— Flagship New York —
Off Havana,
April 26, 1898.
[DEAR FAMILY: ]
I left Key West on the morning of the 24th in the
Dolphin with the idea of trying to get on board the
flagship
on the strength of Roosevelt's letter. Stenie Bonsal got on
just before she sailed, not as a correspondent, but as a
magazine-writer for McClure's, who have given him a
commission, and because he could act as interpreter. I left
the flagship the morning of the day I arrived. The captain of
the Dolphin apologized to his officers while we were at
anchor in the harbor of Key West, because his was a "cabin"
and not a "gun" ship, and because he had to deliver the mails
at once on board the flagship and not turn out of his course
for anything, no matter how tempting a prize it might appear
to be. He then proceeded to chase every sail and column of
smoke on the horizon, so that the course was like a cat's
cradle. We first headed for a big steamer and sounded
"general quarters." It was fine to see the faces of the
apprentices as they ran to get their cutlasses and revolvers,
their eyes open and their hair on end, with the hope that they
were to board a Spanish battleship. But at the first gun she
ran up an American flag, and on getting nearer we saw she was
a Mallory steamer. An hour later we chased another steamer,
but she was already a prize, with a prize crew on board. Then
we had a chase for three hours at night; after what we
believed was the
Panama, but she ran away from us. We
fired
three shells after her, and she still ran and got away. The
next morning I went on board the
New York with Zogbaum,
the
artist. Admiral Sampson is a fine man; he impressed me very
much. He was very much bothered at the order forbidding
correspondents on the ship, but I talked like a father to him,
and he finally gave in, and was very nice about the way he did
it. Since then I have had the most interesting time and the
most novel experience of my life. We have been lying from
three to ten miles off shore. We can see Morro Castle and
houses and palms plainly without a glass, and with one we can
distinguish men and women in the villages. It is, or was,
frightfully hot, and you had to keep moving all the time to
get out of the sun. I mess with the officers, but the other
correspondents, the Associated Press and Ralph Paine of
The
World and
Press of Philadelphia, with the middies.
Paine
got on because Scovel of
The World has done so much secret
service work for the admiral, running in at night and taking
soundings, and by day making photographs of the coast, also
carrying messages to the insurgents.
It is a wonderful ship, like a village, and as big as the
Paris. We drift around in the sun or the moonlight, and
when we see a light, chase after it. There is a band on board
that plays twice a day. It is like
a luxurious yacht, with none of the ennui of a yacht. The
other night, when we were heading off a steamer and firing
six-pounders across her bows, the band was playing the "star"
song from the Meistersinger. Wagner and War struck me as the
most fin de siecle idea of war that I had ever heard of. The
nights have been perfectly beautiful, full of moonlight, when
we sit on deck and smoke. It is like looking down from the
roof of a high building. Yesterday they brought a Spanish
officer on board, he had been picked up in a schooner with his
orderly. I was in Captain Chadwick's cabin when he was
brought in, and Scovel interpreted for the captain, who was
more courteous than any Spanish Don that breathes. The
officer said he had been on his way to see his wife and newly
born baby at Matanzas, and had no knowledge that war had been
declared. I must say it did me good to see him. I remembered
the way the Spanish officers used to insult me in a language
which I, fortunately for me, could not understand, and how I
hated the sight of them, and I enjoyed seeing his red and
yellow cockade on the table before me, while I sat in a big
armchair and smoked and was in hearing of the marines drilling
on the upper deck. He was invited to go to breakfast with the
officers, and I sat next to him, and as it happened to be my
turn to treat, I had the satisfaction of pouring drinks down
his throat. I told stories about Spanish officers all the
time to the rest of the mess, pretending I was telling them
something else by making drawings on the tablecloth, so that
the unhappy officer on his other side, who was talking Spanish
to him, had a hard time not to laugh. I told Zogbaum he ought
to draw a picture of him at the mess to show how we treated
prisoners, and a companion
one of the captain of the
Compeliton, who came over
with us on the
Dolphin, and who showed us the marks of the
ropes on his wrists and arms the Spaniards had bound him with
when he was in Cabanas for nine months. The orderly messed
with the bluejackets, who treated him in the most hospitable
manner. He was a poor little peasant boy, half starved and
hollow-eyed, and so scared that he could hardly stand, but
they took great pride in the fact that they had made him eat
three times of everything. They are, without prejudice, the
finest body of men and boys you would care to see, and as
humorous and polite and keen as any class of men I ever met.
