Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1898-06-02
A DISAPPOINTMENT.
Our Jack Tars Enter Upon an Ex-
citing Stern. Chase.
EVERY PREPARATION FOR A BATTLE.

All Is Excitement and Expectation Until
It Is Discovered that the Supposed
Enemy Consists of United States
Monitors and supply ships
[Copyright. 1893, by the Associated Pressl
KEY WEST, Fla, May ss.-up to II
o'clock yesterday morning friday
nothing had been seen of the Spanish
feet. Should Commodore Schley be
able to drive the enemy to take
south coast and bottle him up, the
plans of navy and army could at once
take definite shape.
A squadron of our ships could hold
Admiral Cervera In port or force him
to give battle. while plans for the i'm
mediate invasion of Cuba could pro-
ceed, with the assurance that they
would not be frustrated by the unex-
pected appearance of fleet Of the ene-
my's war ships.
Neither Rear-Admiral Sampson nor
the naval officers with the feet appear
at all sanguine that the Spaniards, un-
less hard pressed, will attempt to run
the gauntlet into Havana. Admiral
Cervera, since he reached the Carib-
bean sea, has shown anything but o dis
position to fight and our officers are In
olined to think that IL he Is driven out
of the waters south of Caba he will
double back to San Juan de Porto Rico,
where his ships could coal under pro-
lection of batteries as powerful as
those ut Havana. as Rear-Admirnl
Sampson ascertained when he bonn
barded the forts there two weeks ago.
But the unexpected might happen,
and, IL 1t does, Admiral Sampson Is
prepared. Should Cervera run into the
arms of our feet as now constituted,
his surrender OF annihilation would be
inevitable There are but two pass
ages by which he could enter the
Florida straits From the eastward,
$50 miles east of Havana, the Bahama
banks, a great triangular area of shoal
water strung with coral keys, extend
northward from Cuba to q point go
miles east of the coast of Florida. The
southern end of the banks Is wedged
down close to the coast Of Cuba, leav-
ing only a marrow passage, scarcely
Is miles wide and about 90 miles long,
called the Bahama channel.
At the north, between the Great and
Little Bahama banks, the Northwest
Providence channel, or Hole in the
Wall, as the seafaring men about there
term 1t, offers another door to the
Florida straits The latter is long and
tortuous, fully 1900 miles from Cape
Maysi, the eastern point of the island,
while the former, through the old Ba-
hama channel, Is a scant 600 miles,
almost in an air line as the crow flies
through the Windward passage and
around Cape Maysi, 1t would have to
choose between these two.
The United States fleet makes an i'm.
posing spectacle as it moves majes-
! tically along with every ship bristling 2
| with guns and stripped for action.
Lookouts are always in the military
tops, sweeping the horizon with their
telescopes During the day the adj
mirals orders are wig-wagged from the
flagship, while general orders as to the
maneuver In fleets are communicated
by streams of flags.
The newspaper dispatch boats are
Obliged, by the admiral's orders, to
maintain position not nearer than
five miles astern, In order to be out OF
harms way should a collision with the
enemy occur. Several times each night
the scouts far out in the horizon flash
their reports to the admiral, skimming
through the water as fast as railroad
trains and firing their coiored rockets
afoat into the biacizness of night.
1t cannot but occur to those unversed
in naval warfare that these brilliant
exchanges would serve as edmirable
advertisements Of the location Of our
feet should the enemy happen along.
The only exciting incident of the
cruise occurred about IL o'clock Tues.
day morning before a number Of ships,
which afterward Joined the feet, had
arrived. The fleet was steaming east
ward in column abreast, but when the
smoke from the three strange ships
was made out on the horizon dead
ahead, signal fiags began to fly from
the signal yards of the flagship as
Rear-Admiral Sampson made his dis
position for battle should the strangers
prove to be the enemy.
Buglars sounded the call to general
quarters 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.
II was evident that Admiral Samp-
son intended to adopt the favorite
formation of successful commanders in
modern naval battles and fight his
ships broadside on. The speed was
quickly increased to over ten knots
and the course altered slightly to pass
the strangers op 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 IL aside in clouds of
spray. The admiral's commands were
flung back from ship to ship.
From the Dauntlesss, with our
glasses, we could see the men at quar-.
tcrs. stripped to the waist Nettings
to catch splinters were stretched about
the bridges and everything was ready
for the frey. IL was sight to satisfy
the pride of every American as our
feet bore down. Meantime the mill
tary tops of two Of the strangers had
removed ell doubt as TO the character of
the vessels. II was 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 the many things they
proposed TO do to the Spaniards when
they got them, and for q few minutes
Haskell -Stickley.
A very pretty wedding took place