The National tribune., 1903-05-21
THE AMERICAN
SPANISH WAR.
PASSING TO THE WESTWARD
Continued from first page.l

| PASSING TO THE WESTWARD
| from Santiago toward Cienfuegos, we
| come to no ports or harbors until We
| reach Manzanllo, which is in the upper
part of deep gulf in the southern side
of the island. At the period of which We
speak, this port and the other towns in the
same gulf were for the first time begin
ming to be watched by occasional vessels,
| and this soon developed into a regular
blockade. eliminating in the attack upon
Manzanillo of n division of small ships un-
der Commander Todd and the complete
destruction of all the enemy's armed ves-
sells in the port. From Manzanilio west
ward along the southern shore there ex
tended to Trinidad, which is to the east
ward of Cienfuesos, a line of reefs and
keys separated by a considerable interval
from the coast, the area thus included be-
ing occupied by keys and devious channels
making navigation for n stranger impOssi-
BILE. Had the war continued long, this
stretch of coast would probably have been
the resort of blockade runners from
Jamaica, but it would not in any case have
had great effect upon the final result Of the
war, for the goods once landed could not
have been transported in any large quanti-
ties or in any reasonable time to points of
Spanish influence in the island.
DESTRUCTION OF THE sANTO DOMINGO.
No blockade, as has been said, is per-
feet and there were one or two occasions
in which vessels were successful in break
ing through our lines off the Cuban ports.
But these exceptions were rare. Vessels
above the size of fishing craft, as a rule,
failed completely to get in or out of block
AIDED ports. There was very little effort
made by vessels in Cuban harbors to come
ont. while on the contrary considerable eff
fort was made by Spanish and other YES
sells to carry valuable cargoes to the is
land. In this respect the reports of our
smaller armed vessels on the blockade
form mass of evidence of great interest.
The running ashore of the fire steamer
Santo Domingo, with her rich cargo. by
the Eagle near the Isle of Pines on the
southern coast of Cuba, and her subse-
quent burning by Lieut.. Southerland,
commanding the Eagle, is an example of
these incidents, and there are many SINH
lar cases. The rigid chara cter of the block
ade can he best understood by q succession
of reports made by certain vessels block
aiding different ports of Cuba. These tax
en- together show that the same blockade
runner tried successfully several ports,
and at each one was chased off until at
the last -One she was run ashore and de-
stroyed. The incident is sufficiently typi-
cal to justify brief extracts from the re-
ports of the vessels concerned. We will
ny stdlillS tHil CleliueSOS. WueEe
the blockade runner first made her at
tempt, is near the central part of the
southern coast of Cuba. Her second at
tempt was at or near the Isle of Pines at
distance of about $50 miles. The third
scene of her efforts was at Marie1, on the
north coast, and it was here that she was
caught and destroyed.
gu. s. S. Yankton,
"Oh CicnfuegOs, July 3, 1898.
Sir: l have the honor to report that
on July 2, about $3.50 p. m., sighted a
smoke bearing south-southwest and gave
chase. At p. m. the steamer, which up
to this time had been heading for Cienfue-
gOs, turned at first to the eastward and
then to the southwark and westward, and
steamed away from us. l was able plain
ly to see that she had four masts and two
smOkestacks between the second and third
masts. The two forward masts seemed to
have heavy cross-trees. l chased her for
two hours, but she evidently was making
about 10 knots, while we were making
only u. AS there was no possibility of
our Overhauling her, turned back and re-
ported the occurrence to the commanding
officer of the Detroit.
'The vessel answers to the description.
furnished me by Commander Dayton, of
the Spanish auxiliary cruiser Alfonso XII.
but, l am at a loss to understand why, if
this were the case, she did not show fight,
unless she mistoOk us for a heavily-armed
gunboat.
Every respectfully,
-. D. ADAMS,
"Lieut. Commander, U. s. N, Command
ing.
"The Commander-in-Ch Chief of q. S. Naval
Force, North Atlantic Station"