FIRST GUNS AND FIRST PRIZES OF THE WAR.
Capture of the LaFayette--The Government Orders Her Release--
Towing Prizes Into Key West--The Spanish Set a Trap--The Vicksburg
and the Morrill Take the Bait--The Spanish Gunners Poor Marksmen--
Another Narrow Escape.
Shortly after the proclamation of the blockade of Cuban ports a
capture was made which threatened international complications. The
French mail steamer LaFayette was held up almost under the guns of
Morro Castle.
The Annapolis hailed her in the harbor offing and receiving no
answer but a show of the French tricolor plumped a six-pounder
across her bows and brought her up standing.
PRAYERS AND TEARS IN STATEROOMS.
Of the 161 cabin passengers on the steamer eighty were women and
children. They locked themselves in the staterooms when the
warning shot was fired and the Annapolis and Wilmington
approached, and gave themselves up to prayers and tears.
Most of the passengers were Spaniards or Cubans, and there were a
few Mexicans. Nearly all were bound for Havana.
The steamer was filled to the hatches with medicines, provisions,
wines and cotton goods consigned to merchants in Havana and Vera
Cruz, Mexico. It is estimated that the value of the ship's cargo
was nearly $500,000. Her net tonnage is 4,000 tons. She hails from
Santander, France, and cleared from Corunna, Spain, April 23, two
days after the President issued the blockade proclamation,
although Captain Lechapelane declared he was not notified.
As soon as official notice of her capture reached Washington
telegrams were sent ordering immediate release.
The explanation for this action on the part of the administration
is given in the statement which follows and which was issued from
the White House:
"The LaFayette was released in pursuance of orders which were
issued by the Navy Department previous to her seizure, but which
had not been received by the commanding officers of the vessels
that made the capture. The facts are that on April 29 the French
Embassy made an informal inquiry as to whether the LaFayette,
which left Saint Nazaire, France, for Vera Cruz, by way of Havana,
before war was declared or information of the blockade was
received, would be allowed to land at Havana certain passengers,
her mail bags and the dispatch bag of the Consulate-General of
France and take some French passengers on board. An assurance was
given that, if this privilege should be granted, the steamer would
be forbidden by the French Consul to land goods.
"The matter was duly considered and it was decided that, without
regard to the strict law of blockade and as an act of courtesy,
the request of the French Government should be acceded to. Orders
were accordingly sent on the 2d of May. When information was
received of the capture of the steamer and of her having been
brought to Key West, these orders were communicated to the
captors, with instructions to release the steamer and see that the
orders were duly delivered, so that they might be carried into
effect. No demand was made, either by or on behalf of the French
Government, directly or indirectly, for the steamer's release. The
Wilmington will escort the LaFayette to Havana to-night."
On May 8th the British tramp steamer Strathdee, Captain Currie,
attempted to run the blockade, but was overhauled by the gunboat
Machias. The Captain of the Strathdee claimed that the vessel was
loaded with sugar and that he had on board a number of Spanish
refugees from Sagua la Grande. He also said that the steamer was
bound for Matanzas, where it was desired to disembark some of the
refugees. The commander of the Machias was skeptical of the story,
however, and warned the Captain of the Strathdee that if he
attempted to take the vessel into Matanzas she would be fired on,
whereupon the Strathdee put about and steamed away in the
direction of New York.
THREE SMALL PRIZES TOWED INTO KEY WEST.
Three prizes were brought in May 9th. They were the brigantine
Lorenzo, taken by the Montgomery near Havana, on Friday, while
bound for Rio de la Plata with a cargo of dried beef.
The Espana, a little fishing sloop, was taken by the Morrill about
three miles off Mariel just after a sharp engagement. The Newport
was close at hand at the time, and a prize crew made up from both
ships brought the capture in.
The third vessel taken was the schooner Padre de Dios, Master
Mateo Herrera, laden with fish. It was taken by the Newport off
Mariel, and was brought in by a petty officer and a prize crew.
All three accepted one blank shot apiece as sufficient.
MAKING HER PRIZE WORK AS TOWBOAT.
