costly floating dock be left drifting about the ocean, a danger to
mariners.

But this is not the half of the trouble over the dock.

The greatest annoyance in regard to it is that it was built without
properly considering the amount of water it would draw; that is to say,
the depth of water necessary to float it.

Now that the dock is on its way to Cuba, it is found that it draws too
much water for the bay of Havana, and cannot be brought in and used
there.

When this unpleasant news was communicated to General Weyler, he cabled
to his agent in New York, asking him to send a dredging-machine over to
Havana immediately. To the General's mind the whole affair was simple
enough: he would get a dredging-machine, scoop out a channel, and have
the dock in place in no time.

He was therefore much angered to receive a reply that there were several
kinds of dredging-machines, and that to send him a machine that would do
the work properly it would be necessary to know the nature of the soil
of the bottom of the bay.

Now no one has ever dredged Havana Bay since the city was first founded
in the sixteenth century, and there are no means at hand of obtaining
the desired information. There will therefore be some delay before the
required investigation can be made.

Added to this, the New York firm sent him word that a special machine