so
that they can be repaired, cleaned, or painted.

There is no dry-dock in Cuban harbors, and it is very necessary to have
one. Ships that cruise long in tropical waters are very apt to get their
hulls covered with barnacles and sea-weed. These growths after a while
prevent the ship from cutting easily through the water, and decrease her
speed. All ships that are long in these southern seas have to have their
hulls scraped every now and then. Many of the war-vessels that are now
in Cuban waters have been a year without this necessary cleaning, and to
make it possible to do the work in Cuba, without the loss of time
necessary to go back to the Spanish navy yards, the Government has gone
to the expense of building the floating dock.

There have been no end of difficulties about the dock. When it was
finished it was so big and heavy that it was very doubtful if any ship
could safely tow it across the Atlantic. The shipbuilders added a false
bow and stem to the dock, to make it cut its way through the water a
little, and in this fashion it is now being brought to Cuba; but the
gravest doubts are entertained as to the possibility of its ever
reaching its destination. It is feared that in case of a severe storm
the hawser, or strong rope by which it is towed, will part, and the
costly floating dock be left drifting about the ocean, a danger to
mariners.

But this is not the half of the trouble over the dock.

The greatest annoyance in regard to it is that it was built without
properly considering the amount of water it would draw; that is to say,
the depth of water necessary to float it.

Now that the dock is on its way to Cuba, it is found that it draws too
much water for the bay of Havana, and cannot be brought in and used
there.

When this unpleasant news was communicated to General Weyler, he cabled
to his agent in New York, asking him to send a dredging-machine over to
Havana immediately. To the General's mind the whole affair was simple
enough: he would get a dredging-machine, scoop out a channel, and have
the dock in place in no time.

He was therefore much angered to receive a reply that there were several
kinds of dredging-machines, and that to send him a machine that would do
the work properly it would be necessary to know the nature of the soil
of the bottom of the bay.

Now no one has ever dredged Havana Bay since the city was first founded
in the sixteenth century, and there are no means at hand of obt