Guantanamo Bay Naval Base was incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba in 1901. The Constitution took effect in 1902, and land for a naval base at Guantanamo Bay was granted to the United States the following year. USS "Monongahela" (1862), an old warship which served as a storeship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was totally destroyed by fire on March 17, 1908. A 4-inch gun was salvaged from her wreck and put on display at the Naval Station. Since the gun was deformed by the heat from the fire, it was nicknamed "Old Droopy". The gun was on display on Deer Point
Cuban refugees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Cuban refugees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Over the years a varying number of Cuban refugees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base have found refuge there. In the 1990s several thousand refugees were held at the base for years. Most of the refugees were housed in a tent city on the re-purposed airstrip that would later be used to house the complex used for the Guantanamo military commissions. The refugees who represented discipline or security problems were held on the site that would later become Camp XRay, the initial site of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Small numbers of