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JL housands of eyes watched the collier steam away from the squadron and out of sight. There were long moments of waiting as officers and sailors strained to see what was about to happen near the shore. They knew that the war, which had been declared only a month before, might be coming to an end. For weeks they had searched the Caribbean for the enemy, and now at last the swift Spanish cruisers had been trapped in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba.
The commander of the U. S. North Atlantic Squadron, Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson, had decided to send the old collier Merrimac into the mouth of the harbor in order to blow herself up and seal in the Spanish vessels. It was a suicide mission, and no one expected the ship’s volunteer crew to survive the attempt. Minutes slipped by, but nothing was heard from the shore. Suddenly, the coast lit up as gunfire shot down from the heights above the harbor. Explosions and more explosions shattered the stillness, and the shore was soon ablaze as the Spanish guns opened up on the unarmed collier. Before their eyes, the harbor turned into a roaring inferno. "It was dreadful, . . .” one captain remembered: "to my mind what hell would look like with the lid off!”
Through the smoke, the Merrimac could be seen struggling to steam farther into the channel, but she was being torn to pieces by the enemy fire. Then there was a giant explosion, and the collier twisted over onto her side. Still more shots poured into the sinking vessel. "My heart sank,” recalled one horrified witness, "as I saw the perfect hell of fire that fell upon those devoted men. I did not think it was possible for one of them to come out of it alive. . .” Slowly the fire from the
Having unaccountably survived a certifiable suicide mission, Naval Constructor Richmond Pearson Hobson, with his brooding good looks, aroused maternal and other instincts; from coast to coast, ladies of all ages kissed this V,c' torian sex symbol with a fervor never seen before and rarely since.
Spanish guns subsided, and slowly a stillness return^ to the harbor. As dawn came, only the Merrimc>:- smokestack and masts were visible to mark the gra' of the sunken collier. The vessel had gone down 10 the wrong spot; a ship and her crew had appar0nt' been sacrificed for nothing.
Although the Merrimac adventure occurred °n June 1898, in a sense its inception came in 1870- that year was born the man who planned and led daring exploit—Richmond Pearson Hobson. He vV‘l‘ the scion of two distinguished lines of Southern tary and public servants. One of his ancestors 0 planted the first British flag on New Zealand, another had fought in the American Revolution * Cowpens and King’s Mountain. As a boy, )’°un^ Richmond had been raised in Alabama—in a world t was more romantic than real. Eventually—perhaps 01 evitably—he entered the Naval Academy. Naval Ca Hobson was everything a boy hero should be. A 0 liant student and a good athlete, he read his Bible da ^ and abstained from both alcohol and tobacco. He ^ an almost fanatical sense of duty. When Hobson served two cadets breaking regulations by smoking* immediately turned them in. For the rest of his caf at Annapolis, he was ostracized and, with one ex r tion, never spoken to by any midshipman. Neverthel ^ by his senior year (1888-1889) he had maintained
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sor^
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Annapolis days without conversation and would 0
e spend the rest—which he did. If nothing else, he cd the respect of the brigade, and on graduation y he was warmly cheered by his classmates.
^0r the next nine years, Hobson was given a variety . uties- He sailed with the fleet, helped design battle- P*> studied in Europe, and taught at the Naval ' ernY- Strikingly handsome, he cut a superb figure j ls Ur*iform and braid. What a coup for any fashion- e tnatron to have this young officer grace her draw’ r°om. But beneath this urbane facade of charm small talk brooded a man who was worried and jt k°red. His naval duties had been all too pedestrian Q tame. Only in conflict could he get a chance to ^Ve himself, to live up to his family’s past. When Was declared against Spain in late April of 1898, |Vas hke a godsend; and what luck to be ordered to ^tra] Sampson’s flagship, the armored cruiser New <, ’ tvhere he ■was sure to see some action.
_ °°n splendid news came. Commodore George Wey had completely destroyed the Spanish Pacific ln Manila Bay. Now Spain had only one major r°n left, lurking somewhere in the Caribbean Sea.
