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At eight o’clock in the evening the Minneapolis followed, and Captain Sigsbee of the St. Paul received orders to get under way at midnight. May 14. Eleven steamers, chartered by the government as troop-ships, sailed from New York for Key West. At San Francisco, the cruiser Charleston, with supplies and reinforcements for Admiral Dewey’s fleet at Manila, had been made ready for sea.
The names of the captains and commanders of the ships in Admiral Dewey’s squadron were sent to the Senate, by the President, for advancement because of their conspicuous conduct. The House of Representatives passed an urgency appropriation of nearly eighteen million dollars for war purposes.
Later in the day the Morrill captured the Spanish schooner Espana, bound for Havana, and towed the prize to Key West. The Newport added to the list of captures by bringing in the Spanish schooner Padre de Dios. May 7. The United States despatch-boat McCulloch arrived at Hongkong from Manila, with details of Commodore Dewey’s victory.
Now, he declared, the Spanish troops in the Philippines were in a terrible condition, being between two fires, the natives and the Americans. Señor Bores’s remarks created a profound sensation. The cruiser Charleston was reported as being ready to sail from San Francisco for Manila. Three hundred sailors and marines to reinforce Admiral Dewey’s fleet were to be sent on the cruiser.
In that strange cry was loosed the pent-up wrath of hundreds of American sailors who resented the cowardly death of their comrades. It bespoke the terrible vengeance that was about to be dealt out to the defenders of a detestable flag. “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley,” was Commodore Dewey’s quiet remark to the captain of the Olympia, who was still in the conning-tower.
It was 12.45 P. M. when the magazine in the arsenal was exploded by a shell from the Olympia, or the Petrel, it is impossible to say which, and the battle of Manila had been fought and won. Not until the thirteenth of May was Commodore Dewey’s official report received at the Navy Department, and then it was given to the public without loss of time. It is copied below:
In addition to the vessels of the American fleet, as set down at the conclusion of this chapter, were two transports, the steamers Nanshan and Zafiro, which had come into the port of Hongkong laden with coal shortly before Commodore Dewey’s departure, and had been purchased by him, together with their cargoes, in anticipation of the declaration of war.
The cruiser Charleston, which sailed for Manila, returned to Mare Island navy yard with her condensers out of order. May 21. An order was despatched to San Francisco to prepare the Monterey for a voyage to Manila, where she would join Commodore Dewey’s fleet.
The U. S. S. Wilmington had a slight action with a Spanish gunboat off the Cuban coast, during which the latter was disabled. May 18. The U. S. cruiser Charleston left San Francisco for the Philippines with supplies for Commodore Dewey’s fleet. May 19. By cable from Madrid it was learned that the Spanish fleet had arrived at Santiago de Cuba.
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