The war could be ended in a month so far as the island of
Cuba is concerned, if the troops were ready and brought over
here. The coast to Havana for ten miles is broad enough for
them to march along it, and the heights above could be covered
the entire time by the fleet, so that it would be absolutely
impossible for any force to withstand the awful hailstorm they
would play on it. Transports carrying the provisions would be
protected by the ships on the gulf side, and the guns at Morro
could be shut up in twenty-four hours. This is not a dream,
but the most obvious and feasible plan, and it is a disgrace
if the Washington politicians delay. As to health, this is
the healthiest part of the coast. The trade winds blow every
day of the year, and the fever talk is all nonsense. The army
certainly has delayed most scandalously in mobilizing. This
talk of waiting a month is suicide. It is a terrible expense.
It keeps the people on a strain, destroys business, and the
health of the troops at Tampa is, to my mind, in much greater
danger than it would be on the hills around Havana, where, as
Scovel says, there is as much yellow fever as there is snow.
Tell Dad to urge them to act promptly. In the meanwhile I am
having a magnificent time. I am burned and hungry and losing
about a ton of fat a day, and I sleep finely. The other night
the
Porter held us up, but it was a story that never got
into the papers. I haven't missed a trick so far except not
getting on the flagship from the first, but that does not
count now since I am on board.
I haven't written anything yet, but I am going to begin
soon. I expect to make myself rich on this campaign. I get
ten cents a word from Scribner's for everything I send
them,
if it is only a thousand words, and I get four hundred dollars
a week salary from The Times, and all my expenses. I
haven't had any yet, but when I go back and join the army, I
am going to travel en suite with an assistant and the best and
gentlest ponies; a courier and a servant, a tent and a
secretary and a typewriter, so that Miles will look like a
second lieutenant.
When I came out here on the Dolphin I said I was
going to Tampa, lying just on the principle that it is no other
newspaper-man's business where you are going. So, The
Herald man at Key West, hearing this, and not knowing I
was
going to the flagship, called Long, making a strong kick
about the correspondents, Bonsal, Remington and Paine, who
are, or were, with the squadron. Stenie left two days ago,
hoping to get a commission on the staff of General Lee. So
yesterday Scovel told me Long had cabled in answer to The
Herald's protests to the admiral as follows: "Complaints
have been received that correspondents Paine, Remington and
Bonsal are with the squadron. Send them ashore at once.
There must be no favoritism."
Scovel got the admiral at once to cable Long on his behalf
because of his services as a spy, but as Roosevelt had done so
much for me, I would not appeal over him, and this morning I
sent in word to the admiral that I was leaving the ship and
would like to pay my respects. Sampson is a thin man with a
gray beard. He looks like a college professor and has very
fine, gentle eyes. He asked me why I meant to leave the ship,
and I said I had heard one of the torpedo boats was going to
Key West, and I thought I would go with her if he would allow
it. He asked if I had seen the cable from Long, and I said I
had heard of it, and that I was really going so as not to
embarrass him with my presence. He said, "I have received
three different orders from the Secretary, one of them telling
me I could have such correspondents on board as were agreeable
to me. He now tells me that they must all go. You can do as
you wish. You are perfectly welcome to remain until the
conflict of orders is cleared up." I saw he was mad and that
he wanted me to stay, or at least not to go of my own wish, so
that he could have a grievance out of it — if he had to send me
away after having been told he could have those with him who
were agreeable to him. Captain Chadwick was in the cabin, and
said, "Perhaps Mr. Davis had better remain another twenty-four
hours." The admiral added, "Ships are going to Key West
daily." Then Chadwick repeated that he thought I had better
stay another day, and made a motion to me to do so. So I said
I would, and now I am waiting to see what is going to happen.
Outside, Chadwick told me that something in the way of an
experience would probably come off, so I have hopes. By this
time, of course, you know all about it. I shall finish this
later.
We began bombarding Matanzas twenty minutes after I wrote
the above. It was great. I guess I got a beat, as The
Herald tug is the only one in sight.
DICK.