>Weeks, the New York and her consorts searched for er»erny. In late May, word came that Commodore ‘nheld Scott Schley’s squadron had trapped the ‘ y m Santiago harbor. The New York raced to the ^e> and when she at last joined the blockade the could make out the harbor entrance—a narrow etween two cliffs. Guarding the channel were 24 guns, and Morro Castle glowered down from one of the heights.
In the meantime, Admiral Sampson had been formulating a plan: to send an old ship into the narrow channel and try' to sink her under the Spanish guns. Of course, it would be risky, but it might be enough to cork the bottle and keep the Spaniards in. Without a navy, Spain could not hope to hold Cuba for long. Needing some technical advice, Sampson asked Hobson for his opinion of the scheme. Hobson quickly drew up plans and then surprised the admiral by begging to be placed in command of the operation, even though he was a naval constructor (an engineer, that is, rather than a line officer). Reluctantly, Sampson agreed; he liked this young man and knew that he was probably sending him to his death. Yet, for Hobson this was the fulfillment of everything he had been preparing for. By moonlight he would sail the Merrimac into the harbor and drop the bow anchors; the current would swing the ship sideways across the channel. Ten explosive charges would be detonated, ripping open the hull and sinking the vessel instantly.1 He and his crew
*The explosives, then known as "torpedoes,” were 8-inch powder charges with wires attached so they could be fired by their own electric primers.
he
arc-
firing
entrance was still clear. The Spanish were now
at point-blank range, riddling the vessel with the’
had
would try to escape in a dinghy. But Hobson was worried that all ten charges might not go off and asked Sampson if he might not place two huge bombs in the belly of the ship, just in case. The Admiral gruffly replied that this would "blow everything to the devil” and absolutely refused. He was not going to turn probable suicide into certain suicide.
The next problem was determining who would accompany Hobson. Only seven sailors were needed, but it seemed as if everyone was demanding to go. It was finally decided that each ship in the blockading squadron would send one man. "I was naturally anxious to send a man who would die reflecting credit on the ship,” said Captain Robley Evans of the battleship Iowa. But he had a problem: his entire 600-man crew had all volunteered. When he finally selected a sailor, another seaman instantly offered $150 to go in his place. When the offer was refused, the seaman wept because, according to Evans, "he had lost a chance to get his head shot off.”
After some delay, Hobson was ready to sail in early morning hours of 3 June 1898. Reporters on boar the New York clamored to record the doomed man5 last words. After his explanation of the mission, Hob son was asked if there was any possibility for surviva • "Ah! That is another thing. I may jump before I 3111 blown up. But I don’t see that it makes much differenC^ what I do. I have a fair chance of life either way- our dinghy gets shot to pieces we shall try to swirn for the beach right under Morro Castle. . . . We sha fight . . . until the last, and we shall only surren £ to overwhelming numbers, and our surrender will on ) take place as an almost uncontemplated emergency- As one witness marveled, Hobson was as "cool as cucumber.”
When time came for departing, the young offlcel said good-bye to Admiral Sampson. Slowly the rimac steamed away from the squadron, and Hobson and his men could see the ships fade into the darkne-sS- Closer and closer they came to the shore and the enern5' guns. Now they were within range. The old colh^j roared on at top speed. Suddenly, explosions ripPe through the night; fire was coming from all directio>1-s- Though hit again and again, they were almost at c spot where they would blow up the ship. Quickly c engines were stopped. Only a few more yards and t ^ Merrimac would be turned across the channel. N°'v, "Hard aport!” yelled Hobson. No response. "H3 aport, I say!” "The helm is hard aport, sir. . . •” ^ie ship refused to turn. The steering gear had been sb°j away, and they were drifting straight down the chann^ into the enemy guns. Desperately Hobson detonate the explosives. Only two went off. To his chagrin saw his riddled ship helplessly swinging in an Finally, it was perpendicular to the channel, and c artillery and rapid-fire guns.
