THE CUBAN COAST
The course usually taken by steamers from Key West to Santiago lies
along the northern coast of Cuba, through the Nicholas and Old Bahama
channels, to Cape Maysi, and thence around the eastern end of the island
by the Windward Passage. Inasmuch, however, as we were going without a
convoy, and Commodore Remey had advised us to keep out of sight of land,
in order to avoid possible interception by a Spanish gunboat from some
unblockaded port on the coast, we decided to go around the western end
of the island, doubling Cape San Antonio, and then proceeding eastward
past the Isle of Pines to Cape Cruz and Santiago. Tuesday afternoon we
saw the high mountains in the province of Pinar del Rio looming up
faintly through the haze at a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles,
and late that same evening we passed the flash-light at the extremity of
Cape San Antonio and turned eastward toward Cape Cruz and Santiago.
After rounding the western end of the island we had a succession of
thunder-storms and rain-squalls, with a strong easterly breeze and a
heavy head sea; but Thursday night the weather moderated, and at
half-past six o'clock Friday morning we sighted Cape Cruz rising out of
the dark water ahead in a long, transverse stretch of flat table-land,
backed by mountains and terminating on the sea in a high, steep bluff.
The coast of Cuba between Cape Cruz and Santiago is formed by a striking
and beautiful range of mountains, known to the Spaniards as the "Sierra
Maestra," or "Master Range," which extends eastward and westward for
more than a hundred miles and contains some of the highest peaks to be
found on the island. As seen from the water its furrowed slopes and
flanks are deceptively foreshortened, so that they appear to fall with
extraordinary steepness and abruptness to the sea; its rocky, wave-worn
base is whitened by a long line of snowy breakers; its deep, wild
ravines are filled with soft blue summer haze; and down from the clouds
which shroud its higher peaks tumble in white, tortuous streaks the
foaming waters of unnamed and almost unknown mountain torrents. As one
sails, at a distance of two or three miles, along this wild, beautiful
coast, the picture presented by the fringe of feathery palms over the
white line of surf, the steep slopes of the foot-hills, shaggy with
dark-green tropical vegetation, and the higher peaks broken in places by
cliffs or rocky escarpments and rising into the region of summer clouds,
is one hardly to be surpassed, I think, in the tropics. The average
height of this range is three or four thousand feet; but in many places
it is much greater than this, and the summit of the peak of Turquino,
about midway between Cape Cruz and Santiago, is eighty-four hundred feet
above the level of the sea.
Our captain thought that we should be off the entrance to Santiago
harbor about three o'clock Saturday morning, and at half-past three I
was on the bridge. There was not a sign, as yet, of dawn, and although I
could make out faintly the loom of high land to the northward, it was so
dark on the water that nothing could be distinguished at a distance of
five hundred yards, and in the absence of all lights on the coast it
was almost impossible to determine our exact position. Somewhere ahead
of us,--or perhaps around us,--in the impenetrable gloom, were twelve or
fifteen ships of war; but they were cruising about in silence and
darkness, and the first evidence that we should probably have of their
proximity would be the glare of a search-light and the thunder of a gun.
About four o'clock the lookout forward shouted to the captain, "Vessel
on the port bow, sir," and a large, dark object stole silently out
toward us from under the shadow of the land. I took it, at first, for a
gunboat; but it proved to be the transport _Santiago_, which had not yet
disembarked her troops and was cruising aimlessly back and forth, as we
were, waiting for daylight.
At a quarter past four the sky in the east began to grow lighter, and as
the hidden sun climbed swiftly to the horizon the world about us began
to assume form and color. Almost directly in front of us were two fine
groups of high, forest-clad mountains, separated by an interval of
perhaps ten or fifteen miles. In this gap and nearer the sea was a long
stretch of lower, but still high, table-land, which extended from one
group of mountains to the other and seemed to form the outer rampart of
the coast. About the middle of this rocky, flat-topped rampart there was
a deep, narrow notch, on the eastern side of which I could see with a
glass a huge grayish-stone building, elevated a little above the level
of the table-land on one side and extending down the steep declivity of
the notch in a series of titanic steps on the other. I hardly needed to
be informed that the notch was the entrance to the harbor of Santiago,
and that the grayish-stone building was Morro Castle. Between us and the
land, in a huge, bow-shaped curve, lay the war-ships of the blockading
fleet, with Commodore Schley's flagship, the _Brooklyn_, at one end,
Admiral Sampson's flagship, the _New York_, at the other, and the
battle-ships _Texas_, _Indiana_, _Iowa_, _Massachusetts_, and half a
dozen gunboats and cruisers lying at intervals between. The convex side
of the crescent was nearest to Morro Castle, and in this part of the
curve were the battle-ships _Texas_, _Indiana_, and _Iowa_, with the
small gunboat _Suwanee_ thrown out as scout or skirmisher in the
position that the head of the arrow would occupy if the line of the
blockading vessels were a bent bow eight miles long.
