Battle of the Aguadores Battle of the Aguadores The Battle of the Aguadores was a sharp skirmish on the banks of the Aguadores River near Santiago de Cuba, on 1 July 1898, at the height of the Spanish–American War. The American attack was intended as a feint to draw Spanish defenders away from their nearby positions at San Juan Hill and El Caney, where the main blows fell later that day. Poor coordination between Duffield's column and the North Atlantic Fleet led to an ineffective bombardment of the Spanish positions. By the time the Americans arrived, the west end of the only bridge had
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"