Guantanamo Bay (place)

Guantanamo Bay, a harbor of Southern Cuba, 38 miles E. of Santiago. It was just outside of this bay that United States war vessels, during the early part of the war with Spain, tried to cut the cables which extended from Santiago to Guantanamo and thence to Spain. On May 18, 1898, the "St. Louis" and the tug "Wampatuck" endeavored to get into the mouth of the harbor, but the Spanish batteries and a gunboat in the bay opened up such a severe fire that the "Wampatuck" was forced to withdraw, after grappling a cable about 800 yards from the shore. On June 10, the United States cruiser "Marblehead" shelled the hills on the right of the bay where the enemy had erected earthworks, and the next day the transport "Panther" landed 600 marines at Caimanera. In July, 1901, Guantanamo Bay was selected by the United States government as the site of one of four projected naval stations on the Cuban coast.