Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-06-04
AMERICAN SHIP SUNK.
G. Saw Adyices from Port Au Prince,
Haiti.
RIFT IT WAS THE COLLIER MERRIMAc.
,. sent Purposeiy, by Sampson, to Block
the Channei--Fiset siiences the Spanish
natterles-EIeht American Prisoners.

Port au Prince, Haiti, June g.
tcony,ighted, 1898, by the Associated
press 1--This morning at o'clock
80 American squadron began the
,,rbardment OF the Notifications OF
s.,tago de Cuba ana lively cannon
ade ensued for two hours. which
snsneed the Spanish batteries.
An American vessel, the Merrimac,
,,scribed In the ndvices from Santiago
A., cuba as an auxiliary cruiser, ma
,,rr a dash to force the entrance,
.,,,ceeded in passing the first line of
LICENSEES, but was torpedoed about hve
hncdred feet up the channel. She
,,en, down 'perpendlcularly." An OIL
c,, an engineer and six seamen were
aiken prisoners. The number of vic
aims is unknown. Only the funnel and
,,,sstheads of the sunken vessel can
be seen. ia.
4 mart of the population assisted In
the nghting ON the heights.
Everybody is astounded at the au-
darity of the American vessel. The
american squadron was cruising all
The while in the otiing.
4, ,viil he noted that there IL an i'm
nortant discrepancy as TO the time at
which the bombardment Is said to nave
begun this morning between the as
matches from Cape Haitien ana Port
au Prince, the former saying . O'Clock
md the latter s. 1t is possible that
this arises from a CONFUSION between
the figures 3 and ).
The Santiago advices to Cape Haitlen
I'm reference to the sunken vessel as an
auxiliary cruiser probably mistake her
character. The Merrimac is a col
Tier and has always been collier.
SENT IN PURPOSELY.
Washington, June 1.-THE Post this
morning says: There is absolutely no
doubt in the minds of the naval OIL
cials in washington that the sending
of the collier into the harbor was all n
urearranged move on the part of Ad-
mlral Sampson.
The use of u collier the unusual hour
of the morning, the necessity of block
aiding the channel SO as to relieve some
of the ships of the squadrons from re-
naming stationed Off Santiago,the i'm
nortance of discovering whether the
mines were effective-all these reasons
make 1t certain that the Merrimac
was deliberately sent to her destruc-
ton.
Ii was not Spanish victory. 1t was
a cleverly- arranged scheme on the
part of the American admiral, ana II
was successful. The eight men In q
SPANISH prison are the real heroes of
the war.
II the Merrimac went in under her
own crew, it Is interesting to know
that her complement of officers con-
sisted of Commander j. NJ. Miller
Lieut.. w. w. Gillmer, executive OIL
GERS Enslgns ]. r. Y. Blakeley and j.
~ Luby, and Assistant Engineer X.
K Crank
Miller is from Missouri. Gillmer from
r1rglnia, Blalkely from Pennsylvania.
and Luby and Crank from Texas.
1t is expected that reports Will be re-
ceived today from Admiral sampson.
which will give details of the Merri-
macs destruction and the names of the
eight men who have been captured,
THE MERRIMAC.
Baltimore, Md, June 3.-T'he Merri-
mac was purchased by the government
from the Lone Star Steamship COM
pany early in April. She was formerly
the Norwegian steamer Solvelg, and
was nearly destroyed by fire at New
port News in 1896 She was built at
Newcastle, England, in 1894, was $3.50
feet long, A feet beam and had net
register of 2,l94 tons. The Merrimac
left Norfolk, where she was fitted for
government purposes. about a month
ago.
NO OFFICIAL ADVICES.
Washington, June 4.-The navy de-
partment. up to an early hour this
morning, had received no additional
advlces from either Admiral Sampson
or Commodore Schley. The depart
ment officials have no information con-
corning the engagement reported to
have taken place at Santiago yester-