"Ay, ay, sir!" and then the swift yacht had moved beyond range even of a megaphone.
All at once the little group of officers gathered on the Speedy's bridge, of course including Lieutenant Ridge Norris, knew that they were not to have the honor of warning the fleet; for a line of smoke, evidently moving seaward, appeared above the hills from the direction of Santiago Bay.
"They are coming out!" cried the Speedy's Captain; "and, if they have the pluck to keep on, we are about to witness one of the greatest sea-fights of the century."
If the entire American blockading fleet had been on hand the coming contest would have been too unequal to be interesting. As it was, the Massachusetts, New Orleans, and Newark had gone to Guantanamo after coal, while the New York was too far away to take any active part in the fighting. This left only the Brooklyn, Oregon, Iowa, Indiana, and Texas on guard, with the converted yachts Gloucester and Vixen acting as picket-boats.
The American ships lay some three miles off shore under low steam, and their crews were preparing for Sunday morning inspection. Two of the battle-ships were overhauling their forward turrets, and repairing damages received during a bombardment of the forts on the previous day. The Brooklyn lay farthest to the westward, and the Indiana at the eastern end of the line, with the Texas, Iowa, and Oregon between them. Inshore of these were the two yachts.
In Santiago Bay, about to rush out on these unsuspecting ships, were four of the finest cruisers in the world, possessed of greater speed than any of the Americans except the Brooklyn, and under a full head of steam: with them were two torpedo-boat destroyers, ranking among the most powerful and swiftest of their class.
At half-past nine o'clock of that peaceful Sunday morning, as the Speedy was still some five miles to the eastward of Santiago Bay, with the New York just completing her turn, two miles farther down the coast, a shot from the Iowa drew attention to her fluttering signal, "The enemy is escaping."
Almost at the same moment the same startling signal broke out from a masthead of the Texas, which opened the battle with the mighty roar of a twelve-inch shell. The Brooklyn was also flying signal 250--"The enemy is escaping"--and within three minutes from the discovery of that moving smoke behind the Morro her forward eight-inch battery was in full play against the Maria Teresa, first of the Spaniards to show her glistening hull around the point.
Dashing at full speed from the harbor-mouth, outlined by the smokeless flames of her forward turret and port batteries, Admiral Cervera's flag-ship was quickly headed to the westward, and for the most open point of the blockade. Behind her steamed the Vizcaya, Colon, Oquendo, and the torpedo-boats Furor and Pluton.
During the whole long blockade, the one standing order given by Admiral Sampson to cover an emergency like the present had been, "Should the enemy come out, close in and engage."