At 9:40 p.m. on February 15, 1898, the American battleship USS Maine jumped into the air. The bay of Havana lit up unexpectedly. The United States authorities accused Spain of the deaths of 256 of their sailors and declared war. This year marks the 125th anniversary of a confrontation that caused the loss of the last Spanish possessions in America and the Pacific and that gave rise to the birth of a new empire, the American one. Now the article Wrecks of Admiral Cervera’s squadron in Santiago de Cuba, published by the General Navy Magazinefrom the Ministry of Defense, gives an account of the underwater archaeological park in which lie – collapsed by time and history – the remains of what was the feared Antilles Operations Squadron: the armored cruisers Christopher Columbus, Vizcaya, Almirante OquendoThe destroyers Fury and Pluto and the American chickadee USS Merrimac. However, the flagship, the Infanta Maria Teresa, It is not located in Cuban waters, but is sunk off Cat Island, in the Bahamas.
Faced with the undisguised escalation and North American war pressure (the United States had already tried on several occasions to buy Cuba), the Government of Spain preventively sent a fleet on April 29, while the Americans sent two clearly technically superior ones. The United States had declared war on April 24 retroactively from the 21st of that month, since that day the gunboat USS Nashville had captured the Spanish steamer Bonaventure without any reason. Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, faced with the American technological and fire superiority, decided not to fight, but to keep his ships safe in the port of Santiago de Cuba. The United States squadron, for its part, remained on alert outside the mouth.
On June 3, 1898, Lieutenant Hobson, accompanied by seven men, attempted to sink the American collier USS Merrimac to prevent a possible departure of Cervera ships in the bay of Santiago de Cuba; but the Spanish went ahead and scuttled it in a place that did not impede navigation. Teodoro Rubio Castaño, author of the report and the only Spaniard who has dived among all the wrecks of the so-called Disaster of 98, remembers that the “Merrimac It has been lying since then in the muddy bed, between 16 and 23 meters deep, perpendicular to the coastline.” “Its steel hull is quite well preserved despite the 125 years it has been sunk, and the darkness of its interior is impressive, giving it a ghostly appearance,” he says.
In 1892, the Spanish corvette Nautilus He went around the world. His captain, Fernando Villaamil, thus visited the arsenals of the US Navy in Philadelphia. He was surprised to discover “the level of efficiency of their ships, the latest expression of naval architecture.” He did not know that those same warships would destroy the destroyer Fury and they would cost him his life. He Fury It is sunk in front of the Mar Verde beach, near Santiago de Cuba, approximately one mile from the coast. The wreck lies at a depth of between 24 and 27 meters on a sandy bottom with many coral formations. The ship exploded before it completely sank, so the typical silhouette of a ship cannot be distinguished in the background.
On the night of June 3, 1898, the destroyer Pluto managed to torpedo the American collier USS Merrimac. Later, his captain, and in the face of American superiority, decided to run him aground between the beaches of Buey Cabon and Rancho Cruz. But due to the lack of depth and the challenges of the Caribbean it is unrecognizable. Only the remains of its machines, connecting rods, nozzles, projectiles and countless metal objects from what was the structure remain. The four or five meters of sandy bottom where it is located and its proximity to the coast allow it to be visited with or without autonomous diving equipment.
For his part, Juan Bautista Lazaga, head of the cruise Admiral Oquendo, He knew that the chances of getting out of the battle alive were minimal. “Whatever the result of the first encounter, I swear not to lower the Spanish flag, and I will demonstrate to that hateful enemy that the children of this noble land know how to die rather than surrender.” So it was. He died in battle.
The wreck of Oquendo It is located in front of Juan González beach, about one hundred meters from the shore and at a depth of between 8 and 14 meters. The 280-millimeter González Hontoria cannon and part of the bow cannon emerge almost entirely from it, providing a spectacular exterior view. Its general condition is considerably good, despite the shallow depth at which it is located and being subjected to the pressure of storm breakers. “You can see almost its entire length of 103 meters in length and it is resting on its keel on a bed of sand,” explains Rubio Castaño.
The cruise Biscay It suffered several explosions and a fire, which is why it ended up stranded in front of Aserradero beach, half a mile from the coast. It is embedded in a reef parallel to land. “It is quite a spectacle to enter the barbetta [parapeto del cañón] that remains out of the water and have the same vision that the Spanish artillerymen had in their day. It is impressive to tour its collapsed deck along the entire length and appreciate the beams. [pieza curva de la quilla] of its steel shell, its boilers burst by the action of the sea and time and one of its enormous admiralty anchors, from which hangs a chain of immense shackles.
Commander Cousteau, in his documentary Cuba: the waters of destinydescribed the wreck of the cruise ship Colon like this: “Crossing the barrier of time, we float above the unrecognizable chimney that propelled the Colon in a race for survival, which was lost beforehand. Pursued, the heavy cruiser ended up succumbing.” It is located at the mouth of the Turquino River, about 48 nautical miles from the bay of Santiago de Cuba and about 64 meters from the coast, at a depth of between nine meters at the stern and 32 at the bow. The remains lie on a bed of sand, their general condition being good, despite the 125 years that have passed since the sinking, since the depth has protected the Colon from the erosion of the breakers, preserving almost the entire wreck in one piece, since its superstructure has resisted the passage of time and the attacks of hurricanes. In fact, visible today are the bronze hatches, 152 and 120 mm Armstrong artillery pieces, some 57 and 37 mm Nordenfelt rapid-fire cannons and many 7.62 caliber bullets for the Mauser model 1893 rifle, which the Spanish sailors were never able to shoot.
In 2015, the waters where the confrontation took place were declared a National Monument and called Naval Battle Underwater Archaeological Park from Santiago de Cuba 1898. It is the submerged trace of bravery and the end of an empire.
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