One captive was seen taking another to port on the morning of May
9th. Both are prizes of the gunboat Newport, and were captured
between Mariel and Havana.
It was about sunrise, just after an inexplicable shot had been fired
from a Havana battery, that a dispatch boat off Morro Castle sighted the
Newport with a big Norwegian tramp steamer, the Bratsberg, following
obediently. Suddenly the Newport's stack blew clouds of black smoke,
and, looking for the cause, a pretty two-masted schooner was seen, her
sails wing and wing, flying from the northwest for Havana.
A blank shot sounded over the waters. The schooner stood no
chance, but she kept her course until a solid six-pounder from the
Newport skimmed across to her, and dropped ahead of the bowsprit.
Then she dropped her jib and came about quickly, sailing toward
the warship, as one has seen a dog run to his master at the snap
of a lash. She was the Fernandito, avaricious of the bounty
Captain-General Blanco offered for fish delivered to hungry
Havana. A line was put aboard her, and the Bratsberg was compelled
to take the other end and go to Key West.
The Spanish set a trap one day during the blockade. The wily
Spaniards arranged a trap to send a couple of our ships to the
bottom. A small schooner was sent out from Havana harbor to draw
some of the Americans into the ambuscade. The ruse worked like a
charm. The Vicksburg and the Morrill, in the heat of the chase and
in their contempt for Spanish gunnery, walked straight into the
trap that had been set for them. Had the Spaniards possessed their
souls in patience but five minutes longer, not even their bad gun
practice would have saved our ships, and two more of our vessels
would lie at the bottom within two lengths of the wreck of the
ill-starred Maine.
Friday evening the Vicksburg and the Morrill, cruising to the west
of Morro Castle, were fired on by the big guns of the Cojimar
batteries. Two shots were fired at the Vicksburg and one at the
Morrill. Both fell short, and both vessels, without returning the
fire, steamed out of range. It would have been folly to have done
otherwise. But this time the Spaniards had better luck. The
schooner they had sent out before daylight ran off to the
eastward, hugging the shore, with the wind on her starboard
quarter. About three miles east of the entrance to the harbor she
came over on the port tack. A light haze fringed the horizon and
she was not discovered until three miles off shore, when the
Mayflower made her out and signaled the Morrill and Vicksburg.
THEY TAKE THE BAIT.
Captain Smith, of the Morrill, and Commander Lilly, of the Vicksburg,
immediately slapped on all steam and started in pursuit. The schooner
instantly put about and ran for Morro Castle before the wind. By doing
so she would, according to the well-conceived Spanish plot, lead the two
American warships directly under the guns of the Santa Clara batteries.
These works are a short mile west of Morro, and are a part of the
defenses of the harbor. There are two batteries, one at the shore, which
has been recently thrown up, of sand and mortar, with wide embrasures
for eight-inch guns, and the other on the crest of the rocky eminence
which juts out into the water of the gulf at the point.
The upper battery mounts modern 10-inch and 12-inch Krupp guns
behind a six-foot stone parapet, in front of which are twenty feet
of earthwork and a belting of railroad iron. This battery is
considered the most formidable of Havana's defenses except Morro
Castle. It is masked and has not been absolutely located by the
American warships. It is probably due to the fact that the Spanish
did not desire to expose its position that the Vicksburg and
Morrill are now afloat.
The Morrill and Vicksburg were about six miles from the schooner
when the chase began. They steamed after her at full speed, the
Morrill leading until within a mile and a half of the Santa Clara
batteries. Commander Smith, of the Vicksburg, was the first to
realize the danger into which the reckless pursuit had led them.
He concluded it was time to haul off and sent a shot across the
bow of the schooner.
NEARLY HIT BY SHRAPNEL SHELLS.
The Spanish skipper instantly brought his vessel about, but while
she was still rolling in the trough of the sea, with her sails
flapping, an 8-inch shrapnel shell came hurtling through the air
from the water battery, a mile and a half away. It passed over the
Morrill between the pilothouse and the smokestack and exploded
less than fifty feet on the port quarter. The small shot rattled
against her side. It was a close call.
