Of course it was a perfectly useless thing to do, for Sampson's fleet is powerful enough to lick the stuffing out of the whole Spanish navy, if only it could get the chance.

However, the notion took with the Admiral, and Hobson was told to go ahead.
"He selected the collier _Merrimac_, a big iron steamer 300 feet long, stripped her of all valuable movables, and fastened a lot of torpedoes to her bottom.

Each one of these was sufficiently powerful to sink the ship, and all were connected by wires with a button on the bridge.
Hobson's plan was to steam into the channel at full speed, regardless of mines or batteries, and anchor his ship across the narrowest part of the channel.

There he proposed to blow her up and sink her.

What was to become of himself and the half dozen men who were to go with him I don't know, and don't suppose he cared.
"At the same time there was some provision made for escape in case any of them survived the blowing up of their ship.