We steamed directly in toward the entrance to the harbor, without being
stopped or questioned, and took a position in front of Morro Castle,
about one thousand yards south of the battle-ship _Indiana_. From this
point of view, with the aid of a good glass, we could make out quite
distinctly the outlines of the castle, and were a little disappointed to
see still floating over it the red-and-yellow banner of Spain. We had
had no news for more than a week, and thought it possible that both the
castle and the city were in the possession of General Shafter's army.
The entrance to the Bay of Santiago appears, from a distance of three or
four miles, to be a narrow cleft or notch in the high, flat-topped
rampart which forms the coast-line. On account of an eastward curve in
the channel just beyond Morro Castle, one cannot look through the notch
into the upper harbor. At a distance of a quarter of a mile from the
entrance, the line of vision strikes against a steep hill, which forms
one side of the curving, fiord-like passage leading to the city. Owing
to the great depth of water off the entrance to the bay, it is
impossible for vessels to anchor there, and the ships of the blockading
fleet simply drifted back and forth with the winds and tides, getting
under way occasionally, when it became necessary to change position.
After breakfast I went off in a boat to the flagship _New York_, called
upon Admiral Sampson, and obtained from him a brief account of all that
had happened off that coast since the 1st of May.
Admiral Cervera, with a fleet of seven Spanish war-ships, left the Cape
Verde Islands for West Indian waters on the 29th of April. On the 13th
of May he was reported at the French port of St. Pierre, Martinique, and
from there he sailed to Curacao, an island off the coast of Venezuela,
nearly due south of Haiti. From Curacao it was thought he would be
likely to go either to Cienfuegos or Havana; and on the 19th of May
Commodore Schley, with the Flying Squadron, was sent to watch the former
port, while Admiral Sampson, who had just returned from Porto Rico,
resumed the blockade of Havana. Cervera, however, did not go to either
place. Leaving Curacao on the 16th, he crossed the Caribbean Sea, and at
daybreak on the morning of Thursday, May 19, he entered the harbor of
Santiago de Cuba for the purpose of obtaining a fresh supply of coal.
His fleet then consisted of the second-class battle-ship _Cristobal
Colon_, the armored cruisers _Vizcaya_, _Almirante Oquendo_, and _Maria
Teresa_, and the torpedo-boat destroyers _Furor_ and _Pluton_. What he
expected to do, after coaling his vessels, does not clearly appear; but
certain of his Spanish friends in the United States have recently
published what seems to be an authorized statement, in which they set
forth his views as follows:
Admiral Cervera did not enter Santiago harbor with any intention of
remaining there, or of seeking refuge from the pursuit of the American
fleets. His object was merely to make some slight repairs to his
vessels, obtain a fresh supply of coal, and then run out to sea. As a
result of interference from Havana, however, he was prevented from
carrying out his plans. No sooner had he reported his arrival in
Santiago than "Captain-General Blanco communicated with Spain and asked
the Minister of Marine to place Admiral Cervera and his fleet under his
(Blanco's) orders. Blanco then ordered Cervera to remain in Santiago
and assist in the defense of the shore batteries. Admiral Cervera
protested strongly against this, and appealed to Spain; but it is
doubtful whether his appeal ever reached the government. He asked to be
allowed to coal up and then leave Santiago, where he might be free to
meet the American fleet, rather than to be bottled up in a blockaded
harbor. He contended that he could not possibly be useful to Spain by
remaining in Santiago harbor, with the certainty of American ships
coming to keep him there, whereas, outside and free, his strong fleet
could be of great value to the Spanish cause. The answer of General
Blanco was that Admiral Cervera was now subject to his orders; that he,
and not Admiral Cervera, was in command of affairs in Cuba, and that the
admiral must obey his command. Cervera could then do nothing."
If this semi-official statement of Admiral Cervera's case is an accurate
one, the Santiago campaign, which ended in the destruction of Cervera's
fleet and the capture of the city, was the direct result of General
Blanco's interference. The Spanish admiral had plenty of time to coal
his vessels and make his escape before either of our fleets reached the
mouth of the harbor, and if he had done so there might have been no
Santiago campaign, and the whole course of the war might have been
changed. But the opportunity soon passed.
