CHAPTER XVI

AUXILIARIES AND NAVAL MILITIA

THE SPOOK FLEET AND ITS EFFECT ON THE MOVEMENT OF THE ARMY-LANDING AT BAIQUIRI-KILLED BY A SHELL ON THE TEXAS-TWO GOOD FIGHTS AGAINST ODDS OFF SAN JUAN DE PORTO RICO-THE ST. PAUL AND THE YOSEMITE WITH THEIR UNTRAINED CREWS WERE A CREDIT TO THE NAVAL OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF THEM-FIRST AMERICAN FLAG RAISED OVER CUBAN SOIL-GOOD WORK ALONGSHORE.

ON June 20th came the army under General Shafter to land near Santiago, and, by capturing that city, compel the surrender or destruction of the Spanish squadron in the harbor. The naval opportunity of destroying the squadron as they lay in the mouth of the harbor in sight of the sea had been lost. The narrow and tortuous channel (remember it was but three hundred and fifty feet wide) had been filled with mines. The land works guarding the channel had been strengthened by landing guns from Cervera's ships. A dash into the harbor was now absolutely out of the question. But the army had been preparing for an invasion for weeks. The President's call for volunteers

had produced the cheering spectacle of thousands of men crowding each other in their anxiety to enlist-thousands more than were needed. Many of these, with regulars to show them the way, had been gathered at Port Tampa, Florida, with a fleet of transports to carry them.

The

An army of 10,000 men was ready to embark by the 6th of June--one ship-load did embark in fact, but was recalled-when a curious thing happened. What has come to be known as the "Spook Fleet" was sighted by Captain W. H. H. Southerland of the auxiliary cruiser Eagle, in the Bahama Channel on the north coast of Cuba. At 9 o'clock at night, on June 7th, the Eagle's lookout reported a light and five minutes later another was seen. Eagle went in chase and in a little time saw a squadron of four vessels. The Eagle was within a mile of these four vessels, for a half hour, but none of them answered her night signals. The Eagle then hastened to Key West and reported the facts. Shortly after her arrival the Resolute, Captain J. G. Eaton, came in and reported what were apparently the same four ships in the same locality, and on the same night.

These reports stopped the embarkation of the 10,000 men at Tampa. The New Orleans and three other vessels were on that night en route to Santiago, but the fact that two of

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our ships failed to get responses to their signals was deemed good proof that the ships seen were Spaniards watching for our transports. The Spaniards had had the cruisers Isabel II., and the Alfonso XIII., the destroyer Terror and a number of gun-boats at San Juan de Porto Rico. It was entirely possible that these should have gone out to look for our transports. Anyway, the sailing of the army was delayed until the 14th, when 16,887 men got away, instead of 10,000, and the event showed that every man who went was needed. But the identity of the four ships, called spooks, remains unsolved at this writing. That four real ships were seen is, of course, not doubted. The two crews could not have been mistaken. As it was easy enough for lookouts to miss seeing the signals of the Eagle and the Resolute, it is probable that the ships seen were the New Orleans and her consorts.

On the arrival of the army off Santiago it was determined to make the landing at Baiquiri, a little port seventeen miles east of Santiago, where there was an iron pier, formerly used by an American firm for the shipment of iron ore obtained from a mine back in the country. There was also a beach fit for small boats in calm weather and a railway ran parallel with the beach to the vicinity of the Santiago Morro.