Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-04-25
WITH FIGHTING FLEET.
American Squadron Located Within Five Miles
Of Havana.
PROGRAM OF ACTION NOT KNOWN



Key west, Fla. April o4.-ton board
the Associated Press dispatch boat
Dauntlcss. 1.-The Associated Press
dispatch boat Dauntless arrived in
this harbor yesterday before midnight,
having In tow the first calling vessel
prize OF the campaign, the schooner
Mathilde OF Havana, sixty tons,
loaded with rum.
When the Dauntless left the main
fleet under Rear Admiral Sampson. at
B;15 o'clock on Friday afternoon, what
seemed thorough blockade of Ha-
vana had been successfully established.
The fleet ranged from eight to ten miles
from shore, along which they are eX-
tended to fully twenty miles, In the
following order. running from west to
east: Mayflower, Iowa, Newport. De-
troit, Marblehead. Indiana. New York,
Wilmington, with the torpedo boat
Porter attending the flagship.
Moro castle and the city of Havana
are in good view from the nagshlp
with glasses. but the coast, as is al
ways the case, is covered with haze.
No news OF what is occurring in the
blockaded city has been obtained, and
the newspaper men are equally in
doubt as to the intentions OF Rear
Admiral Sampson and the United
Suites government.
owing to her late arrival on the pre-
vious night, and with delays on the.
following days, the Associated Press
dispatch boat Dauntless was the last
boat of the naval and newspaper fleets
to leave Key West on Friday morning.
She sailed at 1858 IA. m.
AT Ii o'clock the Dauntless passed
the cruiser Wilmington at the rear
of the long strung-out Inns, with Its
torpedo boat nankers. Until noon
there were more or less excited brushes
with one or the other of the newspaper
boats.
At 1890 p. nj. the order was given to
slow down. the Dauntless then being
TO the eastward and abeam of the flag
ship New York and ahead of the long
line of newspaper tugs and yachts.
with the flagship New York after
the hills of Cuba had been sighted and
she had started OF at a twenty knot
clip to capture the Spanish steamer
Pedro. the Dauntless veered and
followed. and was in at the death.
Those on the Dauntless saw the first
hostile shot fired, and as the flagship
swung around for her chase after what
proved to be a German trading steam.
er, they gave the New York the first
cheer. But all these things were seen
by IL lot of correspondents, wet from
head to foot with spray by the barrel
fuls thrown constantly higher than the
pilot house, while to move about one
required the use of legs, hands and
feet, but the game was worth the
candle. This Is war or very fair
imitation OF 1t. while the expectancy
Of greater things added to the Gttrac
tiveness on the situation.
After night OF rolling on the rough
heavy sea. to get under wny In the
morning, the better to see the Iowa
and the Indiana in fighting trim
start seaward, and better still, to fol-
low the New York as she raced east
ward to intercept what proved to he
the Italian man-of-war Giovanni
Basan, from which vessel Rear-Ad-
miral Sampson received his first rear
admlral's salute from a foreign war;
ship. came the stirring incident OF the
Mathilde, followed by the determine
ton TO return to Key West with dis
patches.
The Associated Press dispatch boat
Dauntless was asked through the
megaphone to tow the Spanish prize to
Key West; 1t was fitting end to the
day. It was an example OF the grim
irony of fate which gave to the famous
ex-filibuster the first opportunity to
tow Spanish prize to the United
States. for which the thanks of Capt
Chadwick were received.
As the Dauntless passed under the
ite OF the NEW 1uTk, sUt received the
heartiest of cheers from the blue jack
cts, while the officers clapped their
hands, the megaphone roared some en-
couraging words. and Admiral Samp-
son lifted his cap In answer to the sa-
Lutte of the correspondents.
The sea picture there presented was
worth remembering. The big hull of
the New York, like a steel-gray gran
lite bluff, but more deadly looking, the
long black hun of the Porter. with her
threatening lool1ing torpedo tubes.
over which the spray dashed violently.
the saucy Dauntless, with forestry sail
and malnsail set. her smokestack
belching forth thick smoke, the snaky
hawser leading TO where the schooner,
heavy laden, was rolling with her
scuppers under her crew busy getting
up her foresail. mainsail and jlb. her
Spanish crew working away under the
orders of an American officer, side by
side with Uncle Sans tars, all around
rolling seas topped by white horses and
over all the fieshening gale, This pic
ture had for a background pale haze
beyond which We're the mountains OF
Cuba. and in the middle distance SAT-
fron-llned Havana with speck of yell
low, striped with red. floating from
Moro castle.
How long will that standard stay
there? This was the thought which
entered every mind as the hawser
frightened and the Mathilde, follow
ing the Dauntless, was rushed through
the water toward Key West. The pas
sage was rough one, of course. but 1t
was no worse than usual, and without
any special event to chronicle.
To the flagship New York belongs
the honor Of firing the first shot that
announced the intention of the United
States to establish n blockade of the
port of Havana The scene OF this
opening event OF what may prove to
be prolonged hostilities between the
governments Of the United States and
Spain was Just Off the coast of Cuba.
at a point about ten miles east of
Moro castle. The shot was fired across
the bows Of the Spanish steamer Pc
dro of Bilboa, outward bound from
Havana, She hove too Immediately.
and in the course OF an hour q prize
crew from the flagship was n charge
OF her and she was on Se- way 20 Key
West
The capture Of tire Pedro occurred
at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon. An
hour before, the fleet, with the May
flower and the torpedo boats, was pro-
ceeding at n nlne-knot speed from Key
West to the Cuban coast
While this was transporting, the out
lines of another steamer We're seen sew
eral miles to the westward. Dusk was
gathering and n was Impossible at
that distance to distinguish her nntion-
atty; but the New York put out for
her as soon as she had cast loose the
Whale-hOat containing tha nrl1a cpau,