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“When about ten miles west of Santiago the Indiana had been signalled to go back to the harbour entrance, and at Acerraderos the Iowa was signalled to ‘resume blockading station.’ The Iowa, assisted by the Ericsson and the Hist, took off the crew of the Vizcaya, while the Harvard and the Gloucester rescued those of the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Almirante Oquendo.
The auxiliaries, Gloucester and Vixen, lay close to the land and nearer the harbour entrance than the large vessels, the Gloucester to the eastward and the Vixen to the westward. “The torpedo-boat Ericsson was in company with the flag-ship, and remained with her during the chase until ordered to discontinue, when she rendered very efficient service in rescuing prisoners from the burning Vizcaya.
Villa and Leyba had their able imitators, as is shown by the following description of the torturing of Father Ceferino by Major Delfin at Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, on September 27: "They wished to give brave evidence of their hate for the friar before Leyba left, and show him that they were as brave as he when it came to oppressing and torturing the friar.
The Spanish ships "Vizcaya" and "Oquendo," which had been in the harbor of Havana when war was declared, had slipped away, and there was no enemy afloat in the neighborhood save puny gunboats and torpedo boats that clung close to the protecting guns of the fortresses. Blockading is the most trying duty the blue-jacket has to discharge.
The Brooklyn had started north, swerved to the northeast and toward the mouth of the harbor, and was turning east on the swing it made to the right and around to the westward course; it was eight-tenths of a mile from the Vizcaya.
In Cagayan their fear of the forces in Nueva Vizcaya kept them from showing such unqualifiable excesses of cruelty and nameless barbarities, but the triumph of the Katipúnan arms in Nueva Vizcaya completely broke down the wall of restraint which somewhat repressed those sanguinary executioners thirsting to fatten untrammelled on the innocent blood of unarmed and defenceless men.
Against five new American battleships, the Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oregon and Texas, the first four of 10,000 tons, and the armored cruisers Brooklyn and New York of 9000 and 8000 tans, Spain could oppose the battleship Pelayo, a little better than the Texas and five armored cruisers, the Carlos V, Infanta Maria Teresa, Almirante Oquendo, and Vizcaya, each of about 7000 tons, and the somewhat larger and very able former Italian cruiser Cristobal Colon.
Carlos V 9,235 28 20.0 Steel Cisneros 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Cataluna 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Princess Asturias 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Almirante Oquendo 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Maria Teresa 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Vizcaya 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Cristobal Colon 6,840 40 20.0 Steel NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour. Alfonso XII 5,000 19 20.0 Steel Lepanto 4,826 25 20.0 Steel NAME. Tonnage.
The New York had run two and two-tenths miles, and was three and three-tenths miles from the Furor, the nearest Spanish ship, and two and two-tenths miles south and a little west of Morro. The Colon had run two and nine-tenths miles, and the Vizcaya two and seven-tenths miles.
Spain’s finest squadron, consisting of the four first-class armored cruisers Maria Teresa, Vizcaya, Almirante Oquendo, and Cristobal Colon, with two torpedo-boat destroyers, lay in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, blockaded by a powerful American fleet of battle-ships and cruisers under Admiral Sampson. They were held in a close trap. The town was being besieged by land.
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