The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-17
SPANISH FLYING SQUADRON
NOTHING SEEN OR HEARD OF IT
 YESTERDAY.

Its Whereabouts Now as Great n Mys-
 tery as Ever-It May be Here, There or
 Anyyvhere-Spanish Torpedo Boat Is
 Still at Fort de France-ProbabIy Only
 One of spain's Squadrons on This Side
 of the Atlantic.
 [Copyright, 1898, by the Associated Press,1
 St. Pierre, Island of Martinique, May 16.-Nothing has been seen or heard of the Spanish fleet to-day up to late hour this evening". It may be lying off the island or may have gone north. The signal lights that have been seen on the neighboring hills for the last few nights has undoubtedly been man. ipulated by friends of the Spaniards who want them to capture the auxil- iary cruiser Harvard. There are re- ports that a Spanish man-of-war is lying in the Dominca channel to the northward of Martinique.
 The Spanish torpedo gunboat Terror, which has been undergoing repairs at Fort de France since she arrived there with the Cape Verde fleet, under the command of Admiral Carvera, is still there, with disabled boiler tubes and propeller and no money to pay for the necessary repairs. The Terror endeav- ored to coal from the Aleinte, but the authorities interfered
 A French man-of-war arrived this afternoon from San Juan de Porto Rico. She was slightly damaged by flying shell fragments during the bom- bardment of the Notifications by Ad- miral Sampson. The people here are greatly excited over the war news. [Copyright, 1898, by the Associated Press l
 Curacao, May 16.-The Spanish squadron under Admiral Cervera, which left last evening after the cruisers Viz caya and Infanta Maria Teresa, had taken on about 700 tons of coal and a quantity of provisions, has not been sighted to-day When the squadron disappeared it was going westward.
 London, May 16.-The Daily Mail says this morning. According to the most trustworthy information the Spanish cruisers Cardinal Cisneros, Princess Deastrias and Cataluna are not yet ready for sea and therefore cannot have arrived at Martinique.
 The Hague, May 16.-The ministry of the colonies of the Netherlands knows nothing, it is said, of the movements of the Spanish warships at Curacao, Dutch West Indies, and it is pointed out that all vessels are permitted to remain for certain time at neutral ports.
 Madrid, May 17.-2 a. n.-A dispatch from Cadiz to Fl Heraldo de Madrid says the port authorities at Cadiz announce that the reserve fleet com- posed of the first class battleship Pe- layao, the armed cruisers Emperador Carlos V and the Alfonso XIII, the cruisers Rapido and Patria with the torpedo boat destroyers Audaz and Procepina will be ready for sea this week.
 Washington, May 16.-Both the state department and the navy department profess to be without information in regard to the reported arrival at St. Pierre, Martinique, of endorsements for the Spanish fleet near Curacao. These three vessels are the armored cruisers Catalura, Princess de Asturias and Cardinal Cisneros. They were supposed to have been at Cadiz with the Pelayo and Numancia. All these ships are new, the Cataluna having just been finished and the other two since 1896.
 These ships are sisters. Each dis places 1000 tons and is capable of twenty knots speed. They are nearly as formidable as the Vizcaya, Ouuendo Cristobal Colon and Maria Teresa, the four armored ships of the Cape Verde fleet. Their turrets, of which each has two, are protected by from seven to nine inches of steel, and the steel belt along the water line is twelve inches thick.
 The guns of the main battery are not so heavy as those on the vessels now near Curacao. Each turret contains one Hontoria breech-loading rifle of 9.4 inches calibre. The information that these ships are at St. Pierre causes great surprise here. It was believed that they were still at Cadiz, fitting for sea. The armored cruiser Carlos V. is still unaccounted for, and while it was the general impression that she had re- turned to Cadiz, the naval experts are all in the air just now as to her where abouts, in view of the report about the Cataluna and her consorts.