Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard, President, Naval War Board, to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long
Navy Department,
Office of Naval War Board,
Washington, D. C., June 18, 1898.
The Board recommends that the following telegram be sent to the U.S.Naval Attaché at Paris.1
Respectfully,
M. Sicard
Rear Admiral,
Pres. of the Board.
Sampson2 has been ordered to have the OREGON, IOWA and MASSACHUSETTS kept full of coal and ready to move against the Spanish coast as soon as it is known that Camara has passed Suez.3 Six large swift cruisers will accompany the squadron to act against Spanish trade.4 You will let this transpire,5 although it is true.
The Secretary6 has approved of this.
M. Sicard
R. Adml.7
Source Note: TLS, DNA, RG 45, Entry 372. Typed on Naval War Board stationery.
Footnote 1: Lt. William S. Sims.
Footnote 2: RAdm. William T. Sampson, Commander, North Atlantic Fleet.
Footnote 3: Vice Adm. Manuel de la Cámara y Libermoore’s squadron was ordered to steam for the Philippines to retake the waters off Manila from RAdm. George Dewey. Trask, War with Spain, 270-83.
Footnote 4: For more information on the formation of these Navy vessels to head to Spanish waters as a response to Vice Adm. Camara’s manoeuvres, see: The Eastern Squadron.
Footnote 5: The word “transpire” in this sense, means “to become known.”
Footnote 6: Secretary of the Navy John D. Long.
Footnote 7: These three lines were handwritten.
