THE "VESUVIUS" COMES INTO ACTION. 331 The Spaniards had been driven from their camp on the east side of the bay on the14th of June. One of the cut cables was picked up and connected with the station behind the marine camp, and communication was established via Hayti with the United States. Further progress in the occupation of Port Guantanamo was made on the 16th, when the squadron in the bay utterly wrecked a battery beyond Caimamerawhich the Spaniards had occupied. Inmoving out from the attack the Texasfouled and dragged after her a self-acting torpedo, which ought to have been exploded by the contact with her side, but it was out of order, a heavy growth of barnacles having completely clogged the lever of the firing key.

colleagues, some of whom used still more picturesque language on the subject :— " Three shells, each containing two hundred pounds of guncotton, were fired last night from the dynamite guns of the Vesuvius at the hill at the western entrance to Santiago Flarbour, on which there is a fort. It was the first test of a dynamite cruiser in actual warfare. The frightful execution done by those three shots will be historic. Gunsin that fort had not been silenced when the fleet drewoff after the attack that followed the discovery of the presence of the Spanish fleetin the harbour. In the intense darkness of last night the Vesuvius steamed in to close range andlet go one of her mysterious missiles. She was about half a mile from the beach, westof theMorro. The Oregon's searchlight played on her mark ash'Ore. Lieutenant Commander Pillsbury gave the word to fire. Lieutenant Ouimby opened the air vent. There was no flash, no smoke. There was no noise at first. The pneumatic guns on the little cruiser did their work silently. It was only when they felt the shock that the men on the other warships knew the Vesuvius was in action. The first shot exploded on the hillsidebelowthe battery. The second struck close to the Spanish position. From whatIknow of the position of the Spanish torpedoboats in Santiago Harbour, it seemed to me, lookingfrom the sea, that they may have been struck. The third load of guncotton was dre>pped on the very crest of the hill from which a battery was being fired the other day. After her last shot the Vesuvius went away at a sixteen-knot gait. Two shells fell just beyondher as she was departing. Alew seceuids after the gun was fired there was a frightful convulsion on the land. On the hill,where the Spanish guns had withstood the missiles of the ordinary ships of war, tons of rock and soil leaped highin air. The land was smitten as by an earthquake. Terrible echoes rolled around and around through the shakenhills and mountains. Sampson's ships, far out to sea, trembled with the awful shock. Dust rose to the clouds andhid the scene of destruction. Then came a long silence; next another frightful upheaval, and following it a third— so quickly that the results of the work of the two mingled in mielair. Another stillness,and then two shots from a Spanish battery, that, after the noise of the dynamite, sounded like the crackle of fire crackers. The Vesuvius had tested herself. She was foundperfect as adestroyer. She provedthat nofortification canwitlistandherterrible missiles."

During these days of anxious waiting for the arrivalof the transports with the invading army Admiral Sampson'sfleet before Santiago wasnot quite idle. The dynamite cruiser Vesuvius had been for some time under his orders,but so far she had only been used as a despatch boat. Amongnavalmen there was a certain amountof doubt as to how her guns wouldact in real warfare, notwithstanding the tests made in peace experiments, and the Admiralhad till now hesitated to make use of her in his attacks on the forts. Her threeguns were fixeddiagonally inher deck, the muzzles projecting, the breeches and loading arrangementsbeing under cover below. (A photograph showing the guns will be found on page 241.) Each threw a shell or " aerial torpedo" loaded with 250 pounds of guncotton. They were colossal air-guns, the range varying from1,000 to 1,500 yards, according to the compression of the air pumped into them, and the direction or aim being given by altering the positionof the ship. At such short rangeagainst good gunners there would be great risk of the dynamite gun being hit while the shell was moving through it,in which case gun and ship wouldbe "hoist withtheirownpetard." But the bad gunnery of the Spaniards seemedto minimisethis risk,and for further safety the Vesuvius was first brought into action at night. On the evening ofMonday, the 13th, towardsmidnight, he steamed in close to the harbour mouth and discharged three of her shellsin the direction of the Socapa battery. The story of this first experiment withdynamite guns in war is worth telling in detail. Here is the impression of it given by one of the best of the correspondents of the fleet, the representative of the New York Herald— an impression apparently shared by his