The Navy Department had become convinced from information received that Cervera had imperative orders to go either to Cienfuegos or Havana to land material necessary for the defence of Havana, and urged the utmost dispatch in blockading both ports. Thus next morning, May 19th, Commodore Schley sailed with the three ships of his squadron mentioned, to be followed next day by the _Iowa_, our newest battleship of the time, and which reached Cienfuegos only seven hours after Commodore Schley. There followed the torpedo boat _Dupont_, the collier _Merrimac_, the cruisers _Marblehead_, _Castine_, and two auxiliary vessels; an ample force, should Cervera be met. Events were now following one another with the utmost rapidity. To deal with these in detail is quite beyond our scope. One must look to the larger histories of the war for the full account of the happenings of this stirring time.[54] One can give here but a running mention of the reception on the late afternoon of May 19th of the news by the way of Havana of Cervera’s arrival that morning at Santiago de Cuba; the repetition of this news with an expression of doubt in the telegram from Washington to Sampson during that night; its verification next day, the 20th; the dispatch of the news to Schley with orders, if convinced that Cervera was not in Cienfuegos Bay,[55] to go to Santiago and blockade; Sampson’s movement 300 miles east with the rest of the fleet available into the narrow waters of Nicholas Channel, to intercept Cervera should he leave Santiago and attempt to reach Havana; the delay of Schley at Cienfuegos, not being satisfied that Cervera was not there; the final assurance that Cervera was not at Cienfuegos received from insurgents on May 24th, and the departure that evening of Commodore Schley’s squadron for Santiago; his arrival twenty-two miles south of the entrance on May 26th; Cervera’s intention (but given up through vacillation) to leave Santiago that evening at almost the same moment when Schley started with intention to return to Key West on the plea of inability to coal his ships; his change of mind on May 28th and arrival that evening off Santiago; the arrival of the _Oregon_ at Key West on May 26th, completing her remarkable journey of 14,000 miles from the west coast; Sampson’s finally determining to go to Santiago on account of Schley’s dispatch that he could not blockade for want of coal; the recognition of the _Colón_ in the harbor entrance on May 29th; the ineffectual attack on the _Colón_ on May 30th; the arrival of Sampson on June 1st with the _New York_, _Oregon_, _Mayflower_, and torpedo boat _Porter_; the establishment of a close blockade; the sinking of the _Merrimac_ in the entrance channel; the stationing every evening of a battleship with searchlights upon the harbor entrance; the occupancy of Guantánamo Bay; the driving off, by the battalion of marines established there in camp, of the Spanish troops in the