"All these were in a perfectly destitute condition, having been saved by
swimming, or having been taken from the water by our boats. Admiral
Cervera was in a like plight. He was received with the usual honours when
he came aboard, and was heartily cheered by the _Iowa's_ crew."

The Independence Day number is very brief. It announces that the prisoners
are to be sent north on the _Harvard_ and _St. Louis_; that they number
1,750; that the dead among the Spanish ships were over six hundred; that
General Pando had reached Santiago with five thousand men; that the
_Brooklyn_ and _Marblehead_ had gone to Guantanamo to overhaul and coal,
and then tells of the _Reina Mercedes's_ skirmish on that day, saying:

[Illustration: U. S. S. INDIANA.]

"Just before midnight of this date the _Massachusetts_, which was in front
of the port with her search-light up to the entrance, reported an enemy's
vessel coming out, and she and the _Texas_ fired a number of shots in the
direction of the harbour mouth. The batteries also opened, and a number of
shell fell at various points, the attention paid by the batteries to the
ships being general. The _Indiana_ was struck on the starboard side of the
quarter-deck by a mortar shell, which exploded on reaching the second deck
near the ward-room ladder; it caused a fire which was quickly
extinguished. This was the first accident of the kind to the fleet. The
vessel inside turned out to be the _Reina Mercedes_, which was sunk on the
east edge of the channel just by the Estrella battery. She heads north,
and is canted over to port with her port rail under water. She does not
appear to obstruct the channel."

The issue of July 5th is of greater interest:

"Mention of the presence of the torpedo-boat _Ericsson_, on the third
instant, was unfortunately omitted. She was in company with a flag-ship,
and turned at once upon sighting the enemy. As she was drawing away from
the _New York_ she signalled, asking permission to continue in chase, but
she was directed to pick up two men in the water, which she did, and on
reaching the _Vizcaya_ she was directed by the _Iowa_, the flag-ship
having gone ahead, to assist in the rescue of the _Vizcaya's_ crew. She
took off eleven officers and ninety men. The guns of the _Vizcaya_ during
the operation were going off from the heat, and explosions were frequent,
so that the work was trying and perilous for the boats of the two vessels
(_Iowa_ and _Ericsson_) e