THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 378 except by daylight. But he had good local pilots on board, and it would require little ingenuity to place temporary marks in the channel,which his picket boats patrolled every nioht. His ships would have had just a chance of escaping if their dash for the open sea had been preceded by an attack on the blockading squadronby the two destroyers, under the cover of darkness.

But it is idle to discuss what might have been. Let us tell what happened. At half-past nine the squadron was under weigh. Line of battle was formed as the ships steamed down the lower harbour. First came Cervera's flagship, the Infanta Maria Teresa. The Admiral was in the forward conning-tower, and with him wasMiguelLopez, a Santiago pilot. Next came the Vizcaya,then the Cristobal Colon, and the Almirante Oquendo. Then came the torpedoboat destroyerPlutou,and,last ofall,theFuror, with Captain Villamil, the commander of the destroyer squadron,on boardof her. At Smith Cay Villamil stopped his two destroyers for a few minutesin order toget more steam on their boilers. This left a large gapbetweenthem and the cruisers, which bore steadily on for the opening of the harbour. As they entered the narrowsCervera flew his last signal to his men, "Iwishyou aspeedyvictory!"

Thanks to the bad coal they were burning, the funnels of the Spanish cruisers were sending up dense clouds of black smoke, and this,rising over the land, was what first attractedthe attention of a look-out on the Iowa, a young naval apprentice. He gave the alarm, and the next moment the bow of the Maria Teresa was seen gliding out from between the headlands of the port.

At once an alarm gun was fired, the signal was hoisted " Enemy escaping," and on every ship, the call " Clear for action" rang out. In two minutes ever)- officer and man was at his post, and the ships were heading for the Spaniards.

As the Maria Teresa passed the rock)' point below Morro Castle Cervera stood beside the pilot. He had told Miguel Lopez to let him know the moment whenhe could safely turn to the westward. At the signal from the pilot the Admiral gave the order " Starboard," and then, as the great cruiser swung round in answer to her helm, he called down the voice tubes that led to barbettesandbatteries, "Fire !" Lopez remarked that, as they ran out to sea, Cervera did not show the least excitement or agitation, and the Gloucester east of it, towards Aguadores Castle. The New York and the Ericsson werea good sevenmiles awaysteamingtowards Siboney.

At half-past nine orders had been given on boardof theIowaand the other blockadingships for the crews to fall in for general inspection. Unseen behind the hills of Morro and Socapa the Spanish squadron, led by Admiral Cervera onboardtheMaria Teresa, was just then steaming down the harbour, clearedfor action.

Why it was that he came out is likely to be for a long time to come a disputed point. It is asserted that he left Santiago in obedience to imperative orders from Havana, that he remonstrated against them, and that they were repeated,leaving him no choice but to go to what was all but certain destruction. But this hasbeen denied,andaccording to someaccounts, he acted onhisown initiative. Again, there are two different versions of the story about the orders from Havana. Accordingto one account they originated with Marshal Blanco, who believed the squadron couldescape from Santiago and reinforce the defences of theisland capital. According to the other account, Blanco was merely the mouthpiece of the Madrid Government, and the orders for Cervera were cabled through Havana from the Spanish Admiralty. However this may be, the captains of the squadron had 110 illusions as to the fate that awaited them. The chance of war may indeed give victory under the most hopeless conditions, but practicalmen do not take such possibilities into their calculations. They knew that the ships could not steam at anything like their nominalspeed;thatthe armament wasdefective, the Colon being without her heavy guns, and some of the lighter guns and their mountings being unserviceable; that the ammunition was of interior quality, and the coal supply scanty and bad. The Cristobal Colon and the Vizcaya had their machinery in the bestcondition,and the most that was hoped for was that one or bothof these ships might force the blockade.

But what has never been explained is why Admiral Cervera, having decided to come out, chose to make the attempt in broad daylight.

Allwasreadyon thenight betweentheSaturday and Sunday, yet he waited for the morning. He wouldhave donebetterstill ifhe had waited tillSunday night, when he might have run out through driving showers of rain in absolute darkness. It has been suggestedthat the reason was because he doubted whether his ships could make their way through the narrow channel