ivable point of menace. As a result of these conflicting reports,
two American fleets were reduced to impotence. The "flying squadron"
of fast cruisers under Commodore Schley was kept for weeks at moorings
in Hampton Roads ready to be dispatched for protection of our northern
coasts, while the squadron of battle-ships under Admiral Sampson was
made to steam hither and yon in the Caribbean Sea looking for an
enemy's fleet which much of the time lay snugly on the other side of
the Atlantic. Accordingly, up to June 15, the results of naval
operations in West Indian waters were almost _nil_. Powder had been
burned indeed as when, on April 27, the Spanish works at Matanzas were
bombarded and silenced by the "New York," "Puritan," and "Cincinnati,"
of Admiral Sampson's squadron, and on May 13 the works at San Juan,
Porto Rico, were similarly tested. Deeds of conspicuous gallantry,
too, were done, as when Ensign Worth Bagley lost his life while
gallantly engaging Spanish gunboats and shore batteries with the
torpedo boat "Winslow" at Cardenas. But these actions, though seized
upon eagerly by a public hungry for war news, were inconclusive and
trivial. The shore batteries were quickly repaired and strengthened,
and the great object of capturing Havana seemed at the middle of June
even further off than it had when war was declared.

Nevertheless, May and June saw a marked progress in the work of
preparation for active hostilities. The army was mobilized and a great
camp established at Tampa, Fla. Schley's flying squadron, finally
relieved from apprehension as to the course of the Spanish fleet, left
Hampton Roads to increase the naval strength in West Indian waters.
The great battle-ship "Oregon," after a record-beating voyage around
Cape Horn, in which her machinery met and withstood every imaginable
strain, arrived at the rendezvous. And finally it was definitely
learned that Admiral Cervera, with Spain's principal effective fleet,
was actually in West Indian waters, and had entered the port of
Santiago de Cuba for coal and repairs. There he was trapped by an
exploit which has conferred new glory on the United States Navy and
has added a new name to the roster of dashing heroes like Somers and
Gushing.

The harbor of Santiago de Cuba is one of the most easily defended in
the world. Steep hills rise abruptly from either side of the harbor's
mouth, which is scarce half a mile wide, with a channel so narrow that
two vessels cou