Our War with Spain for Cuba's Freedom

by Trumbull White

CHAPTER XLI.

FIRST GUNS AND FIRST PRIZES OF THE WAR.

Capture of the LaFayette—The Government Orders Her Release—
Towing Prizes Into Key West—The Spanish Set a Trap—The Vicksburg
and the Morrill Take the Bait—The Spanish Gunners Poor Marksmen—
Another Narrow Escape.

Shortly after the proclamation of the blockade of Cuban ports a
capture was made which threatened international complications. The
French mail steamer LaFayette was held up almost under the guns of
Morro Castle.

The Annapolis hailed her in the harbor offing and receiving no answer but a show of the French tricolor plumped a six-pounder across her bows and brought her up standing.

PRAYERS AND TEARS IN STATEROOMS.

Of the 161 cabin passengers on the steamer eighty were women and children. They locked themselves in the staterooms when the warning shot was fired and the Annapolis and Wilmington approached, and gave themselves up to prayers and tears.

Most of the passengers were Spaniards or Cubans, and there were a few Mexicans. Nearly all were bound for Havana.

The steamer was filled to the hatches with medicines, provisions, wines and cotton goods consigned to merchants in Havana and Vera Cruz, Mexico. It is estimated that the value of the ship's cargo was nearly $500,000. Her net tonnage is 4,000 tons. She hails from Santander, France, and cleared from Corunna, Spain, April 23, two days after the President issued the blockade proclamation, although Captain Lechapelane declared he was not notified.

As soon as official notice of her capture reached Washington telegrams were sent ordering immediate release.

The explanation for this action on the part of the administration is given in the statement which follows and which was issued from the White House:

"The LaFayette was released in pursuance of orders which were issued by the Navy Department previous to her seizure, but which had not been received by the commanding officers of the vessels that made the capture. The facts are that on April 29 the French Embassy made an informal inquiry as to whether the LaFayette, which left Saint Nazaire, France, for Vera Cruz, by way of Havana, before war was declared or information of the blockade was received, would be allowed to land at Havana certain passengers, her mail bags and the dispatch bag of the Consulate-General of France and take some French passengers on board. An assurance was given that, if this privilege should be granted, the steamer would be forbidden by the French Consul to land goods.

"The matter was duly considered and it was decided that, without regard to the strict law of blockade and as an act of courtesy, the request of the French Government should be acceded to. Orders were accordingly sent on the 2d of May. When information was received of the capture of the steamer and of her having been brought to Key West, these orders were communicated to the captors, with instructions to release the steamer and see that the orders were duly delivered, so that they might be carried into effect. No demand was made, either by or on behalf of the French Government, directly or indirectly, for the steamer's release. The Wilmington will escort the LaFayette to Havana to-night."

On May 8th the British tramp steamer Strathdee, Captain Currie, attempted to run the blockade, but was overhauled by the gunboat Machias. The Captain of the Strathdee claimed that the vessel was loaded with sugar and that he had on board a number of Spanish refugees from Sagua la Grande. He also said that the steamer was bound for Matanzas, where it was desired to disembark some of the refugees. The commander of the Machias was skeptical of the story, however, and warned the Captain of the Strathdee that if he attempted to take the vessel into Matanzas she would be fired on, whereupon the Strathdee put about and steamed away in the direction of New York.

THREE SMALL PRIZES TOWED INTO KEY WEST.

Three prizes were brought in May 9th. They were the brigantine Lorenzo, taken by the Montgomery near Havana, on Friday, while bound for Rio de la Plata with a cargo of dried beef.

The Espana, a little fishing sloop, was taken by the Morrill about three miles off Mariel just after a sharp engagement. The Newport was close at hand at the time, and a prize crew made up from both ships brought the capture in.

The third vessel taken was the schooner Padre de Dios, Master
Mateo Herrera, laden with fish. It was taken by the Newport off
Mariel, and was brought in by a petty officer and a prize crew.
All three accepted one blank shot apiece as sufficient.

