When Miss Clara Barton received word of their plight she sent Dr. Egan, the chief medical officer of the expedition, with several attendants, around among the fleet of prizes to distribute food.  On one of the larger smacks Dr. Egan found that the crew had had nothing but fish to eat for several days.  The well in the boat, in which there were hundreds of live fish, contained also a large number of dead ones, which were putrefied and were rapidly polluting the living ones.  The physician immediately ordered the dead fish removed and fresh water pumped into the well.  He then furnished bread, potatoes and salt meat to the crew, so that, the continuity of Friday diet might be changed.

The Red Cross relief boats made a complete and accurate list of the Spanish prizes in the harbor—­twenty-two in all—­with the numerical strength of every crew, the amount of provisions, if any, on every vessel, and the quantity and kind of food that each would require.  This was at once provided, and thus almost the first work done by the Red Cross in our war with Spain was the feeding of representatives of a nation that had forced us into war mainly because of its policy of starvation of the people of Cuba.

On the morning of June 20, the Red Cross steamer State of Texas left Key West for Santiago, stocked with food and medicines, and having on board Miss Barton, Mr. Kennan, and a complete working force of doctors and nurses.  They were warmly welcomed on their arrival on Cuban shores, and the State of Texas was the first American ship to enter the harbor of Santiago after the surrender.

The Red Cross has done a grand work on many battlefields in every quarter of the globe, but never has it rendered more efficient aid to suffering humanity than it did on the southern shores of the island of Cuba.  On the battlefield, braving the bullets of the foe, in the hospitals, ministering to the wants of the wounded and the dying, among the wretched non-combatants, giving food to the starving, and nursing the fever-stricken refugees, these noble men and women were ever ready to answer to the cry of the needy and the helpless.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

The catastrophe to the Maine.

The Board of Inquiry in Session—­Its Report Received by Congress —­Spanish Officials in Cuba Show Sympathy—­The Evidence of the Divers—­A Submarine Mine—­The Officers and Men of the Maine Exonerated—­Responsibility Not Fixed.

The story of the destruction of the battleship Maine has already been told in these pages.  The Naval Board appointed to inquire into the causes of the disaster was composed of the following officers of the United States Navy:  Captain Sampson, of the Iowa; Captain Chadwick, of the New York; Captain Marix, of the Vermont, and Lieutenant Commander Potter, of the New York.

After an investigation which lasted for more than three weeks, this Board of Inquiry sent its report to President McKinley, who transmitted it to Congress, accompanied by the following message: