h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What a great story you have chosen to share with us.

The one point that made my radar go up was when he mentioned finding out what they were going to do with 'the new Holland boat'. Although not well known, she was one of the biggest changes in Naval history http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/detail.asp?ship_id=USS-Holland-SS1

Her successors were prominent in both World Wars, the Cold War and are still the most important class of ships in the oceans. I can well understand why Spain would have been concerned about her.

Back in those days they would have, after further interrogation, tried him in a military court . found him guilty of either espionage or treason and hanged him. His 'apparent suicide' was not in the best interest of the government.

F S

Thanks for letting us know more about the ships. I always got the feeling the Spanish couldn't compete at all in that area.

I don't know anything about the case other than what I've read, so I couldn't say how it went down. But I did read 'apparent suicide'.

What we should probably keep in mind is that spies and counterintelligence agencies don't always act in the best interests of their governments. Or they have bad information, or make bad decisions, etc.

There weren't any 'good guys' in the Spanish American War, as far as I'm concerned. The Spanish were mismanaging their colonies, and the US land grab exacted a horrible cost in the Philippines. (And that diplomat was probably right about McKinley, although it wasn't nice to say so. )

Mark Twain summed things up nicely:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/twain.html

(Note that this is a government website.)