MAKING HER PRIZE WORK AS TOWBOAT.

One captive was seen taking another to port on the morning of May 9th. Both are prizes of the gunboat Newport, and were captured between Mariel and Havana.

It was about sunrise, just after an inexplicable shot had been fired from a Havana battery, that a dispatch boat off Morro Castle sighted the Newport with a big Norwegian tramp steamer, the Bratsberg, following obediently. Suddenly the Newport's stack blew clouds of black smoke, and, looking for the cause, a pretty two-masted schooner was seen, her sails wing and wing, flying from the northwest for Havana.

A blank shot sounded over the waters. The schooner stood no chance, but she kept her course until a solid six-pounder from the Newport skimmed across to her, and dropped ahead of the bowsprit. Then she dropped her jib and came about quickly, sailing toward the warship, as one has seen a dog run to his master at the snap of a lash. She was the Fernandito, avaricious of the bounty Captain-General Blanco offered for fish delivered to hungry Havana. A line was put aboard her, and the Bratsberg was compelled to take the other end and go to Key West.

The Spanish set a trap one day during the blockade. The wily Spaniards arranged a trap to send a couple of our ships to the bottom. A small schooner was sent out from Havana harbor to draw some of the Americans into the ambuscade. The ruse worked like a charm. The Vicksburg and the Morrill, in the heat of the chase and in their contempt for Spanish gunnery, walked straight into the trap that had been set for them. Had the Spaniards possessed their souls in patience but five minutes longer, not even their bad gun practice would have saved our ships, and two more of our vessels would lie at the bottom within two lengths of the wreck of the ill-starred Maine.

Friday evening the Vicksburg and the Morrill, cruising to the west of Morro Castle, were fired on by the big guns of the Cojimar batteries. Two shots were fired at the Vicksburg and one at the Morrill. Both fell short, and both vessels, without returning the fire, steamed out of range. It would have been folly to have done otherwise. But this time the Spaniards had better luck. The schooner they had sent out before daylight ran off to the eastward, hugging the shore, with the wind on her starboard quarter. About three miles east of the entrance to the harbor she came over on the port tack. A light haze fringed the horizon and she was not discovered until three miles off shore, when the Mayflower made her out and signaled the Morrill and Vicksburg.

THEY TAKE THE BAIT.

Captain Smith, of the Morrill, and Commander Lilly, of the Vicksburg, immediately slapped on all steam and started in pursuit. The schooner instantly put about and ran for Morro Castle before the wind. By doing so she would, according to the well-conceived Spanish plot, lead the two American warships directly under the guns of the Santa Clara batteries. These works are a short mile west of Morro, and are a part of the defenses of the harbor. There are two batteries, one at the shore, which has been recently thrown up, of sand and mortar, with wide embrasures for eight-inch guns, and the other on the crest of the rocky eminence which juts out into the water of the gulf at the point.

The upper battery mounts modern 10-inch and 12-inch Krupp guns behind a six-foot stone parapet, in front of which are twenty feet of earthwork and a belting of railroad iron. This battery is considered the most formidable of Havana's defenses except Morro Castle. It is masked and has not been absolutely located by the American warships. It is probably due to the fact that the Spanish did not desire to expose its position that the Vicksburg and Morrill are now afloat.

The Morrill and Vicksburg were about six miles from the schooner when the chase began. They steamed after her at full speed, the Morrill leading until within a mile and a half of the Santa Clara batteries. Commander Smith, of the Vicksburg, was the first to realize the danger into which the reckless pursuit had led them. He concluded it was time to haul off and sent a shot across the bow of the schooner.

NEARLY HIT BY SHRAPNEL SHELLS.

The Spanish skipper instantly brought his vessel about, but while she was still rolling in the trough of the sea, with her sails flapping, an 8-inch shrapnel shell came hurtling through the air from the water battery, a mile and a half away. It passed over the Morrill between the pilothouse and the smokestack and exploded less than fifty feet on the port quarter. The small shot rattled against her side. It was a close call.

