Page 310 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

288 Strategic Features of the Gulf of

Pensacola nor New Orleans is, having the con-
tinent at their backs.
It is in this respect that the pre-eminent in-
trinsic advantages of Cuba, or rather of Spain
in Cuba, are to be seen ; and also, but in much
less degree, those of Great Britain in Jamaica.
Cuba, though narrow throughout, is over six
hundred miles long, from Cape San Antonio
to Cape Maysi. It is, in short, not so much
an island as a continent, susceptible, under
proper development, of great resources — of
self-sufficingness. In area it is half as large
again as Ireland, but, owing to its peculiar form,
is much more than twice as long. Marine dis-
tances, therefore, are drawn out to an extreme
degree. Its many natural harbors concentrate
themselves, to a military examination, into
three principal groups, whose representatives
are, in the west, Havana; in the east, Santi-
ago ; while near midway of the southern shore
lies Cienfuegos. The shortest water distance
separating any two of these is 335 miles, from
Santiago to Cienfuegos. To get from Cienfue-
gos to Havana 450 miles of water must be
traversed and the western point of the island
doubled ; yet the two ports are distant by land