The Merrimac leaped with a terrific jolt; she struck a mine. The men lay on the deck expecting t0 j slaughtered by the enemy shells. Hobson pet’rtj through the smoke and saw a figure creeping tow3* his crew. He snapped out his revolver but qulC realized it was one of his own sailors. He gazed at men huddled on the deck which might explode at 3°' second. This man will have his leg blown off, mused, and that one will surely lose his head, expected his own body to be sliced diagonally, and f°f moment he wondered what the sensation would e, like. But annihilation did not come. While the mac was being torn to pieces by the enemy firc- eight men leaped into the shark-filled waters, swam to a raft and hid there for the rest of the mg-‘ In the morning, a Spanish launch appeared. Sudde*1 -
^aval Constructor Richmond Pearson Hobson could not have known what was happening at home. When ^0rd of his exploit reached the United States, the c°untry seemed to go insane. Overnight this obscure .ava^ officer was turned into a national idol. Some aimed that his deed was the most daring in American lstory, while others hailed it as the boldest act in all Modern times. Many considered it as nothing less
most heroic endeavor in the history of the
ent courage,” "one of the most remarkable feats r'ng in the history of the American Navy” set
^ley saw riflemen and heard the Spanish words for L°ad, ready, aim.”
They are going to shoot us,” Hobson’s men cried! ut the volley did not come. An old man helped °bson aboard the launch. Hours later, the young hcer realized that this kindly gentleman was Rear ,Tllral Pascual Cervera y Topete, commander of the ^aPped Spanish cruisers. Hobson was taken to Morro astle; for him the war was over. If only the steering Sear had not been lost. If only he could have used r e giant bombs.
of
than the
Planet. -We searci;i the pages of history. . . ,” observed ^rmer President Benjamin Harrison, "to find some act ^ heroism for country and flag that approaches this.” f New York Journal proclaimed: "The world’s ages the world’s wars may be searched for a feat surpassing this. . . and it will not be found. . . . The eight antiago are immortal.” Words such as "thrilled our J1.glre people with pride,” "splendid, daring and mag-
of da
tllp .
tc,ne for the massive literary outpouring which Xt°lled Hobson.
^ Nicknamed "Hero-Hobson” and the "Modest ^ er°’ ’ his portrait and stories of his life appeared in ^Undreds of newspapers. Children were named after rn' His parents, who were about to have their mort-
gage foreclosed, became objects of national concern, and a fund was soon raised to aid them. The Union Central Insurance Company proudly advertised that Hobson was one of its policyholders. The New York Telegraph printed samples of his handwriting, which showed that he possessed "Traits Most Remarkable.” A new cigar, "Hobson’s Choice,” was created in honor of the hero. Though Hobson was an Alabamian, the Raleigh News and Observer claimed him as a native North Carolinian because his parents had been born
in the state. Alabama’s Montgomery Journal seriously discussed whether Cervera had kissed the hero after the Merrimac had been sunk. A Detroit newspaper helped its sales by printing the article: "How Lieutenant Hobson Lost the Only Woman He Ever Loved.” A number of Hobson’s old friends obtained national attention by publishing recollections of their former chum. Depending on the source, the hero was ostracized at Annapolis, was not ostracized at Annapolis; was handsome, bordered on the ugly; was "bashful,” "a genius,” "ultra religious,” "messy,” "girlish,” uninterested in athletics, a superb athlete, and so on. The New York World even went so far as to show the foreheads of Dewey, Hobson, and a plains Indian. Remarkably, they all parted their hair at the center, thus demonstrating the "true American type of hairdressing. . .
Verses commemorating Hobson and the Merrimac filled the newspapers. Dozens and dozens of poems were mailed by private citizens to Admiral Cervera in hopes that the young officer would learn of their admiration. Admiral Sampson also received hundreds of letters addressed to the hero. One referred to Hobson as "the bravest and most daring man in the world.” Another gushed, "What a pleasure it is to be writing to such a gallant man! Even more than the Kings of the Earth.” Requests were made for autographs, photographs, or just a few words in a letter. Correspondence from women was particularly heavy. One was to "My Dearest Hero” from "the woman who thinks you King among men.” Another lady confessed: "your eyes appeal to me in some strange way. . .
