Sinking the Spanish Fleet
The morning of Saturday, April 30, the American squadron was sighted off Cape Bolinao and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon it rounded to off Subig Bay on the sea side of the Peninsula that encloses the great bay of Manila on the west. The distance to the city of Manila was about fifty miles. The cruisers Boston and Concord were detailed to search Subig Bay for the enemy, the crews of all ships standing to their guns ready to engage. There was no trace of the Spaniard in Subig. It was then that Commodore Dewey for the first time made known to the commanders of his ships his intention to force the entrance of Manila Bay under cover of night, and to engage the enemy under the fire of the forts. Slow headway was made down the coast and at 11 o'clock at night the squadron entered the Boca Grande, the larger of the two entrances to the bay.
The bay of Manila is one of the largest and deepest harbors of the world. It has an area of 125 square miles, with a depth approximating the ocean itself. The entrance is twelve miles wide on the south and almost midway rise the rocky islands of Corregidor and Caballos. Corregidor was strongly fortified, armed with heavy modern guns and equipped with searchlights that would have enabled competent defenders to render entering it a hazardous feat. The channel to the north of Corregidor is called the Boca Chica, or small mouth, and the Boca Grande is on the south.
More than twelve hours earlier the appearance of the Americans at Cape Bolinao had been reported to the Spaniards, yet when the squadron in order, with all lights out, and every man at his station, turned Corregidor and headed up the Boca Grande towards the city of Manila, there was not a Spanish patrol to give warning of its approach, and apparently no watch on Corregidor fortress or tower. On board the American ships every man was at his post, and had been for eighteen hours, as he was to be for eighteen hours longer, except for brief moments of rest. Down in the engine and furnace rooms the heat was from 125 to 160 degrees; but no engineer or stoker left his place, save the engineer of the despatch-boat McCulloch, who dropped dead from heart disease superinduced by the heat. This happened as the ships were passing in.
Realizing the preparation that could be made by a warned foe, expecting floating mines, torpedo attacks, and a plunging fire from the lofty fortress on Corregidor, the Americans, hidden only by darkness, slowly and silently as possible filed into the channel, led by the flag-ship, and began to run the terrible gauntlet of unknown dangers without hesitation.
Half the squadron had passed when sparks escaping from one of the funnels were observed by the watch on Corregidor. Instantly the guns on the fort opened fire upon the squadron, to which the Boston and McCulloch replied with a few shots, and then silence again reigned. Past the fort the ships slowed down to bare steerageway and, all hands resting by their guns, the squadron waited for day to dawn to begin the terrible work that lay before it in the splendid amphitheatre of the mountain-locked bay.
At 5 o'clock in the morning the Olympia was five miles from Manila, the spires of whose churches and the towers of whose fortresses could be dimly seen through the glasses of the lookouts. The city lies on the east side of the bay, about twenty-five miles from the entrance, situated upon a low plateau, divided by Pasig River. Volcanic mountains enclose the coasts at varying distances. Eight miles south of Manila, on the same side of the bay, is a low point of land projecting into the water, eked out by the construction of a breakwater, upon which stand the arsenal and fortress of Cavite, commanding the Spanish navy-yard. Thus Manila and Cavite were within sea view and gun range of each other, and the theatre of battle was so designed that the combat might be witnessed by the 300,000 people dwelling within range.
The American ships and the Spanish guard at Manila discovered each other at 5 o'clock. As the light increased the Spanish ships were revealed lying under the guns of Cavite, in line of battle almost east and west. At 15 minutes past 5 the light permitted action, and three batteries of heavy guns at Manila and two at Cavite, together with the long-range guns of the Spanish ships, opened fire on the Americans. The shots were harmless. Two guns were fired at Manila from our ships, but Commodore Dewey signalled orders not to reply to Manila. It was not his intention to subject the helpless non-combatants of that crowded city to a bombardment, but to "smash the Spanish fleet." So that, while the Manila batteries kept up a continuous fire upon our ships for two hours, without effect, no shells were thrown into the city, which must have been a thing greatly marvelled at by those who had described the Americans as pitiless destroyers and cruel cowards.