand the officials at the navy depart
nlent immediately recalled the fact that
the Spaniards had last week sent out u
lbulletin describing the flight of an Ameri-
can cruiser before two Spanish vessels off
San Juan and that particular engagement
was identified as the same referred to by
Capt. Sigsbee. 20 y - r ~
1t is said at the navy department that
it is the present intention to start Com
motore Watson's Eastern squadron from
Santiago. This however is subject to
Admiral SIMPSONS report upon the con-
dition the vessels selected sand their
needs in the ma tier of supplies and equip
mentS for the longSvoyage ahead of them.
If they need no more than can be sup
piled from Sampson's fleet they will start,
according to orders, from Santiago, but
10 FRI Ec11y,Y,S1np nd ,o1,f ON