While all this was occurring, Hobson languished in his cell, fighting the flies and boredom, completely innocent of his mammoth popularity. He exercised, he read, he planned escapes; but nothing broke the tedium of the sweltering Cuban summer. One day he heard in the distance the thunder of cannons and rifles. The Army must have landed. Each day, the din grew louder, and soon bullets were whistling through the window of his cell. The Americans were close now, and Hobson was confident that freedom was near. On 3 July, he heard the thunder of big guns from the harbor. Could Cervera be trying to escape? Soon the answer came. Every vessel in the Spanish squadron had been destroyed, and the Americans had not lost a ship. Santiago was on the verge of capitulation. On 6 July, the young hero and his men were exchanged during a truce. As he rode through the American lines, Hobson received the first taste of his immense popularity. Without orders, hundreds of reverent soldiers snapped silently to attention. Journalist Stephen Crane witnessed the awesome scene: "It was solemn, funereal, this splendid silent welcome. . . .” Suddenly the troops burst into cheers. In the evening, when the hero finally boarded the New York, the entire crew was there, cheering their hero. Hobson had little reason to suspect what would soon happen to him.
When the hero returned to the United States, man) seemed determined to have him speak to their organ ization or write for their journal. Though refusing most of these offers, he did accept the invitation to speak at the Metropolitan Opera House in New r°r City. On the evening of 4 August, every seat had beet1 sold, and thunderous applause roared through the house even before his arrival. When the hero appeal6 j the sound of the band was completely drowned, an when he tried to speak, his words were constantl) interrupted by the cheering mob. After the speech, the throng stampeded over the footlights to greet the hem. one woman even asked for a kiss. More people surge into the hall by sneaking through a side door; everyone was bent on personally greeting the "Hero of the Merrimac.” The staid New York Sun gasped that the city had not seen such a display of patriotism "for yeatS and years.” When Hobson finally escaped his admirerSj. he found his hotel room packed with hundreds 0 letters, many pledging love.
The next day, Hobson went for a rest to Long Island, but there too he was met by crowds. Presente with a sword, he was again compelled to give a speech- S. S. McClure, editor of McClure’s Magazine, confess to Hobson that his daughters "like all the rest of the people in Long Beach. . . were half crazy with pleasure at seeing you.” A young lady, Emma Arnold of Sj- Louis, observed the hero kissing children and muse > "I almost wish I was a child again.” Hobson aske if he might treat her as one and kissed her. The ne*c day the story appeared in the press, the St. Louis P°s* Dispatch memorializing the incident in a poem entme "The Hobson-Arnold Kiss.” The New York treated it in a story called "How Hero Hobson Kiss6S-
Everywhere Hobson traveled, people rushed up t0 slap him on the back and shake his hand. It must hav^ been a great relief when he received orders to procee^ to the Philippines to help raise the Spanish ships su°^ by Admiral Dewey. But before departing he was invite to the Atlanta Peace Jubilee on 15 December. Thefe he rode in an honor parade with President Wilba01 McKinley, members of the cabinet, and other dign* taries. Later he dined with the President and gave speech. The young hero also discovered that he immensely popular with Atlanta women who had cfe ated a new dance for the occasion called the "Hobs®11 waltz.” After the celebration, Hobson took a train Chicago. From there he planned to travel to San Fran cisco to board a ship sailing for the Orient.
try; a police sergeant claimed that he had observed
Modest Hero” kiss 163 women. By this time, °bson was on his way west. A day later, the country received more news: Hobson had kissed 419 women ^ Kansas City and was now kissing his way across , ^ state of Kansas. Soon word came that the hero a managed to kiss 350 women in Topeka and 1,000 ansas women in all.
