The Great Republic by the Master Historians Dewey Sails to Manila byBancroft, Hubert H.
When Congress issued its ultimatum to Spain on April 20, the condition of our
Pacific defences and naval force was such as to cause uneasiness. San Francisco,
San Diego, and other seaports were nominally in a state of defence, but no more.
The United States naval squadron in Asiatic waters, commanded by Commodore
George Washington Dewey, was assembled at Hong-Kong. In preparation for events
it had been well supplied with ammunition, stores, and coal. It consisted of six
ships, as follows: The Commodore's flag-ship Olympia, a protected cruiser of
5,900 tons, of high speed and with heavy armament, regarded as one of the best
fighting cruisers among the navies of the world; the protected cruisers
Baltimore, 4,400 tons, Raleigh, 3,200 tons, Boston, 3,000 tons; the gunboats
Concord, 1,700 tons, Petrel, 890 tons. The despatch-boat McCulloch and steamers
Zafiro and Nanshan (both emergency colliers), were attached to the squadron. The
six fighting ships were 7,000 miles from the nearest American port base, since
the United States possessed no coaling station in the Pacific nearer than
California available for purposes of war. On the California coast were the
first-class battle-ship Oregon, the gunboat Marietta, and the monitors Monterey
and Monadnock, all purely coast defenders and all unable to cross the Pacific
upon their own coal supply. The lack of American merchant steamers in the
Pacific rendered it difficult to obtain the requisite transports and auxiliary
vessels.
The Spanish naval force available at Manila bay, under command of Admiral
Montojo, consisted of fourteen ships and gunboats. Four were protected cruisers,
one, the flagship Reina Cristina, well armed and equipped, though of only 3,500
tons displacement. The Castilla, Don Juan de Austria, and Velasco were smaller
cruisers, and the remaining eight were gunboats. While the Spaniards had more
vessels, they were not as powerful in size or armament combined as the six ships
of the American squadron. They were, however, assembled in Manila harbor, under
the guns of the forts at Manila and Cavite, with batteries on Corregidor Island,
at the entrance to Manila Bay, a position apparently impregnable if properly
maintained, especially as the approaches were covered with mines to render
entrance dangerous.
If the Spanish fleet remained at Manila the safety of our Pacific coast against
attack was assured; but if a declaration of war were made the American fleet
would be forced to leave the neutral harbor of Hong-Kong, and, with its supply
of coal, stores, and ammunition limited, its effectiveness would also be limited
to the period of consumption of these articles, without any available source of
fresh supply. It was plain that the American squadron must either sail for
American waters and act upon the defensive, or seek out the Spaniard in the bay
of Manila under the guns of his own fortresses and abide the issue of battle. To
Americans, eager to test the enemy, to authorities fully confident of the
intelligence, courage, skill, patriotism, and readiness of our sailors, there
was but one thing to do.
On April 25, when the declaration of war was formally made, Commodore Dewey
received orders by cable from the President to "seek the Spanish fleet and
capture or destroy it." The same day the British authorities at Hong-Kong, after
receiving notice of the declaration of war, notified Commodore Dewey that as
Great Britain was neutral in the conflict, his squadron would be expected to
leave Hong-Kong within twenty-four hours under the rules of international
agreement. The Commodore immediately set sail without consuming the time
remaining to him under the rule, and rendezvoused at Mirs Bay on the Chinese
coast to strip his ships for action and communicate his plans to the officers of
his ships. The plan was simplicity itself. It was to obey orders by seeking the
Spaniard, finding him as quickly as possible and, without hesitating a moment,
to "smash him" with all the might of projectiles that the American ships could
deliver. The details of the line of battle and order of ships were also arranged
and the preparations aroused the sailors to great enthusiasm.
George Washington Dewey was born in Vermont of good old Puritan stock. When he
was ordered against Manila he was in his sixty-second year. A graduate of the
Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1858, he had served with courage and distinction
in the Civil War. He was a junior officer on the Hartford under Admiral Farragut
when that commander, entering Mobile Bay and finding the bay mined with
explosives that had already destroyed a ship ahead of him, had cried out to the
ship's captain, who seemed to hesitate: "Go right ahead, Captain, damn the
torpedoes!" The same laconic style of expression was in Commodore Dewey's
language thirty-three years later when in Mirs Bay he told his men, "We are to
seek the Spaniard and smash him as soon as we find him." To sailors imbued with
patriotic pride, far from home, and who cherished a determination to "Remember
the Maine," the promise of quick battle was full of exciting recompense.
