May 1, 1898
The Spanish fleet was anchored in what was almost an east-to-west line across the bay as Captain Gridley made his first broadside run on the enemy battleships. From the bridge, Admiral Dewey personally directed the entire battle, most of which lasted only two hours. As the Olympia opened fire at 5:41 A.M., it steamed westward across the line of enemy ships. Three shore batteries at Manila opened fire on the American ships, sustaining fire for the period. Most of the rounds sailed harmlessly past Dewey's fleet to fall into the waters of the bay. Meanwhile Admiral Montojo's aging warships faced a deadly fusillade from the Olympia and the five American ships strung out behind it, the Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, and Boston.
The starboard batteries of the American ships pounded the port sides of the Spanish fleet with devastating effect as they made the first pass. From a distance of from 2,000 to 5,000 yards the combat was furious, but most of the return fire from Admiral Montojo's ships fell short of the Americans. Two Spanish torpedo boats broke from the anchored enemy vessels to approach the Olympia. One was quickly sunk, the other damaged beyond further effort and had to be subsequently beached.
The first pass left many of the ten Spanish warships badly damaged and the smoke from the fires caused by the battle hung low over the bay. Reaching the westward end of the line, at 6:40 Dewey ordered his line of warships to turn and pass broadside once again, this time attacking from west to east. Again the heavy guns of the US Navy rained death and destruction on the Spanish. Five times in all, three to the west and twice to the east, Admiral Dewey's ships made runs on the enemy.
At 7:00 A.M. Admiral Montojo's flagship, Reina Cristina tried desperately to leave the line and engage the Americans at short range. A galling fire from the Olympia turned her back, heavily damaged and fires erupting in several places. At least one 8-inch shell pierced the Reina Cristina and her fate was quickly sealed. The Admiral's flag was transferred to the nearby Isla de Cuba.
By 7:35 all ten ships of the Spanish fleet were almost totally in ruin and fires burned in many places across the bay. Admiral Dewey received a report, which later proved to be erroneous, that only 15 rounds of ammunition per gun remained for his 5-inch rapid fire battery. After less than two hours of battle, he called a cease-fire and pulled his ships back to regroup and redistribute ammunition. It also afforded his crew opportunity to have breakfast.
During the lull in the battle of Manila Bay, the captains of the ships of the US Navy took stock of their own damages, then made their reports to Dewey on the Olympia. Amazingly, considering the ferocity of the battle, casualties had been light...only three of the six battleships bore any scars. The bridge of the Olympia where Admiral Dewey directed the battle had been peppered with fragments of a bursting shell, Another shell struck the starboard side of the flagship while another had cut the signal halyards from the flag lieutenant's hand. The Boston had taken a direct hit near the water line on the port side aft, setting fire in the officers quarters. The fire had been quickly extinguished however, and the Boston was capable of continued battle. The Baltimore had survived all five passes on the Spanish fleet directly behind the flagship, and had taken the most damage. Five times the enemy shells had struck the large second-class cruiser, seven men and two officers receiving minor wounds from shrapnel. They were the only Americans wounded in the course of the entire battle.
Despite the five direct hits, not counting a sixth that had cut a hole in the Stars and Stripes that flew from its mast, compared to the burning and sinking wreckage of the Spanish ships, Baltimore had been fortunate indeed. The only American craft to sink had been the Baltimore's two quarter-boats, blown to pieces by the blasts of the Baltimore's own guns and subsequently cut loose to add to the wreckage in Manila Bay.
During this lull in the battle, Admiral Dewey sent a warning to the Governor-General in Havana, where the three shore batteries had maintained a steady fire on his fleet. Unless the guns were silenced, the American warships would begin shelling the city. The devastation of the US Navy's guns already apparent in the bay, Manila's Governor-General took heed of this warning and the firing from the shore batteries at Havana ended.
By 11:16 A.M. Admiral Dewey had regrouped his fleet, received reports from his captains, and determined that the earlier report on the shortage of ammunition was in error. A second time he turned his warships towards the enemy fleet, this time to finish the job. There wasn't much to finish. The Reina Cristina and one of the enemy gunboats were burning beyond hope. (Admiral Montojo later estimated his flagship had taken seventy hits before the transfer of his flag to the Isla de Cuba.) The Spanish cruiser Castilla had taken heavy fire in the first five passes and, during the lull before the second assault commenced, had been destroyed by an explosion within, presumably caused when onboard fires reached the ship's magazines. The Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Cuba, and Isla de Luzon had also taken heavy fire, rupturing the sea valves and causing many of the crew to abandon ship. In the "mop-up" operation, only Don Antonio de Ulloa remained in any semblance of fighting order. Despite Admiral Montojo's final desperate order to "scuttle and abandon", the commander of Ulloa remained with his ship at anchor just inside Sangley Point. As the Baltimore moved past Sangley Point, the sailors of Ulloa opened fire, a last valiant effort by the crew of a doomed enemy ship.
The Baltimore returned fire, joined shortly thereafter by the Olympia. Passing to the other side of the point, the Raleigh joined in the swan song of the Spanish Armada, catching the Ulloa in a crossfire that destroyed her within minutes. Meanwhile the rest of Dewey's warships cruised past to train their guns on the arsenal at Cavite. Within half an hour the five Spanish flags were lowered at the Spanish Naval base, to be replaced by a white flag of surrender.
By 12:40 Admiral Dewey anchored his valiant fleet abreast of the city of Manila. In seven hours the untested sailors and Marines of the United States had survived their first engagement. In those seven hours they had destroyed virtually every ship of Spain's Pacific Fleet, ten huge warships now exploding, burning, or sinking. A squadron annihilated, the American forces had also captured an enemy navy yard and more than 400 enemy lay dead or wounded. For the Americans, not a single ship was disabled, not a life lost. (The only casualty of the day was the the death of the engineer of the McCulloch, a victim of heat stroke.)
Spanish ships destroyed: Reina Christina, Castilla, Velasco, Don Juan de Austria, Don Antonio De Ulloa, Isla de Cuba, Isla de Luzon, Elcano, General Lezo, Marquis del Duero, Argos
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