ld scarcely pass in it. Into the brow of the hills are
built batteries which, with plunging shot, command the entrance
completely. An abrupt turn in the interior shore line makes the whole
inner bay invisible from without, so for days the officers and men of
the United States blockading fleet outside were ignorant whether
Cervera's entire fleet was cooped up within. To send in a boat to make
a reconnoissance would have been suicidal, for the channel, difficult
at all times, was blocked by mines and torpedoes. For this reason,
too, there could be no repetition of Dewey's exploit at Manila.

Accordingly, Admiral Sampson was confronted with a problem which
seemed likely to tax the patience rather than the daring of his men.
There seemed to be no opportunity for more exciting duty than a long
blockade, unless the Spaniards should conclude to come out and
fight--a most unlikely decision for them to reach. The forts, in all
probability, could be reduced by the ships' cannon, but, even with
that done, to enter the harbor in single file, so that the undisturbed
fire of Cervera's fleet could be directed upon the Americans, ship by
ship, as they entered the bay, would have been a most hazardous
undertaking. The situation was not made more pleasing to the admiral
by the fact that he was not sure of having all the Spanish ships in
the trap. Some might not have entered Santiago, but might be at that
very time devastating portions of the coast of the United States.

While the admiral was considering the problem thus presented to him,
there appeared at his cabin a young lieutenant, Richmond P. Hobson, a
graduate of the Naval Academy in 1889. The scientific side of naval
duty had always chiefly attracted this young man. Graduating at the
head of his class, he studied naval construction for two years in
British dockyards. Above all things a student, a contributor to
magazines, a delver into mathematical and structural problems, this
young officer outlined to the admiral an exploit of reckless daring
and volunteered himself to perform it.

[Illustration: The "Zealandia" leaving San Francisco with Troops for
the Philippines. (Drawn, after a photograph, by William Ritschel.)]

It was folly, urged Hobson, to keep the entire American fleet watching
at the door to that harbor. The Spaniards, doing nothing and daring
nothing themselves, were still reducing Admiral Sampson's powerful
squadron to complete impotence. If the entrance to the har