Part 21 (1/2)
Then there were theories started to account for his disappearance. It was suggested that he had altered his course and gone to the coast of South America, to intercept the battles.h.i.+p ”Oregon,” which had come round from the Pacific to reinforce Sampson's fleet; or perhaps he was making for the Cape or the Horn, bound on a long voyage for Manila, to destroy Dewey's unarmoured cruisers and restore Spanish supremacy in the Philippines; or he was ranging the oceans to prey upon American commerce.
Then came a strange report, worth remembering as a caution against too easily accepting the rumours of wartime. From Cadiz came American Press dispatches, duly pa.s.sed by the Spanish censor, stating that Cervera's squadron had steamed back into that port. The start westward from St.
Vincent was said to be a mere feint. The Spaniards had hoped to draw some of the swifter American s.h.i.+ps out into the Atlantic, and score a victory by fighting them in European waters. Naval experts gravely discussed Cervera's tactics. Correspondents described the position of his fleet in Cadiz harbour. Perhaps the Spanish censor helped the misleading rumours into circulation by letting Americans at Cadiz imagine that s.h.i.+ps fitting out in the harbour were the missing fleet.
At last, on 12 May, came definite news of one unit of the squadron. The night before the destroyer ”Furor” had paid a flying visit in the dark to the French port of St. Pierre, in Martinique, probably calling for cabled information and orders. On the 12th the ”Terror” visited the same port in broad daylight. That evening, from the hills of Martinique, four large cruisers were seen far out at sea, steering northwards, under easy steam.
The cable from Martinique by St. Lucia to the States was out of order, and it was not till the 15th that Admiral Sampson received the news. Several of his heavy s.h.i.+ps were coaling at Key West. He hurried on the work, and sent his lighter s.h.i.+ps to watch the Windward and Mona Pa.s.sages. He sent off Schley with the Flying Squadron to the south of Cuba, with orders to sweep the island-fringed Caribbean sea and watch the Yucatan Channel with his cruisers. As soon as he had completed coaling he himself sailed for the waters north of Cuba.
Once more there was for a while no news of Cervera. After dark on 12 May he had altered his northern course and steered a little south of west, making for the Dutch island of Curacao, where he expected to find some tramp steamers laden with coal and other supplies awaiting him. On Sat.u.r.day, 14 May, the ”Maria Teresa” and the ”Vizcaya” entered the port, the two other cruisers, accompanied by two destroyers, remaining outside. The expected colliers had not arrived; the Dutch authorities insisted on Cervera leaving Curacao within twenty-four hours, and he sailed on the Sunday without being able to fill up his bunkers. Once more the United States cruisers failed to sight him, as he steamed slowly across the Caribbean Sea, husbanding his coal and steering for Cuba.
On Wednesday, 18 May, three American wars.h.i.+ps were off Santiago de Cuba.
They came so close in that the Morro battery at the entrance fired upon them. Before sundown they steamed away. They had missed Cervera by a few hours, for at sunrise next morning he brought his four cruisers and two destroyers into Santiago harbour.
Santiago is the oldest Spanish city in Cuba, and was its capital in the early days before Havana was founded.
The old city stands at the head of a landlocked arm of the sea, surrounded by forest-clad hills, and approached through narrow ravine-like straits.
Cervera had come there to obtain coal and supplies. If he had made it only a temporary base, and had been able to coal immediately, and put to sea to attack the American cruisers scattered over the Caribbean waters, he might have scored successes for a while. But he waited at Santiago till he was hopelessly blockaded.
For some days the Was.h.i.+ngton Government, mindful of the Cadiz hoax, refused to believe reports that the Spanish fleet was hidden behind the headlands of Santiago harbour. It was not till 27 May that Admiral Schley obtained definite proof of the fact, and formed the blockade of Santiago with his squadron. Admiral Sampson then brought his fleet round, and took over the command.
Until he reached Santiago Cervera had shown no lack of energy, but now he was strangely devoid of enterprise. He allowed an American armed liner to capture, off the port, a steamer that was bringing him 3000 tons of much-needed coal, though he might have saved her by sending one of his cruisers outside the headlands. He allowed an inferior force to blockade the entrance for some days, without bringing out his cruisers by day to engage them, or sending out his destroyers by night to torpedo them. He waited until there was an overwhelming force a.s.sembled off the harbour.
Then came a month of deadlock. He was blockaded by a vastly superior force that watched the narrow pa.s.s through which, if he left the harbour, his fleet must come out one by one. But so long as he was within the headlands he was una.s.sailable.
Admiral Sampson declined to risk his s.h.i.+ps in an attempt to force the narrow entrance and destroy the Spanish squadron inside. An attempt to ”bottle up” Cervera, by sinking a tramp steamer, the ”Merrimac,” in the entrance, proved a failure. Long-ranging bombardments produced no effect on the Spaniards. All the plans formed at Was.h.i.+ngton for the Cuban campaign were disorganized. The blockade of the island had become the blockade of the one port of Santiago. If the United States Government had known how short of supplies were the city and garrison of Santiago and Cervera's fleet, it might have trusted to the blockade by sea and the operations of the insurgents by land, with the help of a few regulars, to force the Spanish admiral either to surrender or come out and fight. But it was decided to abandon for the present the projected attack on Havana, and send the army, collected for this purpose at Tampa, to attack Santiago by land, and so deprive Cervera of his refuge in the harbour.
Santiago was defended by lines of entrenchments with some improvised outworks, and garrisoned by a division under General Linares. The American transports from Tampa began to arrive on 20 June, and the expeditionary force, under General Shafter, was disembarked during the following days some miles east of the city. There was then an advance over mere forest tracks through hilly country covered with dense bush. Cervera landed seamen gunners with machine-guns and light quick-firers to strengthen the defence, and anch.o.r.ed one of his cruisers so that her heavy artillery could enfilade an attack on the entrenchments nearest the harbour.
