ips, it was imperative
not to risk them against mines.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 190.]

Food conditions were serious in Santiago, but Cervera was absolutely
determined not to assume responsibility for taking his fleet out to
what he regarded as certain slaughter. A night sortie, with ships
issuing one by one out of an intricate channel into the glare of
searchlights, he declared more difficult than one by day. Fortunately
for the Americans, in view of the situation ashore, the decision was
taken out of his hands, and Governor General Blanco from Havana
peremptorily ordered him to put to sea. The time of his exit, Sunday
morning, July 3, was luckily chosen, for Sampson, in the _New York_,
was 10 miles to eastward on his way to a conference with Shafter,
and the _Massachusetts_ was at Guantanamo for coal. The flagship
_Maria Teresa_ led out at 9.35, followed 10 minutes later by the
_Vizcaya_, and then by the _Colon, Oquendo_, and the destroyers
_Furor_ and _Pluton_, each turning westward at top speed.

[Illustration: BATTLE OF SANTIAGO, JULY 3, 1898]

Simultaneously the big blockaders crowded toward them and opened a
heavy fire, while stokers shoveled desperately below to get up steam.
To the surprise of other vessels, Schley's ship, the _Brooklyn_,
after heading towards the entrance, swung round, not with the enemy,
but to starboard, just sliding past the _Texas'_ bow. This much
discussed maneuver Schley afterward explained as made to avoid
blanketing the fire of the rest of the squadron. The _Oregon_,
which throughout the blockade had kept plenty of steam, "rushed
past the _Iowa_," in the words of Captain Robley Evans, "like an
express train," in a cloud of smoke lighted by vicious flashes from
her guns. In ten minutes the _Maria Teresa_ turned for shore, hit
by 30 projectiles, her decks, encumbered with woodwork, bursting
into masses of flame. The concentration upon her at the beginning
had shifted to the _Oquendo_ in the rear, which ran ashore with
guns silenced 5 minutes after the leader.

Shortly before 11, the _Vizcaya_, with a torpedo ready in one of
her bow tubes, turned towards the _Brooklyn_, which had kept in
the lead of the American ships. A shell hitting squarely in the
_Vizcaya's_ bow caused a heavy explosion and she sheered away, the
guns of the _Brooklyn, Oregon_, and _Iowa_ bearing on her as she
ran towards the beach. The _Colon_, with a trial speed of 20 knots,
and 6 miles ahead of the _Brooklyn_