THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 332 Of course it was difficult to know what had occurred on shore. The fact was that, twoof the shells having failed to explode,the thirdmadea bigholein a field on the top of the Socapa headland. The gunners got a glimpse of the Vesuvius andblazed away at her with the very guns she was expected to destroy. The deluded Spaniards did not know that anything particular had occurred. ConsulRamsden gives the impression current in the town: " The day passed quietly," he writes, "until half-past eleven at night, when, just asIwasgettinginto bed, shots were heard. There were only eight fired, and we went to sleep. It seems that some ship camein near,and they fired ather, and she answered." So much for the terribledestruction causedby this first eruptionof the Vesuvius.

and one very loudone. An officer of the Pluton told me that a big shell, which looked like a comet as it came somewhat slowly through the air,fellnear them,betweenSmith Cay,and then came travelling in the water bymeans ofa screw and burst just in front of the ship. He says that had theirs been a heavy ship it wouldhaveburst it up, but the little Pluton, which only draws i\ feet, was just lifted out of the water, and everyoneon board was thrown off his feet,but no onereally hurt. The w7ater round was strewn with dead fish,and the concussion was also felt by the Mercedes, which was behind the Pluton. He says it was a dynamite shell from the pneumaticgun of the Vesuvius."

Thedescription of the screw-like attachment to the shell shows how carefully the Spanish officer observed it. The dynamite shells have an arrangementof the kind to steady them in their flight. It was one more experiment proving thatdynamite ships are not suchfearful engines of war. The American navy has accepted the adverse view and will have no more of them.

Beforegoingon to tell the storyof the invasion it willbe well to complete the record of these occasionalbombardmentsofSantiago by the fleet. They all point the same moral, that bombardment causes, in most cases, more noise than harm, and against brave men who remember Radyard Kipling's rule that " noise never frightens a soldier," they are a costly and inefficient means of attack. At dawn on the day after the exploit of the Vesuvius the New Orleans signalled that the Spaniards were mounting new guns, and was given permission to stop them by shellingthebatteries. Shekept at it for about tenminutes,firingsome 150 shots. TheSocapa replied without succeedinginhitting her. Two men were wounded in the battery, and one on board a ship. Several of the shots from the cruiser were too high, and fell far up the harbour near Ratones Cay. " Nobody seemed much the worse, and people did not bother their heads much about it," is Consul Ramsden'snote on the brief bombardment.

As before, the midnight eruption of the Vesuvius was the prelude to a bombardment at dawn. The first shots were fired just before half-past six, and the bombardmentwent on for a little overan hour. The ships engaged were the cruisers New York, Brooklyn, and Orleans,andthebattleships Iowa,Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas. According to press reports they fired 5,000 heavy sheils, but other data point to this being an exaggeration, the real numberbeing about 2,500.

No shots were fired at the tower of Morro Castle,because it was believed that Hobson and his comrades werestill imprisoned there. They had, however, been removed some days before to oneof the barracksin the city. On the Wednesday evening (June 15th) the Vesuvius was given another chance. This time thepoint aimed for was the upper end of the harbour mouth near Cay Smith, where it was believed the Spanish destroyerslay. As before, two shells failed to explode, but the third was more successful. To quote the same correspondent: "From where the fleet lay the entrance to the harbour looked in the black night like a door opening into the livid fire of a Titanic furnace. A craterbig enough to holda church wasblown out of the side of Cay Smith:" We happen to have an interesting account of what did occur from the other side in our consul's diary. Thus it runs:— As usual, the Spanish fire wasill-directedand harmless, though the range wasneverover5,000 yards, and all the ships engaged were large targets. The gunners could therefore fire from the American ships with little more risk than if they were engaged in shooting tor prizes. The impression on board the fleet was that the batteries were seriously injured, and that some of them were utterly wrecked and disarmed.

Towards the end of the hour very few shots came from the shore, but that the batteries were not actually silencedwas shown by the Spaniards firing on the fleet as it withdrew, the shots tailing harmlesslv in its wake. There was, however, no serious damage eione. The Spaniards lost "At night on the 15th we heard a few shots,