Part 20 (2/2)

Monitors-- _Puritan_ 6,060 1883 } 12 _Terror_ 3,990 1883 }

Torpedo-boats-- _Cus.h.i.+ng_ 105 1890 22 1/2 _Ericsson_ 120 1892 23 _Rodgers_ } 142 1896 { 25 _Foote_ } { 24 1/2 _Porter_ } 185 1896 { 28 1/2 _Dupont_ } { 27 1/2 _Winslow_ 142 1897 24 1/2 (Besides gunboats and tenders.)

FLYING SQUADRON.

Armoured cruiser (flags.h.i.+p)-- _Brooklyn_ 9,153 1895 17

Battles.h.i.+ps-- _Texas_ 6,315 1892 21 _Ma.s.sachusetts_ 10,231 1893 16

Cruisers-- _Columbia_ } 7,475 { 1892 } 23 _Minneapolis_ } { 1893 }

These were the two fleets available for the blockade of Cuba, and the operations of attacking coast fortifications, covering the transportation of the army of invasion, and dealing with any naval force Spain might send to these waters.

Other units were subsequently added to the fleet after both squadrons had concentrated under Sampson's command.

In West Indian waters the Spaniards had only a few light craft and the old cruiser ”Reina Mercedes” at Santiago, with her boilers and engines in such a state that she could not go to sea. For many years the Spanish Navy had been sadly neglected, but since 1890 some armoured cruisers had been built, and a flotilla of torpedo-boat destroyers added to the navy. A number of antiquated units figured on the Navy List, including useless ”battles.h.i.+ps”

dating from the 'sixties, and small unarmoured cruisers little better than gunboats. There was one fairly modern battles.h.i.+p, the ”Pelayo,” dating from 1887, but expert opinion was very divided about her value.

When the war broke out the Spanish Pacific Squadron, under Admiral Montojo, was at Manila. To use the words of an American naval officer, it was made up of ”a number of old tubs not fit to be called wars.h.i.+ps.” It was promptly destroyed by Commodore Dewey's squadron from Hong Kong (Battle of Manila Bay, Sunday, 1 May, 1898). It was the first American victory in the war, and in the national rejoicing there was much exaggeration as to Dewey's exploit, which was compared to Nelson's victories!

On the eve of the war a Spanish fleet, officially known as the Atlantic Squadron, had been concentrated, under the command of Admiral Cervera, in the Portuguese harbour of St. Vincent, in the Cape de Verde Islands, and the local authorities somewhat strained the laws of neutrality by allowing Cervera to use the port to complete his preparations for some time after the outbreak of the war.

The composition of the squadrons was as follows:--

Displacement. Date of Speed.

Tons. Launch. Knots.

Armoured cruisers-- _Infanta Maria Teresa_ (flags.h.i.+p) } { 1891 } _Vizcaya_ } 6890 { 1891 } 20 _Almirante Oquendo_ } { 1890 } _Cristobal Colon_ 6480 1896 20

Torpedo-boat destroyers-- _Terror_ } _Furor_ } 400 1896-7 28 _Pluton_ }

Torpedo-boats-- _Azor_, _Ariete_, _Rayo_.

Auxiliary cruiser-- _Ciudad de Cadiz_ (an armed liner acting as mother-s.h.i.+p to the torpedo-boats).

The armoured cruisers were all of the same type, s.h.i.+ps with an armoured deck under water protecting the engines and magazines, a 6-inch armour belt, and an armoured barbette fore and aft, mounting a 9 1/2-inch Hontoria gun. They had a secondary armament of ten 6-inch quick-firers, besides a number of lighter guns for defence against torpedo craft, and had maxims mounted in their fighting tops. The ”Cristobal Colon,” originally built for the Italian Navy as the ”Giuseppe Garibaldi,” and purchased by Spain and renamed, had only the quick-firers, and had no guns in her barbettes. These had originally been armed with Armstrong guns. The heavy Armstrongs were taken out of her at Cadiz to be replaced by Hontorias, but these were not ready when the war came, and the ”Cristobal Colon” sailed for St. Vincent without them. The torpedo-boat destroyers were of the best and latest type of their cla.s.s, and recently built on the Clyde.

The war in the Atlantic began by Sampson's squadron leaving Key West, establis.h.i.+ng the blockade of Western Cuba, reconnoitring the sea defences of Havana, and exchanging some sh.e.l.ls with them at long range. Then, in order to satisfy popular feeling in America, Sampson bombarded the batteries of San Juan, in Puerto Rico, an operation that had no real effect on the fortunes of the war, and inflicted only trifling local loss on the Spaniards.

An army had been a.s.sembled at Tampa, in Florida, and a huge fleet of transports was collected to ferry it over to Cuba. Its destination was supposed to be the western end of the island, where, in co-operation with the insurgents by land and the fleet by sea, it would besiege and capture Havana. But again and again the sailing of the fleet was delayed, and there was alarm in the cities of the Atlantic states, because the newspapers published wild reports of phantom armadas hovering off the coast. When news came that Cervera had sailed from St. Vincent, and for many days there was no trace of his movements, there was a quite unnecessary alarm as to what the Spanish squadron might do. A wise Press censors.h.i.+p would have been very useful to the United States, but there was little or no attempt to control the wild rumours published by the newspapers.

For some days after the declaration of war (23 April) Cervera's squadron lay at St. Vincent. All the s.h.i.+ps were repainted a dead black, some coal was taken on board, and quant.i.ties of ammunition transferred from the holds of the ”Ciudad de Cadiz” to the magazines of the cruisers. At last, on 29 April, Cervera sailed, leaving the torpedo-boats and the armed liner in port, and taking with him only his high-speed s.h.i.+ps, the four armoured cruisers, and the three destroyers.

His course was westward, and it was conjectured that San Juan de Puerto Rico was his destination. The distance is about 2400 miles, and supposing that he would proceed at a cruising speed of ten knots, in order to economize his coal, it was calculated that he would be across the Atlantic in ten days, reaching the West Indies about 9 May. Two swift armed liners that had been attached to Schley's squadron were sent out to sweep the Western Atlantic, and it was expected that by the end of the first week in May they would bring back news of the enemy, but 7 May came and brought no news. s.h.i.+ps arriving in ports on both sides of the ocean told of having seen the smoke of a squadron on the horizon in so many places that it seemed as if the Atlantic must be full of fleets. Look-out stations as far north as the New England States told of glimpses of wars.h.i.+ps seen far off in the morning twilight, or vaguely distinguished through mist and rain.

But definite news of Cervera there was none. It seemed as if his squadron had vanished into s.p.a.ce.

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