A small boat carried her commanding officer ashore, and while he was gone another brought one of her juniors, Ensign Dick Comly, to visit his only brother, who was a Rough Rider.

The _Speedy_ had just come from Santiago, and of course Ensign Comly knew all about Hobson.

Would he tell the story of the _Merrimac_?
Certainly he would, and so a few minutes after his arrival the naval man was relating the thrilling tale as follows: "I don't suppose many of you fellows ever heard of Hobson before this, but every one in the navy knew of him long ago.

He is from Alabama, was the youngest man in the Naval Academy class of '89, graduated number 2, was sent abroad to study naval architecture, and, upon returning to this country, was given the rank of Assistant Naval Constructor.

At the beginning of this war he was one of the instructors at Annapolis, but immediately applied for active duty, and was assigned to the _New York_.
"When Victor Blue, of the _Suwanee_, had proved beyond a doubt by going ashore and counting them that all of Cervera's ships were in Santiago Harbor, Hobson conceived the plan of keeping them there by taking in a ship and sinking it across the channel.