Commodore Arent S. Crowninshield, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, to Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard, Commander, North Atlantic Station
March, 14 1898.
Sir:-
I have to transmit, herewith, for your information, the following translation on cipher dispatch, dated the 14th instant, received in this Department from Lieutenant George L. Dyer, U.S.N., Naval Attaché of the United States Embassy at Madrid:
“Madrid, March 14, 1898.
Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
Washington, D.C.
Torpedo squadron three destroyers, three torpedo boats one converted cruiser left yesterday evening for the West Indies for the Canary Islands.1 Are due March 16th at the Canary Islands. Description of the squadron already sent. Her second similar squadron preparing.2
(Signed) Dyer.”
Very respectfully,
A.S.Crowninshield,
Chief of Bureau.
Source Note: TD DNA, AFNRC, M625, roll 33. Document reference at top center: “96843.” Typist’s initials above date: “EC.” Addressed below close: “Commander-in-Chief/U. S.Naval Force./North Atlantic Station.”
Footnote 1: This squadron of three torpedo boats, three destroyers, and a troop transport under the command of Capt. Fernando Villaamil Fernandez-Cueto were dispatched to Cuba via the Canary Islands. Trask, War with Spain, 64, 511, note 8. On 18 April, it joined a squadron commanded by RAdm. Pascual Cervera y Topete at the Cape Verde Islands.
Footnote 2: The Spanish North Atlantic squadron commanded by Cervera. It sailed from Cadiz on 14 March.
