Memorandum.
Washington, December 18, 1902.
Of the three Venezuelan men-of-war captured by the German squadron the Restaurador is a boat of 600 tons. The two other vessels, Totumo and General Crespo, were quite small boats of 137 tons each. The Restaurador has been manned with German sailors, and is now flying the German flag. The two other vessels were not sufficiently seaworthy to let them undertake the voyage to Trinidad with a crew on board, nor were they in a condition which would have rendered it [Page 423] possible to tug them to that port. Besides, such a way of procedure would have considerably impaired the movements of the German squadron in looking for the rest of the Venezuelan men-of-war. It did not seem feasible, either, to let the two vessels simply drift along, as in that case they would very likely have been recaptured by the Venezuelans. The only possible thing to do was therefore to sink the ships, which had absolutely no value whatever.