Two more shots followed in quick succession, both shrapnel. One burst close under the starboard quarter, filling the engine room with the smoke of the explosion of the shell, and the other, like the first, passed over and exploded just beyond.

The Spanish gunners had the range and their time fuses were accurately set. The crews of both ships were at their guns. Lieutenant Craig, who was in charge of the bow 4-inch rapid-fire gun of the Morrill, asked for and obtained permission to return the fire. At the first shot the Vicksburg, which was in the wake of the Morrill, slightly in-shore, sheered off and passed to windward under the Morrill's stern.

ANOTHER NARROW ESCAPE.

In the meantime, Captain Smith also put his helm to port, and was none too soon, for as the Morrill stood off a solid 8-inch shot grazed her starboard quarter and kicked up tons of water as it struck a wave 100 yards beyond. Captain Smith said afterward that this was undoubtedly an 8-inch armor piercing projectile, and that it would have passed through the Morrill's boilers had he not changed his course in the nick of time.

All the guns of the water battery were now at work. One of them cut the Jacob's ladder of the Vicksburg adrift, and another carried away a portion of the rigging. As the Morrill and the Vicksburg steamed away their aft guns were used, but only a few shots were fired. The Morrill's 6-inch gun was elevated for 4,000 yards and struck the earth-works repeatedly. The Vicksburg fired but three shots from her 6-pounder.

The Spaniards continued to fire shot and shell for twenty minutes, but the shots were ineffective. Some of them were so wild that they roused the American "Jackies" to jeers. The Spaniards only ceased firing when the Morrill and Vicksburg were completely out of range.

If all the Spanish gunners had been suffering from strabismus their practice could not have been worse. But the officers of both the Morrill and Vicksburg frankly admit their own recklessness and the narrow escape of their vessels from destruction. They are firmly convinced that the pursuit of the schooner was a neatly planned trick, which almost proved successful.

If any one of the shots had struck the thin skin of either vessel it would have offered no more resistance than a piece of paper to a rifle ball.

The accurate range of the first few shots is accounted for by the fact that the Spanish officers had ample time to make observations. The bearings of the two vessels were probably taken with a range-finder at the Santa Clara battery, and, as this battery is probably connected by wire with Morro, they were able to take bearings from both points, and by laborious calculations they fixed the positions of the vessels pretty accurately. With such opportunity for observation it would have been no great trick for an American gunner to drop a shell down the smokestack of a vessel.

As soon as the ships sheered off after the first fire, the Spanish gunners lost the range and their practice became ludicrous. If they had waited five minutes longer before opening fire, Captain Smith says it would have been well-nigh impossible to have missed the target.

Prior to the invasion of Cuba by our army large stores of arms and ammunition were sent to the insurgents. One of the most notable of these expeditions was made by the tug Leyden, which carried 50,000 rounds of rifle cartridges and two chests of dynamite. She left Key West with Colonel Acosta and some twenty-five other Cubans on board, who were to join General Gomez in Santa Clara Province. The tug reached the Cuban coast and after landing her passengers in safety steamed to a point seventeen miles west of Havana, where she was met by General Perico Delgado with about 100 Cubans on the beach. The Leyden's crew began landing the ammunition, when a small body of Spanish cavalry appeared some little distance back from the shore, and, dismounting, began firing upon the Leyden. Several bullets had penetrated the tug's smoke-stack, when the boat drew off the shore some three miles, where it met the gunboat Wilmington.

Returning under the protection of the gunboat, the Leyden again began landing its cargo. The Spaniards soon returned, and, ignoring a lively fusillade from Degaldo's insurgents, resumed their attack on the Leyden. The Wilmington, which had taken up a position further off shore, sent a three-pound shell into the midst of the cavalry, wounding several of them and putting them to flight. The Leyden then finished the work of landing the ammunition, and returned to Key West.