ad borne it before.

CHAPTER XXVIII

HOBSON AND THE SINKING OF THE "MERRIMAC"

AN HEROIC DEED WORTHY OF THE AMERICAN NAVY

SOME of us know what a dark night is and some of us don't. Those who
live in cities, under the glare of the electric light, hardly ever see
real darkness. One must go far into the country, and be out on a cloudy
night, to know what it means to be really in the dark. Or to be out at
sea, with not a light above or below.

It was on such a night that a great black hulk moved like a sable
monster through the waters off the coast of Cuba. This was the night of
June 3, 1898. There was a moon somewhere in the sky, but thick clouds
lay over it and snuffed out its light. And on the vessel not a light was
to be seen and not a sound could be heard. It was like a mighty beast
gliding on its prey.

This vessel was the _Merrimac_, which had carried a load of coal to the
American fleet that lay outside of Santiago de Cuba. Inside the harbor
there were four fine Spanish ships-of-war. But these were like foxes run
into their hole, with the hunters waiting for them outside.

The harbor of Santiago is something like a great, mis-shipen
water-bottle, and the passage into the harbor is like the neck of the
bottle. Now, if you want to keep anything from getting out of a bottle
you drive a cork into its neck. And that is just what the Americans were
trying to do. The _Merrimac_ was the cork with which they wanted to
fasten up the Spanish ships in the water-bottle of Santiago.

The captain of the _Merrimac_ was a young officer named Richard P.
Hobson, who was ready to give his life, if he must, for his country.
Admiral Sampson did not like to send anyone into such terrible danger,
but the daring young man insisted on going, and he had no trouble in
getting seven men to go with him.

Most of the coal had been taken out of the _Merrimac_, but there was
enough left to sink her to the bottom like a stone. And along both
sides there had been placed a row of torpedoes, filled with gunpowder
and with electric wires to set them off when the right time came.

Hobson was to try to take the ship to the right spot, and then to blow
holes in her sides with the torpedoes and sink her across the channel.
Would not he and his men sink with her? Oh, well, they took the chances
on that.

Lieutenant Hobson had a fine plan laid out; but the trouble with fine
plans is that they do not always work in a fine way. He was to g