near the _Yucatan_. Rumor immediately had it that she was from the
blockading fleet of Santiago, and every eye was turned upon her with
interest. A small boat carried her commanding officer ashore, and
while he was gone another brought one of her juniors, Ensign Dick
Comly, to visit his only brother, who was a Rough Rider. The _Speedy_
had just come from Santiago, and of course Ensign Comly knew all about
Hobson. Would he tell the story of the _Merrimac_? Certainly he
would, and so a few minutes after his arrival the naval man was
relating the thrilling tale as follows:

"I don't suppose many of you fellows ever heard of Hobson before this,
but every one in the navy knew of him long ago. He is from Alabama,
was the youngest man in the Naval Academy class of '89, graduated
number 2, was sent abroad to study naval architecture, and, upon
returning to this country, was given the rank of Assistant Naval
Constructor. At the beginning of this war he was one of the
instructors at Annapolis, but immediately applied for active duty, and
was assigned to the _New York_.

"When Victor Blue, of the _Suwanee_, had proved beyond a doubt by going
ashore and counting them that all of Cervera's ships were in Santiago
Harbor, Hobson conceived the plan of keeping them there by taking in a
ship and sinking it across the channel. Of course it was a perfectly
useless thing to do, for Sampson's fleet is powerful enough to lick the
stuffing out of the whole Spanish navy, if only it could get the
chance. However, the notion took with the Admiral, and Hobson was told
to go ahead.

"He selected the collier _Merrimac_, a big iron steamer 300 feet long,
stripped her of all valuable movables, and fastened a lot of torpedoes