On 1 July Shafter made his attack. The Spaniards defended themselves with such obstinate energy that after fighting through a long summer day only two outposts had been taken by the Americans, and at the cost of heavy loss. Next day there was desultory fighting along the front, but no progress. It was difficult to bring up supplies along the forest tracks, now sodden with tropical rains. Sickness had broken out in the American lines. The resistance of the Spaniards showed a dogged determination that was a surprise to the invaders.
Shafter himself was ill. Late on Sat.u.r.day, 2 July, he appealed to Admiral Sampson to help him by forcing the narrows at all costs, and in the early hours of Sunday, the 3rd, he sent off to his Government a dispatch which was a confession of failure.
This discouraging report was cabled to Was.h.i.+ngton early on the Sunday morning, and caused deep dismay at the White House, but before evening news arrived of events that had changed the whole situation.
The evening before (2 July) Mr. Ramsden, the British Consul at Santiago, had written in his diary:--
”It seems incredible that the Americans with their large force have not yet taken the place. The defence of the Spaniards has been really heroic, the more so when you consider that they are half-starved and sick. It was affirmed to-day that the squadron would leave this evening, but they have not done so, though the pilots are on board. I will believe it when I see them get out, and I wish they would. If they do, they will fare badly outside.”
During the Sat.u.r.day Cervera had re-embarked the seamen landed for the defence of the city, and had got up steam. He was going out because the presence of his crews now only added to the difficulty of feeding the half-starved garrison and population of the place. He had a short supply of inferior coal, and the most he hoped for was that some of his s.h.i.+ps would elude, or fight their way past, the blockading squadron, and reach Havana.
It is impossible to understand why, having decided to go out, he did not make the attempt in the darkness of Sat.u.r.day night, instead of waiting for broad daylight next day.
In one respect he was fortunate. His coming out was a complete surprise for the Americans, and found them quite unprepared, with some of their best s.h.i.+ps far from the scene of action. Admiral Sampson had steamed off to the eastward in his flags.h.i.+p, the ”New York,” intending to land at Siboney for his interview with General Shafter. The battles.h.i.+p ”Ma.s.sachusetts” had gone with two of the lighter cruisers to coal at Guantanamo. But there were quite enough s.h.i.+ps left off the seaward opening of the narrows, where four battles.h.i.+ps, an armoured cruiser, and two light craft were keeping up the blockade.
It was a bright summer day, with a light wind and a smooth sea. Due south of the harbour entrance, and about 5 1/2 miles from it, lay the battles.h.i.+p ”Iowa.” To the east of her lay the ”Oregon,” with the ”Indiana” between her and the land, and about two miles nearer in, west of the ”Iowa,” was the battles.h.i.+p ”Texas,” with the armoured cruiser ”Brooklyn,” Commodore Schley's flags.h.i.+p, lying between her and the land, and still nearer in the small armed revenue cruiser ”Vixen,” lying about three miles south-west of Morro Castle. On the other side of the entrance, close in to the land, was a small armed steamer, the ”Gloucester.” She had been purchased by the Navy Department on the outbreak of the war from Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the banker, and renamed. Before this she had been known as the steam yacht ”Gloucester.” She was commanded by one of the best officers of the United States Navy, Captain Wainwright, who had been second in command of the ”Maine” when she was blown up in Havana harbour. Wainwright was to show this day that even an armed steam yacht may do good service in a modern naval action. All the s.h.i.+ps except the ”Oregon” and the little ”Gloucester”
had let their fires burn low, and had hardly any steam pressure on their boilers. At half-past nine the order was given for the crews to fall in for general inspection. A few minutes later an apprentice on board the ”Iowa”
called attention to a ma.s.s of black smoke rising over the headlands of the harbour mouth. And then between the cliffs of Morro and Socapa Points appeared the bows of Cervera's flags.h.i.+p. An alarm gun rang out from the ”Iowa,” the signal, ”Enemy escaping--clear for action,” fluttered out from the halyards of the ”Brooklyn,” and on every s.h.i.+p the bugles sounded, the men rushed to their battle stations, and the stokers worked madly to get steam on the boilers.
Admiral Cervera, guided by a local pilot, Miguel Lopez, had led his fleet down the harbour, the ”Maria Teresa” being followed in succession by the cruisers ”Vizcaya,” ”Cristobal Colon,” and ”Oquendo,” and the destroyers ”Pluton” and ”Furor.” As the flags.h.i.+p entered the ravine of the narrows Cervera signalled to his captains, ”I wish you a speedy victory!” Miguel Lopez, who was with him in the conning-tower, remarked that the admiral gave his orders very deliberately, and showed no sign of anxiety or excitement. He had asked Lopez to tell him how soon he could turn to the westward. On a sign from the pilot, he gave the order, ”Starboard!” to the helmsman, put the engine-room indicator to ”Full speed,” and told his captain to open fire. As the guns roared out Cervera turned with a smile to Lopez and said, ”You have done your part well, pilot; I hope you will come out of this safe and be well rewarded. You have deserved it.”
The cruisers had run out with an interval of about 600 yards between the s.h.i.+ps. There was a longer gap between the last of them and the destroyers, but the ”Furor” was out within a quarter of an hour of the ”Maria Teresa's”
appearance between the headlands. That quarter of an hour had been a busy time for the Americans. The ”Brooklyn” and the four battles.h.i.+ps had at once headed for the opening of the harbour, the ”Oregon” making the best speed till the steam pressure rose on the boilers of her consorts. They were no sooner moving than they opened fire with their forward guns, the Spanish cruisers and the batteries of Socapa and Morro replying with shots, every one of which fell short.