First Battle of Manzanillo First Battle of Manzanillo The First Battle of Manzanillo was a series of naval engagements during the Spanish–American War on 30 June 1898 in and outside of the harbor of Manzanillo, Cuba. Three American gunboats were forced to retire after attacking a squadron of Spanish gunboats and auxiliaries. After the blockade of Santiago, the Spanish attempted to resupply the city by taking in provisions from ports on the southern coast of Cuba that were not blockaded. Aware of the situation, the American consul at Kingston sent word to the military that the Spanish were preparing to send a resupply convoy
Battle of Santiago de Cuba and later research by historians, have suggested that nearly 85% of the Spanish ammunition at Santiago was utterly useless, either defective or simply filled with sawdust as a cost-saving measure for practice firing. The American ammunition had no such issues of lethality. "Vizcaya" continued the fight until overwhelmed, and by the end of the engagement she had been struck as many as 200 times by the fire from "Brooklyn" and "Texas". "Brooklyn" had closed to within when she finally delivered an round which, according to witnesses, may have detonated a torpedo being prepared for launch. A huge explosion ensued, "Vizcaya"