3-086-391 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Entrance to the harbour of Santiago de Cuba; with the "Merrimac," which was sunk..., 1898. '...at the narrowest portion of the channel. Our Views of the Harbour are from Photographs supplied by Capt. F. M. Roome. The "Merrimac" was built on the Tyne in 1894...She was subsequently transferred to the United States Government as a coaling vessel. Her length was 340ft. Her value was estimated at £30,000. [Portrait of Naval-Constructor Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson?] The naval squadron of Admiral Cervera is shut up in the landlocked harbour of Santiago de Cuba...its chance of final escape was...rendered quite hopeless by the sinking, with broadside across the channel, of a [US] vessel of no great value, the Merrimac, which was merely an old merchant-ship recently equipped as a cruiser, and laden with coal. This was done by Lt. Hobson...[who] brought the Merrimac up to near the Estrella Battery, disregarding the torpedoes which were said to have been laid down by the Spaniards...[He] got his vessel to swing...directly athwart the navigable channel...this plan seems to have been entirely successful. The Merrimac was sunk...by Lt. Hobson's own torpedoes, so as to obstruct the channel and prevent any of the Spanish ships coming out'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.