Action of 13 June 1898 decided to withdraw. At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War Cienfuegos was a strategically important port due to its facilities and good communications with Havana. Some prewar plans recommended its prompt capture, but instead it was blockaded, along with some other important ports of the southern coast of Cuba such as Santiago de Cuba and Manzanillo. The most powerful Spanish naval units of the island, meanwhile, had been gathered in Santiago, and submarine defenses consisting mainly of torpedoes had been installed in the major ports of Havana, Cienfuegos, Santiago and San Juan de Puerto Rico. The naval units based in
Music of Cuba of the modern Italian violins, which began to become popular since the 16th century. On February 8, 1764, Esteban Salas y Castro, the new Chapel Master, arrived at the Santiago de Cuba Cathedral. To fulfill his musical duties, Salas counted with a small vocal-instrumental group that included two violins. After the arrival in Santiago de Cuba, in 1793, of numerous colonists that fled from the slave revolt in Saint Domingue, "someone named Karl Rischer and a Madame Clarais, that had brought with them a clavichord, founded an orchestra : flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, three horns, three violins, viola, two violoncellos