Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles H. Allen to Read Admiral William T. Sampson, Commander, North Atlantic Fleet
Washington, D.C.
June,11 [1898]
May, 14, the British consular agent at Guantanamo, Cuba says that innavigable harbor seventeen mine fields floating about two metres below surface. Conversation overheard at Philadelphia, states Morro cliffs Santiago were so mined as to be blown up at will toward our vessels that may be passing in the channel.1 This seems inprobable and probably impracticable.
Sig. AllenyActing.
Source Note: TCy, DNA, RG 313, Entry 53. Addressed before opening: “Sampson/Mole Hayti.” Handwritten at the bottom of this copy was: “Copy of this left with Mc Calla at Guantanamo.”
Footnote 1: The name of the British consular agent is unknown. In neither case were the minefields described effective. See: Cmdr. Bowman H. McCalla’s Lessons of the Late War, 1899.
