AmericanSpanishWind ENE
1 May, 12:00 a.m.
Into the Boca Grande
Dewey’s six warships, a revenue cutter and two supply ships steam into Manila Bay in the dark at eight knots, the flagship passing half a mile from the fortified rock of El Fraile.
The battle
Around midnight on 30 April 1898 Commodore George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron slipped past the island batteries at the mouth of Manila Bay in the dark and steamed twenty miles up the bay. At dawn it found Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo’s squadron anchored off Cavite, under the guns of Sangley Point.
Dewey’s six cruisers and gunboats steamed five times along the Spanish line, closing from 5,000 yards to 2,000. After a break for breakfast and a count of the ammunition they came back, silenced the shore batteries and sank the last Spanish ship still fighting. At half past twelve Cavite hoisted a white flag.
Spain lost every warship in the bay and 381 men killed and wounded. No American was killed by Spanish fire. Montojo’s ships, several of them under repair and one without engines, were outgunned from the start.
Reading the chart
- No track of the battle was recorded. The column’s course follows Dewey, his captains and Calkins, Olympia’s navigator; the Spanish line follows Chadwick’s chart of the ships’ first and last positions and Ellicott’s survey of the wrecks.
- Five passes, three west and two east, as Gridley and Dewey count them. Only the 6:20 turn, Reina Cristina’s sortie at about 7:00 and the 7:35 cease-fire are timed; the other turns are spaced evenly between them. The order of Don Juan de Austria’s charge is known, its time is not.
- Clocks differed from ship to ship: the cease-fire is logged from 7:30 to 7:40, the second attack from 10:30 to 11:45 and the white flag from 12:15 to 12:40. The chart follows Dewey and Petrel.
- Marqués del Duero sits at the east end of the line, as on Chadwick’s chart; Ellicott puts her in the west wing. Isla de Mindanao’s beaching place is uncertain; she is drawn toward Las Piñas.
- The coastline is today’s. Sangley Point and the shores of Cavite, Pasay and Manila have been built out since 1898, and the islands of new land off Pasay were open water.
- Quotes on the chart come from Dewey’s Autobiography, Calkins and Montojo’s translated report, checked against the printed pages. Lengths of the Spanish ships come from secondary sources. Ships are drawn larger than life; rates of fire are representative.
The ships
- OlympiaAmericanProtected cruiser, Dewey’s flagship, four 8-inch in two turrets and ten 5-inch rapid-fireCapt. Charles V. Gridley, with Commodore George DeweyHulled five times; her captain reported no casualties.
- BaltimoreAmericanProtected cruiser, four 8-inch and six 6-inchCapt. Nehemiah M. DyerStruck five times; two officers and six men slightly wounded, the only American wounded. Led the second attack on the batteries.
- RaleighAmericanProtected cruiser, one 6-inch and ten 5-inchCapt. Joseph B. CoghlanStruck once, through her whaleboat. No casualties. Fired on Don Antonio de Ulloa until she sank.
- PetrelAmericanGunboat, 6-inch guns (accounts differ)Cdr. Edward P. WoodWent into Cavite harbour, received the surrender and burned the scuttled ships. Not damaged.
- ConcordAmericanGunboat, a 6-inch batteryCdr. Asa WalkerNot hit. Set the beached mail steamer Isla de Mindanao on fire.
- BostonAmericanProtected cruiser, last in the line, two 8-inch and six 6-inchCapt. Frank WildesStruck four times; no casualties.
- McCullochAmericanRevenue cutter, leading the reserve, light gunsCapt. Daniel B. Hodgsdon, Revenue Cutter ServiceSteamed to and fro behind the battle line with a hawser ready to tow. Her chief engineer, Francis B. Randall, died of a heart attack during the night entry.
- NanshanAmericanCollier, bought at Hong KongKept out of the fight in the middle of the bay.
- ZafiroAmericanSupply ship, bought at Hong KongKept out of the fight with Nanshan; cut the Manila cable the next day.
- El Fraile batterySpanishBattery on the rock of El Fraile, at the bay entrance, modern breech-loading riflesFired three times at the rear of the column about ten minutes after midnight.
- Sangley Point batterySpanishCasemated shore battery, two 15 cm Ordóñez guns, only one of which bore on the AmericansFired through both attacks and was silenced in the second. Its guns could not be laid for ranges under 2,000 yards.
- Cañacao batterySpanishShore battery behind improvised earthworks, one 12 cm breech-loaderSilenced in the second attack.
- Manila batteriesSpanishBatteries on the Pasig mole, the walled city and the Luneta, 24 cm breech-loaders and older piecesFired long and wide all morning and were never answered; Dewey threatened to shell the city if they did not stop.
- Reina CristinaSpanishUnprotected cruiser, Montojo’s flagship, six 16 cm gunsCapt. Luis Cadarso (killed), with Rear Admiral Patricio MontojoMade a sortie toward Olympia, was shattered, and was scuttled under the walls of Cavite, where she burned. 130 killed and 90 wounded.
- CastillaSpanishWooden cruiser, used as a floating battery, four 15 cm and two 12 cm guns, and lighter piecesCapt. Alonzo AlgadoUnable to use her engines, moored behind a line of sand-filled lighters. Set on fire and burned out. 23 killed and 80 wounded.
- Don Juan de AustriaSpanishUnprotected cruiser, four 12 cm gunsCapt. ConchaCharged Olympia early in the action. Scuttled behind the arsenal and burned; later raised. 22 wounded.
- Don Antonio de UlloaSpanishUnprotected cruiser, under repair, two 12 cm guns; the rest had been landed for shore batteriesMoored behind Sangley Point with her machinery ashore. The last Spanish ship fighting, sunk in the second attack with her colours flying. 8 killed and 10 wounded.
- Isla de CubaSpanishProtected cruiser, 4.7- or 4-inch guns (accounts differ)Montojo’s flagship after Reina Cristina. Scuttled behind the arsenal and burned; later raised. 2 wounded.
- Isla de LuzónSpanishProtected cruiser, 4.7-inch guns, three of them dismounted in the actionScuttled behind the arsenal and burned; later raised. 6 wounded.
- Marqués del DueroSpanishDispatch boat, a 12 cm bow gun and lighter piecesOne engine crippled. Scuttled near the shore and burned. No casualties.
- Isla de MindanaoSpanishMail steamer, beached on Montojo’s orders, two 9 cm guns, without ammunitionSet on fire under Concord’s guns after the second attack.
Sources
- Dewey’s report, 4 May 1898 (Navy Department Library)
- Baltimore’s reports, 1898 (Navy Department Library)
- Autobiography of George Dewey (1913)
- Calkins and Ellicott, US Naval Institute Proceedings (1899)
- Chadwick, The Spanish-American War, Vol. I (1911)
- Fiske, War Time in Manila (1913)
Navy ship histories: Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh, Boston, Concord, Petrel, Nanshan, Zafiro