frenzy of rage, the Americans made and maintained the attack with deliberate and relentless determination. The difference is in the blood, and the hope of the world lies in the racial distinction that was there manifested. CHAPTER XI SAMPSON'S FIRST SEARCH FOR CERVERA A SQUADRON WITH THE SPEED OF A TON-OF-COAL BARGES SENT IN A CHASE OF TWENTY-KNOT SPANISH CRUISERS--THE BOM- THE important business that had called Admiral Sampson to Key West, as mentioned in a preceding chapter, was nothing less than a search for the mystifying Spanish squadron that had been lying at the Cape Verde Islands for some time before the war actually began. Not only was it a mysterious squadron in its movements; to a large part of our alongshore population it was positively fearsome. And there was good reason, when the makeup of the squadron only is considered, for vigilance if not for alarm in our more weakly fortified harbors. The Spanish Admiral had at command three sister ships of a displacement each of 7,000 tons, each protected by a twelveinch armor belt, besides a three-inch protective deck, and each armed with two eleven-inch guns, ten 5.5-inch guns, and the usual bristling host called the secondary battery. They were named the Almirante Oquendo, the Infanta Maria Teresa, and the Vizcaya. To them was added the Cristobal Colon of about the same size, that was supposed to carry two teninch guns, ten six-inch, and six 4.7-inch. She did not have the ten-inch guns on board when the fight came, but her other guns were all of the quick-fire variety (as were the broadside guns of the other ships) and they made a most formidable battery. Moreover, every one of these ships was rated at twenty knots per hour. To aid these formidable cruisers there were supposed to be four of the latest style of torpedo-boat destroyers, each with a speed of thirty knots, and each carrying twelve-pounder rapid-fire guns; and while yet they were at Cape Verde there were also several ordinary good torpedo-boats. On April 29th this squadron sailed for American waters and our Government learned the fact. Where they would make a landfall was a question, for the whole United States coast was in a way open to attack. Nevertheless, the ever-important matter of coal and water would have to be considered by Admiral Cervera, and our strategists could guess that when the Spaniards reached this side these two sup plies would have to be obtained, and that a Spanish port would therefore be sought. On the whole, it was believed that San Juan on the north coast of Porto Rico would be the rendezvous of the Spaniards, and that they would arrive there soon after May 1st. On this theory Admiral Sampson was ordered to take the best of his ships and go to San Juan to intercept the Spaniards before they got into port, if possible; if not, then he was to Deweyize them as they lay behind the Morro Castle, that guarded the entrance to the bay. At 7.30 o'clock on the night of May 4th the flag-ship New York, the battle-ships Iowa and Indiana, the monitors Amphitrite and Terror, the cruisers Detroit and Montgomery, the torpedo-boat Porter, the armed-tug Wompatuck, and the transport Niagara, gathered off Cardenas on the north coast of Cuba, bound for San Juan de Porto Rico. When the purpose in view is considered, the composition of this squadron was most remarkable-in fact it was absurd. This is not to criticise the Admiral; he had to take what the nation had provided and the Navy Department would let him have. We had, indeed, the battle-ships Massachusetts and Texas in commission, but at the behest of such people as those New Yorkers who moved their silver ware to their country residences lest the Spaniards come and loot it, the Department had sent those two brave fighters to Hampton Roads for a coast-guard under the title of "Flying Squadron." So Sampson had need to be content with the Amphitrite and Terror instead. With eight-knot monitors he was to go in search of four heavily armed and well-armored cruisers, having a speed of twenty knots per hour. True, he had the New York of twenty-one knots, and two battle-ships equal to fifteen and seventeen knots, but neither of these, of course, could be permitted to run faster than the eight-knot monitors. An eight-knot squadron was going in chase of a squadron of twenty knots! And Cervera was actually coming with three destroyers, while Sampson had the one torpedo-boat only. Well, the seventeen-knot Iowa took the Amphitrite in tow, and the twenty-one-knot New York took the Terror in tow, and Sunday morning, the 8th, found the squadron off Cape Haytien, Hayti. Here, most fortunately, a dead calm prevailed, and the monitors were able to lie alongside the Niagara, and together refill their coal-bunkers, while the Porter lay outside of one of the monitors, and filled hers across the monitor's deck. The coaling was completed on Monday, May |