Two more shots followed in quick succession, both shrapnel. One
burst close under the starboard quarter, filling the engine room
with the smoke of the explosion of the shell, and the other, like
the first, passed over and exploded just beyond.
The Spanish gunners had the range and their time fuses were
accurately set. The crews of both ships were at their guns.
Lieutenant Craig, who was in charge of the bow 4-inch rapid-fire
gun of the Morrill, asked for and obtained permission to return
the fire. At the first shot the Vicksburg, which was in the wake
of the Morrill, slightly in-shore, sheered off and passed to
windward under the Morrill's stern.
ANOTHER NARROW ESCAPE.
In the meantime, Captain Smith also put his helm to port, and was
none too soon, for as the Morrill stood off a solid 8-inch shot
grazed her starboard quarter and kicked up tons of water as it
struck a wave 100 yards beyond. Captain Smith said afterward that
this was undoubtedly an 8-inch armor piercing projectile, and that
it would have passed through the Morrill's boilers had he not
changed his course in the nick of time.
All the guns of the water battery were now at work. One of them
cut the Jacob's ladder of the Vicksburg adrift, and another
carried away a portion of the rigging. As the Morrill and the
Vicksburg steamed away their aft guns were used, but only a few
shots were fired. The Morrill's 6-inch gun was elevated for 4,000
yards and struck the earth-works repeatedly. The Vicksburg fired
but three shots from her 6-pounder.
The Spaniards continued to fire shot and shell for twenty minutes,
but the shots were ineffective. Some of them were so wild that
they roused the American "Jackies" to jeers. The Spaniards only
ceased firing when the Morrill and Vicksburg were completely out
of range.
If all the Spanish gunners had been suffering from strabismus
their practice could not have been worse. But the officers of both
the Morrill and Vicksburg frankly admit their own recklessness and
the narrow escape of their vessels from destruction. They are
firmly convinced that the pursuit of the schooner was a neatly
planned trick, which almost proved successful.
If any one of the shots had struck the thin skin of either vessel
it would have offered no more resistance than a piece of paper to
a rifle ball.
The accurate range of the first few shots is accounted for by the
fact that the Spanish officers had ample time to make
observations. The bearings of the two vessels were probably taken
with a range-finder at the Santa Clara battery, and, as this
battery is probably connected by wire with Morro, they were able
to take bearings from both points, and by laborious calculations
they fixed the positions of the vessels pretty accurately. With
such opportunity for observation it would have been no great trick
for an American gunner to drop a shell down the smokestack of a
vessel.
As soon as the ships sheered off after the first fire, the Spanish
gunners lost the range and their practice became ludicrous. If
they had waited five minutes longer before opening fire, Captain
Smith says it would have been well-nigh impossible to have missed
the target.
Prior to the invasion of Cuba by our army large stores of arms and
ammunition were sent to the insurgents. One of the most notable of
these expeditions was made by the tug Leyden, which carried 50,000
rounds of rifle cartridges and two chests of dynamite. She left
Key West with Colonel Acosta and some twenty-five other Cubans on
board, who were to join General Gomez in Santa Clara Province. The
tug reached the Cuban coast and after landing her passengers in
safety steamed to a point seventeen miles west of Havana, where
she was met by General Perico Delgado with about 100 Cubans on the
beach. The Leyden's crew began landing the ammunition, when a
small body of Spanish cavalry appeared some little distance back
from the shore, and, dismounting, began firing upon the Leyden.
Several bullets had penetrated the tug's smoke-stack, when the
boat drew off the shore some three miles, where it met the gunboat
Wilmington.
Returning under the protection of the gunboat, the Leyden again
began landing its cargo. The Spaniards soon returned, and,
ignoring a lively fusillade from Degaldo's insurgents, resumed
their attack on the Leyden. The Wilmington, which had taken up a
position further off shore, sent a three-pound shell into the
midst of the cavalry, wounding several of them and putting them to
flight. The Leyden then finished the work of landing the
ammunition, and returned to Key West.