Open house, Macomber kick off MOTI season
The Museum of the Islands kicked off the 2017 season with its annual open house Dec. 3 followed on Monday night by Robert Macomber’s presentation about Florida’s crucial role during the Spanish-American War which transformed America into a global power.
“The Christmas Open House is something we do every year just at the beginning of the new season,” MOTI president Vicky Duflo said. “It’s a way to re-introduce people to the museum. We offer discounted items in the gift shop and a number of local vendors selling arts and crafts, jams and jelly, stepping stones, jewelry, paintings, plants and special Christmas items The children come to take part in the scavenger hunt to win prizes.
“Local author Robert Macomber always makes a history oriented presentation about Florida’s, particularly Southwest Florida’s, role in the Civil War and now the Spanish American War,” Duflo said. “Robert has a new book coming out in February, this will be the 13th book of his ‘Honor Series.'”
Approximately 40-50 people showed up at the Fishers of Men Lutheran Church to hear Macomber speak about the events leading up to the Spanish American War. His latest book, “An Honorable War: The Spanish American War Begins” will be available Feb. 15.
“I was trying to remember how many years I’ve been giving these talks and believe it or not it’s almost 20 years,” Macomber said. “Tonight I wanted to talk about a part of our history that is often overlooked.”
According to Macomber, in the first six months of 1898, during the McKinley administration, the United States went from a “continental” country to a “global” power. This occurred during the shortest war in American history – the 6-month Spanish American War.
“The Cubans had been fighting for their independence (from Spain) for 30 years,” Macomber said. “Then in 1898 they were in their third year of their third and final ‘hot’ war when the United States got involved. By the time we became involved the Cuban army had taken over much of Cuba, including several of the major cities. The Spanish army, which outnumbered them almost 10 to 1, was relegated to a defensive position.
“The United States was also a refuge for freedom fighters and here in Florida there was a lot of pro-Cuban feeling,” Macomber said. “We had Cuban communities in Key West, Tampa, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the great Cuban leader Jose Marti was a frequent visitor to Florida and New York.”
In the decades following the Civil War, the U.S. Navy’s fleet had been neglected for more than 20 years and by the end of the 19th century there was great concern whether the U.S. Navy could defend the country against a naval attack.
“Former Confederate Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (nephew of Robert E. Lee), who was ambassador to Cuba at the time, sent a secret message to the U.S.,” Macomber said. “Buried in the message were two words… ‘two dollars’. When that message arrived the Navy knew that the words ‘two dollars’ was a signal to send the battleship Maine to Havana Harbor. The ship was then sent to protect American interests and evacuate Americans if things went bad.”
On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor and 266 American sailors were killed in the blast. It was thought at the time that the cause of the explosion was a mine, but according to Macomber, “We’ve learned that the explosion was caused by an accidental explosion in the coal bunker that ignited the ammunition sinking the ship.
“Our part (Southwest Florida’s) in the history is that when Ambassador Fitzhugh Lee sent the telegram that the Maine had been sunk, it was received by a telegraph operator named Mr. Schultz,” Macomber said. “Mr. Shultz was inside a small brick building in Punta Rassa so Mr. Shultz was the first person in the U.S. to learn that the Maine had been sunk and that we would be going to war.
“The president at the time, President McKinley, had been in a war – the Civil War and had been at the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War,” Macomber said. “McKinley didn’t want to see this country go back into war and he tried everything to avoid war. It took Congress two months to declare war.”
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt had been working to get the U.S. Navy on a war footing but the U.S. Army was completely unprepared. At the beginning of the war (March 1898), the Army had 27,000 men scattered across the country completely unprepared for the upcoming war. When Congress declared war two months later, many volunteers came forward and by late July and early August the Army had grown to 275,000 soldiers.
“The logistics are unimaginable,” Macomber said. “Tents, medicine, food, transport and everything you need to feed and house 275,000 soldiers and many of them were sent to Florida as a staging point before going to Cuba. Jacksonville and Tampa would be the two ports used for loading and departure for Cuba.
“Florida’s west coast railroad tycoon Henry Plant, who also owned the Tampa Bay Hotel in Tampa, made a ton of money,” Macomber said. “The soldiers were transported on Henry Plant’s railroad and the 5th Army Corps took the Tampa Bay Hotel as its headquarters.
“When the troops got to Cuba they put them ashore, they forgot to bring boats, they forgot to bring barges to get their heavy equipment ashore,” Macomber said. “The Cubans helped the U.S. Army get ashore but the Army lost equipment and horses and had very little food and medical supplies. By the time the Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders went up San Juan Hill, the only one on horseback was Teddy Roosevelt.
“In the space of six days in Cuba, we had a huge land battle and the definitive naval battle where we wiped out the entire Spanish fleet and from that moment on the United States was a global power,” Macomber said.
“Up until that time the British Navy was very dismissive of the United States Navy,” Macomber said. “There’s a famous quote by a British Navy Admiral named Jackie Fisher. When the hero of the Battle of Manila Bay, Admiral Dewey, was on a world tour he visited England where a reception was held by the Royal Navy. When the two admirals met Admiral Fisher said, ‘It seems that the American Eagle has now taken to its wings and she will never be content with staying in her nest again. But I’d like to think she had a fine old English hen for a mother.’ That’s a short story of the Spanish American War in Florida.”
Macombers newest book is the 13th book in the “Honor Series” of naval historical fiction following the career of Capt. Peter Wake.
The Amazon preview says, “Politics, love and war swirl around Captain Peter Wake (USN) in Havana when the USS Maine explodes on a quiet evening in February, 1898. Working with Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt in the tense pre-war days, carrying out a perilous espionage mission inside Cuba, and leading a disastrous raid on the Cuban coast, Wake is in the middle of it all. This is the first of a dynamic trilogy set during the Spanish-American War in the Caribbean, when America changes forever into a global power.”