This is an account of an event that occurred while General Shafter's Fifth Corps was on its way to Cuba The transport YUCATAN (with the Rough Riders aboard) nearly rammed the Transport MATTEAWAN (with Bates Independent Brigade, 20th U.S. Infantry, and the 2nd U.S. Cavalry aboard). The photo was taken as the YUCATAN came towards MATTEAWAN.
The Account:
...That evening, an hour before sunset, while the MATTEAWAN
was lying at anchor - again waiting for a pilot - the procession of transports passed on the way to Egmont Keys.
It was a succession of interesting and inspiring moments. As each one
sped by, the band on board played a spirited tune, while cheers from the
hundred of throats on both ships added enthusiasm and excitement to the
scene. Suddenly, out of the mist, I saw a large figure '8' loom up
against the side of one of the fleet. I turned my machine [camera] on
her at a distance of about two hundred yards. As she approached, it
became evident that something was wrong with her steering gear. When one
hundred and fifty yards away, her whistle blew and the huge anchor on
the starboard side dropped suddenly, while the heavy churning of the sea
in the rear proved only too plainly that the YUCATAN
was, for some unknown reason, getting beyond the control of her
navigators. Her course changed and for a few moments - inasmuch as her
bow was aiming directly as us who were standing on the bridge -visions
of the first big 'scoop' crowded through my over-anxious brain. When
about two hundred feet away, it became evident that she was finally
under control, although not until her bow was within three feet of the MATTEAWAN did she come to a dead
stop. The love of adventure and danger was so strongly engrafted into
those on board both vessels that, instead of a sigh of relief, a very
pronounced one of disappointment seemed to come from the breast of every
man within hearing. A number climbed oer the railing of each vessel in
an endeavor to shake hands with the men on the other. After a brief halt
of a few moments the YUCATAN began
to recoil, and was son speeding on her way. It developed that the
steering apparatus has really become seriously confounded, and, had the
vessel not been brought to a halt at the instant she was, it is highly
probable that there would have been no 'Rough
Riders'' deads to records in Cuba and, more, this addition to 'war
literature' would not have been forthcoming. Thirty-five hundred pounds
of dynamite, which was later be associated with the dynamite
gun, rested in her bow."
McIntoch, Burr, The Little I Saw of Cuba. (New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1899) 43-44