"^e kissing craze spread to other parts of the coun-
minor hero from the battleship Iowa was suppos
tlrr>es m
ten hours. Unfortunately, after three hours his
er
occasion Hobson could not handle the ladies
aim
so
adroi
°n the nose, between the eyes and in the mouth
cteati
tons/
Hi
At Louisville, his train stopped, and the hero was Wlldly received by the city. When he finally arrived In Chicago, he was entertained by various clubs and sP°ke to 3,000 people. After the speech, the audience rushed up to shake his hand. In the crowd were two ^sters: Mrs. Thomas McDermott Knight and Miss aty Fowle, daughters of a former governor of North arolina and distant cousins of the hero. To the amaze- rnent °f the audience, Hobson kissed them when they Passed. Bystanders cheered, and other ladies demanded tisses. The next day the news had spread across the count the
try. A
ed r l- — —— — “-rr—
)’ kissed by 43 ladies in Chicago, while in Kentucky k 'cturning soldier was also kissed by a number of m<iles. Reports came from England that a kissing ntest had been held in Lancashire, where a man had rP°rtedly kissed 1,800 lips in one hour. In Germany, ,}°uth was said to have tried to kiss his lover 10,000
^°Uth became paralyzed, and he fainted. The New York took a dim view of this and warned that too ch kissing might lead also to insanity, and "^odest Hero” was renamed the "kissing-bug” the "hero of the merry smack” while newspapers |?.Ve lengthy accounts of his new exploits: "Then the *SSlng fever seized the woman, and Hobson made no ^ stance. In fact he seemed to like it, and as each d an came up he grasped her hand, drew her toward anotan<^ srnac^ec^ ^er sounclly upon the lips.” But on oitly; "They waited not, but rushed in, striking the protruding front of their elaborate millinery ” Headlines screamed: "Hobson Is Kissing
ls Vyj O
im.Way To Manila,” and "Lieutenant Hobson Again
Afflicted.”
0bP°lite society gasped as Pauline Hall, a celebrated vfc|ja singer, nor only kissed the hero but allegedly upon his neck.” Interviews with Hobson sug- th m t^'at c^e "Modest Hero” was not only tolerating marlssang but enjoying—if not encouraging—it. Yet and ltP°n kissing had its perils, Hobson pointed our, che L-e gladly Hucidated them for the press: "When a]' lss‘ng is fast and furious it sometimes gets just e tiresome, and it sometimes happens that [when] some rather ancient lips are presented I would fain pass them by unkissed, but when I start in I have to take it as it comes. There is no selecting: everything goes. The number of luscious lips always outnumber any others.” Asked if he was tiring from his constant exertions, Hobson supposedly responded, "No, haven’t yet: have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I suppose if I had kissed one woman as often as I have kissed different women I would be thoroughly exhausted. But the constant change is delightfully exhilarating. . . .” Soon a candy manufacturer produced a new caramel called "Hobson’s Kisses,” while the New York World celebrated the whole affair in verse clearly cribbed from James Leigh Hunt’s classic Rondeau:
Say that I am old and sad;
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I’m poor but also add —
Hobson kissed me.
dc
finally eat
died
he received the rank of rear admiral. In 1937, he
while in the midst of still another personal crusa this time protesting President Franklin D. Roosevi
Milwaukee where he was awarded a master’s degree
•king
In reality, the hero was completely mortified. The newspapers had often exaggerated or lied about the craze. The monster kissing orgies which supposedly had occurred in Topeka and across the state of Kansas were completely contrived. And those "wretched” interviews, moaned Hobson, were "the grossest forms of exaggeration and misrepresentation.” When asked for an explanation of his conduct, he told the press that he was simply the victim of "pure patriotic enthusiasm on the part of others.” He said he had kissed only a few relatives and some "children . . . who offered their rosey faces to me.” How he defined a child he did not say.