On the 20th of May the news of Cervera's appearance at Santiago was
reported to the Navy Department in Washington, and Secretary Long
immediately cabled it to Admiral Sampson by way of Key West. On the
following day, May 21, Sampson sent the _Marblehead_ to the southern
coast of Cuba with an order directing Commodore Schley to proceed at
once to Santiago unless he had good reason to believe that the Spanish
fleet was really in Cienfuegos. When this order reached Schley, on the
23d of May, he felt sure that he had Cervera "bottled up" in Cienfuegos
harbor, and he did not become aware of his error until the 25th. He then
proceeded with his fleet to Santiago, but did not reach there until the
26th. Cervera had then had a whole week in which to coal his vessels and
make his escape. That he fully intended to do this seems to be evident
from the statement of Mr. Frederick W. Ramsden, British consul at
Santiago, whose recently published diary contains the following entry,
under date of May 23: "The Spanish fleet is taking in coal, water, and
provisions in a hurry, and it is evident that it is preparing to go to
sea, probably to-night or in the morning, as I hear the pilots have been
ordered for this evening."
If Cervera had gone to sea on the evening of May 23, or the morning of
the 24th, as was plainly his intention, he would have made his escape
without the slightest difficulty, because Admiral Sampson was then
cruising off Havana, while Schley was still blockading Cienfuegos. What
would have been the course of the war in that event, it is impossible to
say; but General Shafter would certainly have been held at Tampa until
the Spanish fleet had been overtaken and destroyed, and then, very
likely, the army of invasion would have landed at some point nearer to
Havana. Admiral Cervera, however, for some reason not yet positively
known, remained in Santiago a whole week, and at the expiration of that
time it is doubtful whether he could have made his escape, even had he
wished to do so, because Commodore Schley, with the Flying Squadron, was
off the entrance to the harbor. Six days later, when Schley's squadron
was reinforced by the powerful fleet of Admiral Sampson, Cervera's last
chance of escape vanished, and there was nothing left for him to do but
assist the forts and the garrison to defend the city to the last, or
make a desperate and almost hopeless attempt to break through the line
of the blockading fleet.
Late in May, while Admiral Sampson was still cruising off Havana, he
sent an order, by the captain of the _New Orleans_, to Commodore Schley,
directing the latter to "use the collier _Sterling_ to obstruct the
[Santiago] channel at its narrowest part leading into the harbor," so as
to make the escape of the Spanish fleet absolutely impossible. "I
believe," he said, "that it would be perfectly practicable to steam this
vessel into position, drop all her anchors, allow her to swing across
the channel, and then sink her, either by opening the valves, or
whatever means may be best."
Commodore Schley, for some reason, did not obey this order; but as soon
as Admiral Sampson reached the mouth of Santiago harbor, he proceeded to
carry out the plan himself. At three o'clock on the morning of June 3,
Lieutenant R. P. Hobson, with a volunteer crew of seven men, ran the
steam-collier _Merrimac_ into the mouth of the harbor, under a heavy
fire from the Spanish batteries, dropped her anchors in mid-channel
between Churruca Point and Smith Cay, opened her sea connections,
exploded a number of torpedoes hung along her sides at the water-line,
and when she sank, hung on to a raft attached by a rope to the sunken
vessel. They were rescued from this position by the Spaniards and thrown
into Morro Castle, but were treated with the consideration and courtesy
to which their gallantry entitled them. On the afternoon of the same
day, Admiral Cervera, who with his own hand had dragged Hobson from the
water, sent his chief of staff out to the _New York_, under a flag of
truce, with a letter to Admiral Sampson, in which he informed the latter
that the lieutenant and his men were safe, and referred in terms of
admiration and respect to their courage and devotion to duty.
Unfortunately,--or perhaps fortunately,--the object for which
Lieutenant Hobson and his men risked their lives was not attained. The
_Merrimac_ failed to swing around so as to lie transversely across the
channel, but sank in such a way as to place her hull parallel with the
middle of it and near its eastern edge. This left plenty of water and
plenty of room for vessels to pass on the western, or Smith Cay, side.
