The San Francisco call., 1898-06-04


 . ish fleet is here. SCHLE4. O
 NEW YORK, June 3.-The United States auxiliary cruiser St. Paul, Cap tain Sigsbee commanding, came into port early to-day. Captain Sigsbee went ashore and thence proceeded to the Eavy-yard. He refused to be IT, terviewed regarding the recent service of his ship in the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba, at which port, 1t has been said, Captain Sigsbee ran the St. Paul well into the mouth of the harbor and obtained the first definite information of the presence there of Admiral Ger vera's squadron. After visiting Com modore Bunce atsthe navy-yard, Cap tain Sigsbee relaxed from his service sufficiently to say to reporter:
 II had target practice right along from the first day I arrived at Santi- ago. on May p, and while none of my men have been in the service long, l am well satisfied with their work at the guns We have not been 1n any fight so far, but my men will give good account of themselves. It was on the 25th that we captured the ReS- tormel l knew that the Spanlards needed coal very badly and made every effort to see that they did not get it. While off Santiago with Schley I saw two more Spanish cruisers, and Schley saw two torpedo-boats. There is no question that they are bottled up as tight as can be in Santiago harDor- I went in so close that l made sketches of their Notifications, which am send ing to Washington.
 ssTheir guns could easily have reached me, but the batteries made no attempt to fire, for what reason l do not know. It may be the Spaniards did not want to reveal the strength and location of their guns. l am going 10 Washington with dispatches from the fleet, and as soon as we nave coaled and provisioned we shall put to sea again. This probably will not be for three or four days.
 "As soon as I arrived outside the harbor of Santiago there were indica- tions of the presence of Cervera's fleet on the inside beyond the hills. l hugged the mouth of the harbor so closely that it would have been impossible for any thing afoat to sneak out without our seeing them It was on the third or fourth day after our arrival that l saw two Spanish vessels, which l was sure were the ViZcaya and the Cr1stobal Colon. They crept cautiously into the stream and got to the middle of the channel. AS soon as they caught sight of me they scampered back as rapidly
 
 as they could steam.
 "As soon as we arrived off the harbor I announced my presence by the cour- tesy of salute, taking as target one of the Spanish forts. The fort evidently did not intend to accord me the cour- tesy due in return, for it's guns re- mained silent When I was satisfied with the practice my men had had, l steamed the St Paul out of range and resumed scout duty outside the mouth of the harbor.
 Tt was directly under the guns of a fort and within easy range that I took the Restormel with 2400 tons of coal aboard This coal was evidently in- tended for the Spanish fleet, and for the Restornrel to run our blockade and enter Santiago harbor would of itself have been good evidence that the Span ish were there. We had to fire several shots at her before she hove to. put a prize crew aboard and sent the col Her to Key West.
 .'During the period I was at Santiago Schley came and went several times. cruising a little to the westward, but the St Paul remained off Santiago har- Dor for all of the eight days. It was on May 29 that I saw heavy lines of smoke from what I at first thought was the Spanish squadron coming to the relief of Cervera There was great excite ment on board the St. Paul, and I im- mediately put out after the fleet. soon found that the smoke was com ing from Schley's ships returning to the entrance of the harbor. On this day both Schley and myself saw again fleet was still bottled up in Santiago h rhOr