The Indianapolis journal., 1898-05-28
No Chance for the "Armada" to Es-
Returned Across the Sea.
INCIDENTS OF THE BLOCKADE
REPORTS BROUGHT TO KEY WEST
BY PRESS DISPATCH BOATS.
Spanish Auxiliary Cruiser Chased by
the Bancroft Not Far from the
Florida Coast.
Copyright. 1898. by the Associated Press)

Copyright. 1898, by the Associated Press)
ON BOARD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DISPATCH BOAT DAUNTLESS. via Key
West, May 27, p. Mp to II o'clock this
morning (Friday) nothing had been seen of
the Spanish fleet. Should Commodore Schey
be able to drive the enemy to take refuge in
some Cuban port on the south coast. and
bottled him up. the plans of both navy and
| army could at once take definite shape
| squadron of our ships could hold Admiral
| Cervera in port or force him to give battle
| while plans for the immediate invasion of
| Cuba could proceed with the assurance that
they would not be frustrated by the unex-
pected appearance of a fleet of the enemys
war ships.
Neither Rear Admiral Sampson nor the
| naval officers with the fleet appear at all
| sanguine that the Spaniards, unless hard
pressed, will attempt to run the gauntlet
| into Havana. Admiral Cervera, since he
reached the Caribbean sea, has shown any
| thing but a disposition to fight. and our
officers are inclined to think that if he is
driven out of the waters south of Cuba he
| will double back to San Juan, Puerto Rico
| where his ships could coal under the pro-
lection of batteries as powerful as those at
Havana, as Rear Admiral Sampson ascer-
| tained when he bombarded the forts there
two weeks ago.
But the unexpected might happen; and, If
it does, Admiral Sampson is prepared.
Should Cervera. run into the arms of our
| fleet as now constituted. his surrender or
| annihilation would be inevitable. There are
| but two passages by which he could enter
| the Florida straits From the eastward. $50
| miles east of Havana, the Bahama banks,
| a great triangular of shoal water,
| strung with coral keys, extending north
ward from Cuba to point sixty miles east
of the coast of Florida. The southern end
of the banks is wedged down close to the
coast of Cuba, leaving between only a mar
| row passage scarcely fifteen miles wide,
and about sixty miles long, called the Ba-
hama channel. At the north, between the
great and little Bahama banks, the North
west Providence channel, or Hole in the
| WALL as the seafaring men about here
term it, offers another door to the Florida
straits. The latter route is long and tortu-
Gus. fully 1900 miles from Cape Maysi, the
eastern point of the island; while the for
mer through the old Bahama channel, is
scant six hundred miles, almost an airline
as the crow flies. Were the Spanish fleet to
come up through the Windward passage
and around Cape Maysi, it would have to
choose between these two.
IMPOSING SPECTACLE.
| The United States fleet makes an impos-
| ing spectacle as it moves majestically along
| with every ship bristling with guns and
| stripped for action. Lookouts are always in
| the military tops sweeping the horizon with
| their telescopes. During the day the ad-
| miraTs orders are wig-wagged from the
| flagship. while general orders as to maneuv-
| ers in fleet are communicated by streams
of flags. The newspaper dispatch boats are
| obliged, by the admraPs orders, to main
tain position not nearer than five miles
astern. in order to be cut of harms way
should a collision with the enemy occur.
Several times each night the scouts far
out on the horizon flash their reports to
the admiral, skimming through the water
as fast as railroad trains and firing their
colored rockets aloft into the blackness
of night 1t cannot but occur to those un-
versed in naval warfare that these bril-
liant exchanges would serve admirable
advertisements of the location of our fleet
should the enemy happen along.
The only exciting incident of the cruise
| occurred about II a. m. tuesday, before a
number of the ships which afterwards
joined the fleet had arrived. The fleet was
steaming eastward in column abreast. but
when the smoke from three strange ships
was made out on the horizon, dead ahead
signal flags began to fly from the signal
yards of the flagship, as Rear Admiral
Sampson made his disposition for battle
should the strangers prove to be the enemy
Bugles sounded the call to general quar-
ters and every executive officer rang for
steam while the smokestacks of our ships
began to belch forth great clouds of smoke
as the vessels swung into line ahead. 1t
was evident that Admiral Sampson in
tended to adopt the favorite formation of
successful commanders i'm modern naval
battles and fight his ships broadside The
speed was quickly Increased to over ten
knots and the course altered slightly to pass
the strangers on the port quarter. The very
ships seemed to scent the battle as they
plowed through the heavy swell which was
dead against them and flung it aside in
clouds of spray. The admiraIs commands
were flung back from ship to ship. From
the Dauntless, with our glasses, we could
see the men at quarters stripping to the
waist Nettngs to catch spinters were
stretched about the chartrooms and bridges
and everything made ready for the
fray Ii was a sight to satisfy the pride
of every American as our fleet bore down
Meantime the military tops of two of the
strangers had removed all doubt as to the
character of the vessels. 1t was a false
alarm; and the disappointment of our Jack
tars must have been keen, judging from the
remarks they made afterwards. They had
been feeding each other on promises of
many things they proposed to do TO the
Spaniards when they got them; and for a
few minutes they thought the opportunity
had come. Long before the corresnondents