mortar battery ceased at 12.56 P. M., after a
fusilade of forty-one minutes. After firing the cable was grappled, hauled
on board, and cut.

_May 17._ The Spanish squadron reported as yet remaining at Cadiz.

The U. S. S. _Wilmington_ had a slight action with a Spanish gunboat off
the Cuban coast, during which the latter was disabled.

_May 18._ The U. S. cruiser _Charleston_ left San Francisco for the
Philippines with supplies for Commodore Dewey's fleet.

_May 19._ By cable from Madrid it was learned that the Spanish fleet had
arrived at Santiago de Cuba.

The cruiser _Charleston_, which sailed for Manila, returned to Mare Island
navy yard with her condensers out of order.

_May 21._ An order was despatched to San Francisco to prepare the
_Monterey_ for a voyage to Manila, where she would join Commodore Dewey's
fleet. The _Monterey_ is probably the most formidable monitor in the
world; technically described she is a barbed turret, low freeboard monitor
of four thousand tons displacement, 256 feet long, fifty-nine feet beam,
and fourteen feet six inches draught. She carries in two turrets,
surrounded by barbettes, two 12-inch and two 10-inch guns, while on her
superstructure, between the turrets, are mounted six 6-pounders, four
1-pounders, and two Gatlings. The turrets are seven and one-half and eight
inches thick, and the surrounding barbettes are fourteen inches and eleven
and one-half inches of steel.

[Illustration: U. S. S. MONTEREY.]

One of the most important prizes captured during the war was taken by the
U. S. S. _Minneapolis_ off the eastern coast of Cuba. The craft was the
Spanish brig _Santa Maria de Lourdes_, loaded with coal, ammunition, arms,
and supplies for Admiral Cervera.

Nearly four hundred men, with a pack-train and a large quantity of arms
and ammunition, sailed for a point about twenty-five miles east of Havana,
on the steamer _Florida_. These men and their equipment constituted an
expedition able to operate independently, and to defend itself against any
body of Spanish troops which might oppose it.

The _Florida_ returned to Key West on the thirty-first, after having
successfully landed the ammunition and men.

_May 22._ The U. S. S. _Charleston_ again left San Francisco, bound for
Manila.

_May 25._ The U. S. S. _St. Paul_ captured the British steamer
_Restormel_, loaded with coal, off Santiago de Cuba. The prize is a long,
low tramp collier belonging to the Troy company of