me to confer
with Shafter for a naval assault.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
General Joseph Wheeler.

The squadron had not been idle. By day their vigilance detected the
smallest movement at the harbor mouth. Upon that point each night two
battleships bent their dazzling search-lights like cyclopean eyes.

[Illustration]
View of San Juan Hill and Blockhouse,
Showing the Camp of the United States Forces.

It was decided to block the narrow channel by sinking the collier
Merrimac across its neck. Just before dawn on June 3d the young naval
constructor, Hobson, with six volunteers chosen from scores of eager
competitors, and one stowaway who joined them against orders, pushed the
hulk between the headland forts into a roaring hell of projectiles.

[Illustration: Only the masts and stack above surface.]
The Collier Merrimac Sunk by Hobson at the Mouth of Santiago Harbor.

An explosion from within rent the Merrimac's hull, and she sank; but,
the rudder being shot away, went down lengthwise of the channel. When
the firing ceased, the little crew, exhausted, but not one of the eight
missing, clustered, only heads out of water, around their raft. A
launch drew near. In charge was the Spanish admiral, who took them
aboard with admiring kindness, and despatched a boat to notify the
American fleet of their safety.

It was well that "Hobson's choice" as to the way his tub should sink
failed. On July 3d, just after Sampson steamed away to see Shafter, the
Maria Teresa was seen poking her nose from the Santiago harbor, followed
by the Almirante Oquendo, the Vizcaya, and the Christobal Colon. Under
peremptory orders from his Government, Admiral Cervera had begun a mad
race to destruction. "It is better," said he, "to die fighting than to
blow up the ships in the harbor." These had become the grim
alternatives.

The Brooklyn gave chase, the other vessels in suit, the Texas and the
Oregon leading. As the admiral predicted, it was "a dreadful holocaust."
One by one his vessels had to head for the beach, silenced, crippled,
flames bursting from decks, portholes, and the rents torn by our
cannonade. Two destroyers, Furor and Pluton, met their fate near the
harbor. Only the Colon remained any time afloat, but her doom was
sealed. Outdoing the other pursuers and her own contract speed the grand
Oregon, pride of the navy, poured explosives upon the Spaniard, until,
within three hours and forty minutes of the enemy's