There are many other gallant navy men of whom the public has not heard,
but two more will suffice. Within a week after the declaration of war two
young ensigns, Ward and Buck, the former in the Bureau of Navigation and
the latter at the Naval Academy, disappeared from the face of the earth.
So completely did they destroy all traces of themselves that for all the
Bureau of Navigation or their relatives seemed to know they might have
ceased to exist.
Speculation was rife concerning them, but nothing could be learned of
their duties, the impression being, even among Navy Department officials,
that they were installing a system of coast-signals in New England.
Ward, it appears, disguised himself as an Englishman, and went straight
into the heart of the enemy’s country, making his headquarters at Cadiz,
the principal Spanish naval station, and from there sending the Navy
Department continuous and accurate reports of the fighting strength and
actual movements of the Spanish fleet.
He was under suspicion, but watched his time, and succeeded in getting
away to Porto Rico. There he was arrested as a suspicious character and
spy. He managed, it is supposed through the British representatives, to
obtain his release, and, escaping from San Juan, cabled the department a
full account of the state of defences there and the movements of Cervera’s
fleet. While Ward was in Porto Rico, Buck was following Camara’s fleet
in the Mediterranean, keeping watch on its movements, and sending daily
reports of its condition, armament, and plans.
We do not know what is in the hearts of men. We do not know whether the
men who did the creditable things during the war did them in spite of
themselves, or whether in the glory of action and adventure they took
their lives into their hands gladly, fearlessly, for their country. We do
know that there were hundreds ready and willing to court danger and death
for a useful end who for lack of opportunity could not.