The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-28

constructed and armed. The Colon,
Covadonga and San Francisco are
Golfers
1t is apparent from this that the
main reliance of the feet is on the bat
tleship Pelayo, the armored cruiser
! Carlos V and the two new torpedo boat
destroyers, Audaz and Osada. The
others are auXiliaries and golfers. AS
there are only two armored ships in the
fleet, Dewey's fleet of protected but
unarmored ships probably will take
care of this Spanish squadron. With
the Monterey added he could certainly
Go so.
AMERICAS SQUADRON.
The eastern squadron, which the
United States will now send against
Spain far outranks the Spanish squad
ron, the Iowa and oregon exceeding
the Pelayo and Carlos V at every
point, while the other United States
vessels are far superior, ship for ship,
to those Of the Spanish squadron, with
the single exception of the two Spanish
torpedo boat destroyers.
When the American fleet sails for
Spain, it will take with it complete in
formation as to the entire stretch Of
Spanish coast, with detail maps of ev-
cry harbor and its Notifications. The
war board has a mass of this dnforma-
ton before it and spent most of the
day studying Spanish charts and forti-
flcationS with a view of outlining the
series of blows which are to be de-
ivered to Spain at home.
The Spanish coastline is 2, 122 kilo-
meters long, of which 1853 kilometers is
on the north coast while 1853 kilo
meters is along the Mediterranean
and the Atlantic on the south coast.
The coast is described by naval ex-
perts as abrupt and mountainous, with
sinuouS inlets and CULTS, resembling
the fjords of Scandinavia In gen
eral the Notifications of the coast are
relics Of the medieval greatness of
Spain and many of these defenses are
tumbling ruins.
The Spanish coast is divided into
three captain generalcies, namely:
Ferrol, on the north; Cadiz, on the
south, and Carthagena, on the east. At
Ferrol is the naval school and the
school of naval application. At Car
thagena is the school of ordnance and
the torpedo school. Cadiz is the point
where most of the fortification guns
are made.
Each of the three naval provinces
has a certain number of ports and
coast towns under its care. The total
artillery of these ports, under the nor
NAL conditions prior to the war, is as
follows: 119 Krupp guns, 80 Arm
strong guns, 80 Ordonez guns and a
large number Of Hontoria guns. The
main reliance is on the Ordonez guns,
which are especially for fortification
purposes. They are of 81, a and 80
centimetres. A separate division of the
coast is made for the purpose of plac-
ing torpedoes and submarine mines
This work is divided into four districts,
at Ferrol, Cadiz, Carthagena and Ma
hon as headquarters. Each town along
the coast is allowed a certain number
of torpedos. For instance, the allot-
ment for Barcelona is 500 torpedoes
Many of these ports are connected
by cables, which form an additional
feature of naval attack. A cable runs
from Barcelona to (arseilles. Cadiz
has three cables. one to the Canaries,
another to Gibraltar and another to-
Villa Real Vigo is the sable station
for two lines.
The information is in minute detail
as TO the defenses of each port. For
instance, Ferrol is protected on the
north by a series of three batteries
and two chateauS, the chateaus occu-
pying points which command passes
from the sea. The town is encircled
by bastions and redoubts of ancient
pattern, but recently remodelled. The
defenses of Cadiz consist of q circle
of il powerful forts. The other har-
bors are similarly defined with detail.
information as to approaches, channels,
depth Of water, batteries, etc. With
this full information at hand, the ma
ture of the assault upon the coast Of
Spain will be pretty well outlined be-
fore the American squadron sails At
the same time, much will be left to the
commander-in-chiefo of the squadron.
Some naval authorities believe that
fha Canary islands will ha the first
point of attack and that the next move
will be to establish a naval base at
Ceuta, q, point on the African coast