By the time Hobson arrived in San Francisco, he had been attacked by hundreds of newspapers and countless people. Yet thousands of admirers still came to hear him speak and to shake his hand. Though only one woman tried to kiss him, the police had to use a flying wedge to get the "Modest Hero” to his carriage. Newspapers claimed that 20 people were found stolen away on his steamer, and that autograph seekers even held onto his coattails. When his ship passed out of San Francisco Bay, decorated vessels dipped their flags and sounded their horns in a thunderous farewell.
Hobson had escaped. The kissing craze was over.
In all, Hobson probably kissed no more than a few hundred women, yet in the Age of Victoria, such conduct was positively scandalous. Tongues flapped, newspapers wailed, ministers howled, while prudes talked seriously of a decline in morals and the spread of epidemics. Many were convinced that the young women who had kissed Hobson were simply shameless lunatics. But still the frenzied crowds continued to come, eager to see the sex symbol of the age.
The Hobson craze had a variety of causes. No doubt the newspapers, the war fever, the daring nature of the Merrimac exploit, and Hobson’s personal attractiveness all contributed. Moreover, America in the late 19th century was particularly hungry for heroes. It seemed to many that with the end of the frontier, and the rise of cities and great entrepreneurs, the traditional hero had somehow been lost. Hobson’s special appeal was that he personified this whole spirit. He was like a knight out of a fairy tale, and in the vast literature which extolled him he was constantly described in chivalric terms. As for the Alerrimac mission itself, it was like the plot from a dime novel. Its failure did not seem to bother Hobson’s admirers in the least.
When it became fashionable, Hobson shaved off his mustache and parted his hair at the side. Instantly he was transformed into an exact likeness of the handsome man who always appeared with the Gibson girl. But the mood had cooled, and the excesses of 1898 were over. While working in the Philippines, Hobson 5 vision was badly damaged by the sun, and in 1903 he reluctantly resigned from the Navy. He married >n 1905. From 1907 to 1915, he represented Alabama m Congress, where he soon became the arch-defender o the big Navy movement. By this time, however, pe0Pe began to notice that Hobson was acting a bit strange" if not eccentric. He was beginning to cultivate all sorts of unusual notions: He attributed a number of weir and damaging properties to alcohol, and he constant, bored people about the Japanese, whom he was con vinced were going to stage a sneak attack on the Pacin Fleet. On the race issue, he was becoming downrigb1 seditious; though he believed Caucasians to be supen°r' this Alabamian often acted as if non-whites should be treated fairly and with dignity. He shocked Birming ham by once referring to a minstrel team as "ladies an gentlemen.”
As a Congressman, Hobson sponsored a bill to all°',v Filipinos to attend the Naval and Military Academics His enemies screamed that "Moros, Igarottes, bushme0- stranglers, fastblacks and Chinese mixtures” wou ^ soon be inundating the service academies. He authore a bill to make it illegal for anyone to discriminare against the military uniform in Washington, D- ■ Again his critics went berserk, charging that this w»s one step away from integration. Though he sometime5 hedged on the race issue, Hobson was a remarkab Alabama Congressman. Not surprisingly, he was han ily defeated when he ran for the Senate in 1914- .
Though out of Congress, Hobson continued h)S campaign against alcohol until the passage of the ly Amendment to the Constitution. Then, like a knig^1 without a cause, he instantly started a one-man crusa1
against addictive drugs. In 1933, Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor, and the next y£ de, eU’s
attempted packing of the Supreme Court. It was 'i(i appropriate end for the hero of the Merrimac. since his romantic boyhood, he had led the life ot knight who was always riding off to another crusa Whether it was against the Spanish or the Japanese’ alcohol, or drugs, Hobson always played the man °n white horse. Kissing damsels was simply part of role.
j Born and reared in Annapolis, Maryland, Mr. Sha^ a 1969 graduate of Elon College. For two years, hc _ a teaching assistant at the University of Wisc°°sl
1972. He is now a Ford Foundation Fellow and is svof on a Ph.D. at Emory University.