Action of 25 April 1898

USS Foote

Date	25 April 1898
Location	off Cardenas, Cuba
Result	Spanish victory

Belligerents

United States

Spain

Commanders and leaders

William Rodgers

Antonio Pérez Rendón

Strength

1 torpedo boat

1 gunboat

Casualties and losses

1 torpedo boat heavily damaged, unknown casualties

1 gunboat slightly damaged, no human loss

The Action of 25 April 1898 was a minor single ship action of the Spanish–American War fought near Cárdenas, Cuba, between the American torpedo boat USS Foote under Lieutenant William Ledyard Rodgers and the Spanish gunboat Ligera under Lieutenant Antonio Pérez Rendón. After a fierce exchange of fire, Foote, seriously damaged, was forced to withdraw. The engagement was the first battle of the war, as well as the first naval Spanish success.

At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, the US Navy detached a force of two protected cruisers, 16 auxiliary cruisers, 12 torpedo boats and many other units including armed tugboats, yachts and colliers to blockade the Cuban coasts with the aim of cutting off the supplies of the Spanish Army. It proved to be a difficult task due to the large number of inlets, keys and natural ports of that coasts that allowed the much inferior Spanish vessels to break the blockade many times. One of that ports was Cárdenas. The naval units based there were the gunboats Alerta, Ligera and Antonio López, the last a former tugboat operated by the Spanish Line, which had ceded it to the navy. The port was supposedly defended by two shore-batteries, but the Spanish accounts didn't mention their presence prior to their installation on 12 May. The entrances to the bay were covered by 20 Bustamante mines, most of them defective, and a 70-men company of marines had been detached to garrison the town. The gunboats belonged to the Spanish Caribbean squadron under Admiral Vicente Manterola, and most of its units had been described as "unhelpful even to the coastal police".Antonio López, nevertheless, had captured the filibuster ship Genoveva and the schooner William Todd few years before.

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Wikipedia