to ru n or the n aviga tio nal h aza rd, bur rather the electrically fired mines controlled by the Span ish gun batteries on the cliffs and bluff. H e was also mindful of the ap proach of hurricane season. A bad sto rm wo uld require the di spersal of his ships, providing an opportunity for Cervera to break our. Fear that Spanish warships m ight bombard US coas tal cities was rampant along rhe eastern seaboard. Politicians were dem anding port pro tection and wealthy individuals were insistin g that Navy ships be stationed offshore ro protect their seaside m ansions at locations such as Newport, Rhode Island, and Long Island, New York. Sampson was also engaged in an interservice dispute with US A rmy invasion fo rce commander General W illiam Rufus Shafter. To eliminate h is major concern regarding entry ro the harbor, the admiral requested that the Army ra ke our the gu n batteries controlling the electric m ines. Shafter refused, demanding instead th at the Navy enter the harbor fi rs t and eliminate the Spanish squad ron before the Army attacked . In addition to all of these con cerns, Sampson was anxious to free up his ships fo r use in other theaters. A r the urging of Captain Alfred T. Mahan, a contingency plan for a C ubanbased war wi th Spain had been developed at the Naval Wa r College during the mid1890s. Revised by the Navy D epartment, the plan was resurrected by Assistant Secreta ry of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt and approved by the Naval War Board in 1898. The final version of the war plan tasked the Navy with attacks in the Canary Islands and along the coast of Spain. These considerations prompted Sampson to propose a radical and potentially suicidal scheme to trap Cervera in the h arbor. Prepa ration of a detailed operatio n al plan to sink a US sh ip at the narrowes t point in the harbor entry was assigned to 27-year-old Naval Academy graduate Lieuten ant Richmond Hobson . If the A rmy rema ined adamant in its refusal to rake out the batteries ashore, Sampson proposed to send in a M arine unit to assault the g un batteries and disable the firing controls for the electrical m ines. The Navy would then clear the mines, eliminate the sunken ship as a nav igational haza rd, and proceed to enter the harbor.
SEA HISTORY I 55, SUMMER 20 I 6
"The Scuttling of the US Navy collier Merri mac at the entrance to Santiago harbor, a Spanish view. "Source: Severo Gomez Nunez, "The Spanish-American ~r: Blocakdes and Coast Defense," in US Navy, Office of Naval l ntellignece, No tes on the Spanish-Ameri can War (Washington, D C: Government Printing Office, 1900, p. 79)
Richmond Pearson H obson was born in 1870 at his family's M ag nolia Grove plantation, deep in the heart of Alabama cotton country. His fa ther, a slave holder, had fought for the Confederacy and was then serving as a local judge. Entering the Naval Academy at fifteen, H obson graduated in 1889, fi rst in his class. Assigned to study marine architecture and engineering at two prestigious French academies, he graduated with distinction and was designated a n aval constructor. After several tours of duty at navy ya rds designing wa rships and at sea observing the perfo rmance of design innovations, H obson volunteered to develop a course in ship design fo r the Naval Academ y. U pon approval, he was assigned to Annapolis, bur rhe outbreak of the Spanish A merican Wa r in April 1898 abruprly ended his tour at the Naval Academy and he was reass igned as assisram naval constructor fo r the No rth Atlantic Fleer aboard Admiral Sampson's flagship, the armored cruiser USS New York. H ow to sink an iron ship in less than a few m inu tes at a speci fic location- this was the challenge posed by the admiral to
Lieuten ant Hobson. As the cruiser New York departed Key West on 30 May, bound for Santiago de C uba, Hobson set to work.
US Naval Constructor Lt. Richmond Pearson Ho bson, (1870-1937). Hobson would retire with the rank of Rear Admiral and go on to serve in the US Congress representing the State ofAlabama.
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