PORTER, Vice-Admiral, for Secretary of the Navy to Hamilton Fish, May 15, 1869

Vice-Admiral Porter, for Secretary of Navy, to Mr. Fish, Secretary of State.

Sir: As the inclosed information may be of use to you, I beg leave to send it.

Very respectfully,

The Spanish government have contracted for thirty light-draught boats, about one hundred and sixty tons each, with double screws, and not to draw over five feet water. Of these, fifteen to be built in NewYork, by Poillon, Stack, and others; fifteen to be built at Mystic, Connecticut, by Mallory and others. The engines are to be built by Delamater, of New York. Dispatch to be used, as they are wanted *immediately, and are expected to be ready in from sixty to ninety days. [754]

There is also in New York an admiral or commodore of the Spanish navy to superintend their construction, and he is waiting orders from Havana to buy other boats now ready here—old blockaders, &c.