When in 1898 Rear-Admiral William Thomas Sampson steamed from Key West for the blockade of Santiago (TIME, Sept. I), Key West was a bustling harbor, a busy naval station, a bristling fort (Ft. Taylor). Key West had been fortified since 1846, had remained Federal during the Civil War. Southernmost U. S. port, situated on a coral island 60 mi. southwest of the Florida mainland (now joined by the oversea Florida East Coast R. R.), during the Spanish War it was concentration centre for the U. S. Atlantic Fleet, embarkation point for...
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