But Commodore Dewey's plan went further than one of mere battle. The Philippine
revolutionary leader, Aguinaldo, who had found refuge at Hong-Kong, had been
invited to co-operate. Supplied with money, arms and ammunition, he and his
influential followers were to be transported to Luzon and landed. In the event
of a protracted siege or the miscarriage of plans, the Americans would thus have
allies in the rear of the Spanish army and navy, and the revolutionists, under
the encouragement of new and powerful allies in front, would be able to reduce
the Spanish power to impotence for offensive action. These arrangements were
perfected in one day, and on Friday, April 29, the American squadron sailed for
Manila, distant about 700 miles, requiring three days' steaming.
The Spaniards awaited the approach of the Americans with a display of
exultation. Governor-General Augusti announced that after the expected battle
Spanish cruisers would be despatched against San Francisco. The capture of an
American trading bark by a Spanish gunboat was made an occasion of popular
rejoicing. The means adopted to excite native hatred against the Americans by
inspiring dread of them seems incredible and would only be possible in a country
where press censorship and general ignorance combined to leave the people at the
mercy of unscrupulous rulers. The Governor-General issued a bombastic address in
which, after declaring that "the hour of glory had arrived," herevelled in abuse
of the Americans:--
"The North American people, constituted of all social excrescences, have
exhausted our patience and provoked war by their perfidious machinations, their
acts of treachery, their outrages against the laws of nations and international
conventions. .
"Spain, which counts upon the sympathies of all nations, will emerge triumphant
from this new test, humiliating and blasting the adventurers from those United
States that, without cohesion, offer humanity only infamous traditions and
ungrateful spectacles in her chambers, in which appear insolence, defamation,
cowardice, and cynicism.
"Her squadron, manned by foreigners, possessing neither instruction nor
discipline, is preparing to come to this archipelago with ruffianly intention,
robbing us of all that means life, honor, and liberty, and pretending to be
inspired by a courage of which they are incapable.
"American seamen undertake as an enterprise capable of realization the
substitution of Protestantism for the Catholic religion, to treat you as tribes
refractory to civilization, to take possession of your riches as if they were
unacquainted with the rights of property, to kidnap those persons they consider
useful to man their ships or to be exploited in agricultural and industrial
labor.
"Vain designs, ridiculous boastings! Your indomitable bravery will suffice to
frustrate the realization of their designs. You will not allow the faith you
profess, to be made a mockery, or impious hands to be placed on the temple of
the true God. The images you adore, thrown down by the unbelief of the
aggressors, shall not prove the tombs of your fathers. They shall not gratify
lustful passions at the cost of your wives' and daughters' honor, or appropriate
property accumulated in provision for your old age.
"They shall not perpetrate these crimes, inspired by their wickedness and
covetousness, because your valor and patriotism will suffice to punish a base
people that is claiming to be civilized and cultivated. They have exterminated
the natives of North America instead of giving them civilization and progress."
As if the defence of Manila were a theatrical spectacle the authorities sent
daily to Madrid rhetorical assurances of their security and the preparations to
destroy the Americans; of the impregnability of their fleet and forts and the
patriotism of the Spaniards and volunteers. Yet it was well known at Manila that
the forts alone mounted good modern guns, that the fleet was poorly equipped,
that the insurgents beleaguered the city ready to fall on it when the American
ships arrived, that the harbor contained few really effective mines to prevent
entrance. During these days thousands of refugees left for Hong-Kong on passing
ships and the price of food increased alarmingly. Terror was felt by the whole
population. The Spanish admiral, Montojo, whose reputation for courage was
unchallenged, took his vessels to Subig Bay, a harbor at the northern entrance
to Manila Bay, with the intention of assailing the American fleet unexpectedly
as it passed. He found only worthless defences at Subig and brought his ships
back under the guns of Cavite, to give battle inside the bay and support the
capital defences. The Admiral, who was called "The Fighting Montojo" by the
Spanish sailors, was at one and the same time to prove his dauntless courage and
to demonstrate his utter incompetence to provide against surprise or to make
adequate preparation for combat.