Egress, however, although still possible, was extremely difficult and
dangerous, on account of the strictness and closeness of the blockade
which was established when Admiral Sampson arrived and took command of
the combined fleets. The battle-ships and larger vessels, which formed
the outer line of the blockade, were disposed in a semicircle around the
mouth of the harbor, at a distance of four or five miles, with the
flagship _New York_ at one end of the line and the _Brooklyn_ at the
other. Inside of this semicircle, and much nearer the entrance, were
stationed two or three small cruisers or gunboats, whose duty it was to
watch the mouth of the harbor incessantly and give instant warning of
the appearance of any hostile vessel. At night, when the danger from the
Spanish torpedo-boats was greatest and when Cervera's fleet was most
likely to escape, a powerful and piercing search-light was held
constantly on the mouth of the narrow canon between Morro and Socapa;
the battle-ships closed in so as to diminish the radius of their
semicircle by nearly one half; the cruisers and gunboats, under cover of
the blinding radiance of the search-light, moved a mile nearer to the
mouth of the harbor; and three steam-launches patrolled the coast all
night within pistol-shot of the enemy's batteries. In the face of such a
blockade it was virtually impossible for Cervera to escape, and almost
equally impossible for his torpedo-boats to come out of the harbor
unobserved, or to reach any of our larger vessels even if they should
venture out. Long before they could get across the mile and a half or
two miles of water that separated the harbor entrance from the nearest
battleship, they would be riddled with projectiles from perhaps a
hundred rapid-fire guns. Torpedo-boats, however, did not play an
important part on either side. Our own were prevented from entering the
harbor by a strong log boom stretched across the channel just north of
the Estrella battery, and those of the Spaniards never even attempted to
make an aggressive movement in the period covered by the blockade.
Admiral Cervera evidently thought that the chance of accomplishing
anything by means of a torpedo-boat attack was too remote to justify the
risk.
On the 6th of June Admiral Sampson bombarded the shore batteries and the
mouth of the harbor for two hours and a half, destroying a number of
houses on Smith Cay, setting fire to the Spanish cruiser _Reina
Mercedes_, which was moored near the end of the Socapa promontory, and
killing or wounding twenty-five or thirty officers and men on the
cruiser, in the batteries, and in Morro Castle. The earthwork batteries
east and west of the entrance did not prove to be very formidable and
were quickly silenced; but the submarine mines in the narrow channel
leading to the upper harbor, which prevented our fleet from forcing an
entrance, could not be removed without the cooeperation of a land force.
All that Admiral Sampson could do, therefore, was to bombard the harbor
fortifications now and then, so as to prevent further work on them;
occupy the lower part of Guantanamo Bay, forty miles east of Santiago,
as a coaling-station; and urge the government in Washington, by
telegraph, to send the army forward as speedily as possible.
The fleet of transports which conveyed General Shafter's command to the
southern coast of Cuba arrived off the entrance to Santiago harbor at
midday on the 20th of June, after a tedious and uneventful voyage of
five days from the Dry Tortugas around the eastern end of the island.
General Shafter at once held a conference with Admiral Sampson and with
the Cuban general Garcia, who had come to the coast to meet the fleet,
and, after considering every possible line of attack, decided to land
his force at two points, within supporting distance of each other, ten
or fifteen miles east of the entrance to Santiago harbor, and then march
toward the city through the interior. The points selected for
debarkation were Siboney, a small village about ten miles east of Morro
Castle, and Daiquiri,[3] another similar village five miles farther
away, which, before the war, was the shipping-port of the
Spanish-American Iron Company. From Daiquiri there was a rough
wagon-road to Siboney, and the latter place was connected with Santiago
by a narrow-gage railroad along the coast and up the Aguadores ravine,
as well as by a trail or wagon-road over the foot-hills and through the
marshy, jungle-skirted valleys of the interior.
When we reached the entrance to Santiago harbor in the Red Cross steamer
_State of Texas_ on the 25th of June, the Fifth Army-Corps--or most of
it--had already landed, and was marching toward Santiago along the
interior road by way of Guasimas and Sevilla. The landing had been made,
Admiral Sampson told me, without the least opposition from the
Spaniards, but there had been a fight, on the day before our arrival,
between General Wheeler's advance and a body of troops supposed to be
the rear-guard of the retiring enemy, at a place called Guasimas, three
or four miles from Siboney, on the Santiago road. Details of the fight,
he said, had not been received, but it was thought to be nothing more
than an unimportant skirmish.
In reply to my question whether he had any orders for us, or any
suggestions to make with regard to our movements, he said that, as
there seemed to be nothing for the Red Cross to do in the vicinity of
Santiago, he should advise us to go to Guantanamo Bay, where Captain
McCalla had opened communications with the insurgents under General
Perez, and where we should probably find Cuban refugees suffering for
food. Acting upon this suggestion, we got under way promptly, steamed
into the little cove of Siboney to take a look at the place and to land
Mr. Louis Kempner of the Post-Office Department, whom we had brought
from Key West, and then proceeded eastward to Guantanamo Bay.