The herald., 1898-05-30
OS ANGELES HERALD MONDAY MORNING, MAY 80 Il

ering that there were no warships there
but only a few schooners and small gun
boats.
1T is the Spanish squadron am looking
for" said the fighting commodore, land
not a few almost ruined Spanish subjects
In Cuba" and SO not a shot was fired.
At o'clock the Scorpion was sent away
to Santiago de Cuba 800 miles distant, for
the purpose of communicating with the
minneapolis or the Harvard, either OF
which Is supposed to be there, SC, that they
could take dispatches from the fleet to
Hayti for direct cable to the United States
navy department. The Minneapolis, which
| Is still attached to the flying squadron,
left Hampton Roads one day later than
the rest of the squadron and went to the
| least, completing with the rest of the
squadron a complete circuit of the island.
Sunday evening on the flagship took the
place of a christening day. The men In the
port eight-inch turret had signs painted
to put over their guns and labeled them
the Dewey and Schley, and the starboard
| turret guns they named Farragut and
Gushing, and another pair Kid Mccoy and
John l.. Sullivan. One of the five-inch guns
was named the Paul Jones and in Lieut..
Rush's aft eight-inch turrets two big
guns were named the Lawrence and the
Perry.
On Monday morning, May %. great ex-
element was caused by news that the
Spanish fleet was at Santiago de Cuba
The news was brought by the Hawk, a con-
verified yacht, which came from Key West
with the gunboat Castine and the collier
Merrimac. Her captain said that the Min
neapolis, which had been sent scouting
through the Windward passage, had dis
covered the fleet on Thursday morning
and had run to Hayti and cabled. The
Hawk came down with all speed. Much
concern was felt for the safety of the
Scorpion, which left Sunday night, bear
ing dispatches for Commodore Schley and
the Associated Press correspondent.
The work of coaling all the vessels was
proceeded with Immediately, and actively
continued all the morning.
The plan to seek the Spanish fleet at
Santiago de Cuba, where it is believed to
be, was changed later. on May 2is by the
information brought by the British ship
Adula, stopped outside of Cienfuegos
blockade by order of Commodore Schley.
Lieut. Edward Simpson of the flagship
Brooklyn was sent to board her, and re-
Captain Walker said he was bound for
Cienfuegos with an order Of Consul Dent, at
Kingston, Jamaica, to bring off Seaman
Hoffem, of the United States ship Niagara,
lying in the hospital there with broken
leg, and such neutrals and other Americans
as he could find there. He had visited this
same point some ten days ago. and had
taken 327 passengers, of whom only four
were citizens of the United States. He was
in Santiago de Cuba on May 18th last on his
way to Jamaica, and while in port there the
batteries opened fire on two American war;
ships lying off the harbor. The firing be-
gan at II o'clock and lasted until 1870 p. m.
The ships probably were the Harvard and
the cruiser Minneapolis, though this is not
certain. At midnight the next day he saw
the lights of seven ships about seventy miles
south, half west of Santiago de Cuba, and
believed they were the Spanish fleet, for the
next day when he arrived at Kingston
there was a cablegram announcing the ar
rival of the fleet there. He saw nothing of
the American ships. He had been told that
the Spanish ships only stayed there for a
day, and then left.
Perhaps the most important information
was that given him by pilots at Cienfuegos
and Santiago, which, of course, may not be
entirely reliable. He said that twenty
seven electric mines had been laid in Glen
fuegos harbor, but that they did not work
well, and that the electric connections were
broken, and the mines would be fixed 80 as
to explode by contact. He did not know
the position of the mines. When he was in
the harbor a week ago there was one tor
pedo boat which had been somewhat dam
aged in an encounter with the Eagle, one
of the United States auxiliary gunboats.
and two gunboats about the size of large
tug. The harbor of Santiago had about q
electric mines in 1t, and the place from
which they were worked was low
matched hut on the west side of the en-
trance, three hundred yards inside. There
were no contact mines there that he knew
of.
The Adula was allowed to go inside, and,
running up to the entrance to Cienfuegos,
signalled for a guide. One of the little
,gunboats ran out, taking care to keep in the
lee of the neutral vessel, and few minutes
after the party guided 1t in.
The statements of those on board the
British ship led Commodore Schley to take
a different view of the matter and instead
of running right on to Santiago he con-
cluded to remain at Cienfuegos and inves-
tigate the harbor, believing that If not al
ready hidden, they would come along the
coast.
The harbor is very deep and runs in be-
hind the hills. 1t is reached by two sharp
turns, thence up a narrow passage only
wide enough for q single ship to pass.
Commodore Schley expected every hour to
hear from the Minneapolis or the Harvard,
and in the meantime thought it wise to
wait until the British steamer came out.
suspecting that perhaps they might not let
him come out, which would indicate the
presence of the enemy.
The Hawk was sent to Key West with
dispatches and mail
On Tuesday, May a. officers and men
were routed out Of their quarters In
hurry, the officer of the deck having an
nounced that the smoke of three steamers
on the horizon to the south was visible.
The alacrity and the enthusiasm with
which the men got to the guns was re-
markable.
When the three ships hove "hulls up on
the horizon they proved to be the United
States cruiser Marblehead and the two
converted yachts Eagle and Vixen. The
Marblehead brought out mail and tele-
grams. Commander McCalla told Com
modore Schley that the shore signals
which the fleet saw Monday were from the
insurgents, who had agreed with him be-
foro ho Loft tho locality RI 10