Campaigning in Cuba / by George Kennan.

  • George Kennan
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Campaigning in Cuba / by George Kennan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    American citizens, and their detention here and inability to get away for want of funds has exhausted their supply of food, and some of them will soon be entirely out. As there is no appropria- tion available from which food could be purchased, would you kindly provide for them until I can get definite instructions from the de- partment at Washington? Very respectfully yours, [Signed] John F. Horr, U. S. Marshal. Appended to the above letter was a list of fifteen Spanish vessels whose crews were believed by the marshal to be in need of food. In less than three hours after the receipt of this commu- nication two large ships’ boats, loaded with provisions for the sailors on the Spanish prizes, left the State of Texas in tow of the steam-launch of the troop-ship Panther. Before dark that night, Mr. Cobb and Dr. Egan, of Miss Barton’s staff, who were in charge of the relief-boats, had visited every captured Spanish vessel in the harbor. Two or three of them, including the great liners Miguel Jover and Argonauta, had provisions enough, and were not in need of relief, but most of the others—particularly the fishing-smacks—were in even worse straits than the marshal supposed. The large transatlantic steamer Pedro, of Bilbao, had no flour, bread, coffee, tea, sugar, beans, rice, vegetables, or lard for cook- ing, and her crew had lived for fifteen days exclusively upon fish. The schooner Severito had wholly exhausted her supplies, and had on board nothing to eat of any kind. Of the others, some had no matches or oil for lights, some were nearly out of water, and all were reduced to an unrelieved fish diet, of which the men were beginning to sicken. The Red Cross relief-boats made a complete and accurate list of the Spanish prizes in the harbor,—twenty-two in all,—with the numerical strength of every crew, the amount of provi-
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