n adversary. Her armament is only four six-pounder rapid-fire
guns.

Then there is a fleet of vessels whose duty it is to repair the
damages that ships receive in battle, supply fuel and water to
fighting ships, and to care for the wounded. All of these are novel
additions to the navy, but are practical auxiliaries in modern naval
operations.

The Vulcan is one of the repair ships. It is, in fact, a navigable
machine shop, fitted with steam tools for executing any work in metal.
It carries duplicates of nearly every article belonging to a modern
warship; and when you understand that some of these contain nearly
seventy sets of engines, you can easily see the advantage of having a
repair ship attached to a fleet.

Then there are the refrigerating ships, or "pantries," as the sailors
call them. Their mission is to assist in feeding the navy. They are
most valuable additions to a fleet, for they supply fresh meat and
vegetables to improve "Jack's" diet of "salt horse."

Next come the ships that supply fresh water to the crews of our
warships. These are fitted up with distilling apparatus, which
converts salt water into fresh. The Iris, as one of these is named,
belongs to the "sweet water squadron." The water consumption of a
vessel is enormous. A battleship will use seven thousand gallons every
day, which gives you an idea of the work such vessels as the Iris have
to perform.

Now we come to such ships as the Solace and the Relief. These are
hospital ships, and are provided with every appliance and convenience
to be found in a modern hospital, including X-ray outfits to aid in
locating bullets, a microscopic department, and a carbonator for
supplying mineral waters. The hull of the Solace is painted white,
with a wide stripe of green along the sides, and, as befits her
mission, carries no guns or weapons of any kind. Hospital ships fly
the "Red Cross" flag from their mastheads.

[Illustration: (Ships at sea)]

Our ships could guard Santiago and fire at the forts, but our naval
officers had good reasons for thinking that they could not take the
city unless our soldiers were on shore to help in different ways. Our
ships could not go safely into the harbor till the "mines" under the
water had been removed; the "mines" could not be removed till the
forts on the cliffs had been taken. So now the time had come for our
soldiers to go to Cuba.

CHAPTER VII.

OUR ARMY GOES TO CUBA.

Our soldiers--thousands o