ricans, but she never did more
than fourteen. For some time, even at this reduced speed, she was so far
ahead that there was no firing. It was not until ten minutes past one that
the "Brooklyn" and "Oregon" at last got within range and opened fire with
their forward heavy guns. The "Colon," with her empty barbettes, had
nothing with which to reply at the long range. In the earlier stage of the
fight she had been hit only by an 8-inch shell, which did no material
damage. As the pursuers gained on her she opened with her secondary
battery. Even now she received no serious injury, and she was never set on
fire. But her captain, Moreu, realized that lack of speed had put him at
the mercy of the enemy. As they closed in upon him and opened fire with
their heaviest guns, he turned his ship into the creek surrounded by
towering heights amid which the little Tarquino River runs into the sea,
forty-eight miles west of Morro Castle. He hauled down his flag as he
entered the creek. Without his orders the engineers opened the Kingston
valves in the engine-room, and when the Americans boarded the "Colon" she
was rapidly sinking. She went down by the stern under the cliffs on the
east side of the inlet, and lay with her bow above water and her after
decks awash. It was twenty minutes past one when she surrendered.

The men of the "Iowa" and "Gloucester" had meanwhile rescued many of the
survivors of the "Vizcaya," not without serious risk to themselves, for
there were numerous explosions, and the decks were red-hot in places. Some
of the Spaniards swam ashore, made their way through the bush to Santiago,
and joined the garrison. Captain Eulate was brought on board the "Iowa,"
and received by a guard of marines, who presented arms as he stepped from
the gangway. He offered his sword to Robley Evans, but the American captain
refused to take it. "You have surrendered," he said, "to four ships, each
heavier than your own. You did not surrender to the 'Iowa' only, so her
captain cannot take your sword."

Never in any naval action was there such complete destruction of a fleet.
Of the six ships that steamed out of Santiago that summer morning, the
"Furor" was sunk in deep water off the entrance; the "Pluton" was ashore
under the Socapa cliff. At various points along the coast columns of black
smoke rising a thousand feet into the sunlit sky showed where the burning
wrecks of the "Maria Teresa," the "Oquendo," and the "Vizcaya" lay, and
nea