; the Cristobol Colon, which is
the Spanish name for Christopher Columbus; and the Almirante Oquendo.
Many years ago Spain had a famous admiral whose name was Oquendo, and
in recognition of his services the Spanish Government made a law that
there should always be a ship in their navy bearing his name. That is
how they had the Almirante Oquendo, which means Admiral Oquendo. The
names of the torpedo-boat destroyers were the Furor and the Pluton.
All these warships were splendid vessels, and were commanded by brave
men. We shall hear about them later.

Our ships were outside the harbor--a few miles from its mouth, in a
line like a half-circle. Our big ships were the New York, the
Brooklyn, the Texas, the Iowa, the Oregon, the Indiana, and the
Massachusetts. There were a number of smaller vessels, and one of
them, the Gloucester, afterwards gained great fame. Our ships could
not anchor, as the water was too deep, so they were always moving back
and forth.

As I have told you, between the sea and the harbor, or bay, is a long,
narrow channel with high cliffs on each side, and on these cliffs are
forts, which guard the entrance to the harbor.

Our men could not see the Spanish ships in the harbor, but could see
only the narrow channel and the hills and forts above it. Our men
watched carefully, to see that no Spanish ship came out. For the
first few nights of the blockade a bright moon lighted up the channel,
but after the moon failed, the place was wonderfully lighted by the
great "search-lights" of our ships. Four battleships took turns of two
hours each in standing at the entrance of the channel and moving the
"searchlights." The ships were always headed toward the shore, and
steam was kept up.

And so our great gray vessels, grim monsters of the sea, waited and
watched near the harbor of Santiago de Cuba.

Blockading work is very hard upon officers and men. It requires
ceaseless vigilance at all hours of the day and night. Besides
preventing an enemy's ships from coming out of a blockaded port, it is
very important to prevent vessels with supplies from running in.
During the Cuban blockade our vessels captured at least one large ship
loaded with coal that was intended for Admiral Cervera's fleet. When
nations are at war, they do not allow other nations to supply their
enemies with anything that will help them. There are international
laws about this, and if a warship belonging to a nation which is at
war with anot