Battle of Santiago de Cuba fully and believed that Schley contributed little to the battle's outcome. Sampson died in 1902 and Schley in 1911, but the controversy left an internecine struggle within the Navy that, in some ways, tarnished the Navy's image after what had otherwise seemed a glorious naval victory. The end of the Spanish–American War was in many ways a new beginning for the U.S. Navy and marked a watershed moment in American and Spanish history. The defeat of the Spanish Navy gave the United States uncontested control of the seas surrounding Cuba. With resupply of the Spanish garrison nearly impossible, Spain ultimately
Battle of Santiago de Cuba and were lost. , abandoned in Santiago Bay because of engine troubles, was an unprotected cruiser captured by the U.S. Navy and used as a receiving ship until 1957 as . All of the various flags, warship pennants, national combat flags, the royal standard, admirals' flags and so on retrieved from the Spanish ships in the days following the battle, are part of the United States Navy Trophy Flag Collection at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Maryland. The collection was given to the care of the U.S. Naval Academy by an act of Congress in 1949. In 1998,