to be at
San Juan, where there was a navy yard and where his position would have
obliged the American fleet either to split into two divisions separated
by eight hundred miles or to leave him free range of action. Next to San
Juan he would have preferred Havana or, Cienfuegos, which were connected
by railroad and near which lay the bulk of the Spanish Army. He found
himself instead at the extreme eastern end of Cuba in a port with no
railroad connection with Havana, partly blocked by the insurgents, and
totally unable to supply him with necessities.

Unless Cervera could leave Santiago, his expedition would obviously have
been useless. Though it was the natural function of the American fleet
to blockade him, for a week after his arrival there was an interesting
game of hide and seek between the two fleets. The harbors of Cienfuegos
and of Santiago are both landlocked by high hills, and Cervera had
entered Santiago without being noticed by the Americans, as that part
of the coast was not under blockade. Schley thought Cervera was at
Cienfuegos; Sampson was of the opinion that he was at Santiago. When it
became known that the enemy had taken refuge in Santiago, Schley began
the blockade on the 28th of May, but stated that he could not continue
long in position owing to lack of coal. On the 1st of June Sampson
arrived and assumed command of the blockading squadron.

With the bottling up of Cervera, the first stage of the war passed.
The navy had performed its primary function: it had established its
superiority and had obtained the control of the seas. The American coast
was safe; American commerce was safe except in the vicinity of Spain;
and the sea was open for the passage of an American expeditionary
force. Nearly the whole island of Cuba was now under blockade, and the
insurgents were receiving supplies from the United States. It had been
proved that the fairly even balance of the two fleets, so anxiously
scanned when it was reported in the newspapers in April, was entirely
deceptive when it came to real efficiency in action. Moreover, the
skillful handling of the fleets by the Naval War Board as well as by
the immediate commanders had redoubled the actual superiority of the
American naval forces.

A fleet in being, even though inferior and immobilized, still counts as
a factor in naval warfare, and Cervera, though immobilized by Sampson,
himself immobilized the greater number of American vessels necessary to
block