At 9 a.m. on 24 July, Servera led his fleet out of Santiago.

Since the submarine cable from Havana to the mainland via Cifuengos had been cut by the Americans, the Spanish Minister of the Navy handed over the command of the fleet to the Cuban governor, who in turn threw the hot potato to the commander of the ground forces, General Linaris, who ordered the fleet to break out after the Americans landed.

However, at this time, Servera did not lead the fleet to accept this order to die as in history, but waited for the arrival of local support. Fortunately, before the cable was cut by the Americans, the Spanish mainland had already notified the fleet of its departure and scheduled arrival time, so Servera had been preparing for the day.

July 24 was Sunday, 9 o'clock was the time for American sailors to listen to the sermon on deck, and the waterway that had been half blocked by the wreckage of the Merrimack was difficult to navigate, and the American warships had searchlights, and they were also brightly lit at night, so it was not safe to sail at night.

Coupled with the fact that he cared about the glory and dignity of the Spanish navy, it was a loss of grace and dignity to sneak away like a thief while it was dark, so Servera decided to break through during the day and sail east to try to meet the reinforcement fleet.

On the evening of July 23, the Spanish fleet began to burn boilers to prepare steam at night, and in the early morning of July 24, the Americans found a layer of black smoke in the harbor, and Sclairy, who was not sure what the Spaniards were going to do, instinctively ordered the fleet to be on higher alert.

However, at about half past eight, some holes appeared in the American blockade, and the appearance of a column of smoke in the east caused Sampson to lead the flagship armored cruisers USS New York, the USS Oregon, the battleship USS Texas, and the protective cruisers USS Columbia and USS Minneapolis to turn due east to investigate, so that a large gap immediately appeared in the American blockade.

At 9 a.m., Servera had quietly sorted, and the Spanish fleet carefully avoided the minefields and the wreckage of the Merrimack, and at about 9:30 a.m., the Spanish fleet approached the exit of the waterway, and at this time there was no Brooklyn quartermaster who had taken a telescope to see the land scenery and then spotted the moving pillar of smoke behind the hill where the Sakpa Fortress was located.

Servela's plan came to fruition perfectly, and the Spanish fleet rushed out of the waterway without being detected by the Americans. At this time, the Americans, who only discovered that the Spaniards had come out, were shocked, and although the American warships, which had long been on guard, did not appear to be crowded on the deck while everyone was listening to the pastor's sermon, they still rushed to the battle position.

The entire fleet was filled with the "thud" and "thump" of closed hatches and watertight doors, and while the Americans were in disarray, Servela's flagship, the Maria Theresa, began to turn its rudder to the east while firing a burst of shelling.

In fact, if Servera ordered the fleet to fight to the death in a decisive battle with the American fleet at this time, he might have achieved considerable results while the American imperialists were panicking, but Servera, who was eager to meet with the reinforcement fleet, gave up this golden opportunity.

At this time, the Spanish fleet could not reach the rated speed because of poor maintenance, but the Americans were in a long-term blockade and the general boilers were idle to save coal, so at this time the two sides were in half a pound and eight taels in terms of speed, and the Spaniards took the lead, and the Americans would not be able to catch up for a while.

In this way, the two sides carried out this inaccurate artillery bombardment, chasing and fleeing to the east, when there was no wind on the sea, and the gunpowder smoke produced by the shelling of both sides lingered on the sea surface for a long time, like gray clouds.

The Spanish fleet, with its columns of water splashed by these clouds and American shells, looked particularly beautiful between the blue sea and sky, but the combination of the cruelty of being a hunter and a war with this elegance fills the heart with a strange feeling.

The chase lasted more than two hours, and the Americans, who had been robbed of the front, did not inflict heavy damage on the flagship of the Spanish fleet after an hour of pursuit, as is the case in history, and in this way the Spanish fleet of Servera actually caught up with the Sampson fleet, which had sailed east earlier to investigate the smoke column.

At this time, Sampson, who had discovered that the source of the smoke column was the Spanish fleet that had come to reinforce him, was embarrassed to find himself a sandwich biscuit sandwiched between the Spaniards, and after thinking about it, Sampson decided to intercept the fleeing Spaniards on the left helm first.

And Servera, who also found himself a sandwich biscuit for the Americans, had no choice but to order the course to remain unchanged and break through directly when there were wolves in front of him and tigers in the back.

And considering that only the fastest armored cruiser USS New York is the most threatening on the American side, Servera still holds that even if it collides, it will sink the New York first, so that the other ships still have the possibility of escaping and reinforcing the fleet, otherwise they can only be really made into sandwich biscuits by the American fleet catching up behind.

With this determination, Servera charged with a martyrdom-like consciousness, but the dense fire of the Americans made Servera's charge meaningless. Although the main guns of both sides were outdated and old, the two fleets with the intersecting tracks of the diagonal cut were getting closer and closer.

Soon after the two sides were about 4,000 meters apart, and after entering the common engagement distance that could guarantee the accuracy of the hit rate in naval warfare at this time, the difference in the training level of the sailors of the United States and Spain was revealed, and soon after all the fire was concentrated on the Maria Theresa, a 5.5-inch rapid-fire gun was uprooted by the shells fired from the New York with the gun mount, and then a shell took away the captain and most of the officers on the bridge, and Servera had to personally go into battle to command the disparity in strength.

However, the artillery skills of the Spanish sailors were simply not flattering, although they were desperate and brave, but only caring about the fanatical loading, firing, loading, and firing was not accurate, and in the face of the American gunners' cycle of loading, aiming, and firing, the battle was quickly decided, although the post-war statistics of the Americans were only about 2.

The stern of the Maria Theresa was on fire, shells scattered on the aft deck exploded, shrapnel flew like fireworks, and hot steam leaking from the ruptured steam pipes erupted from all sides of the canopy with a terrible whistling sound. By this time, the road to the stern had been blocked by fire, and Servera could not even fill the rear ammunition depot with water.

Knowing that the situation was over, Cervera ordered the battleship to rush to the beach and run aground, and at the same time, the Amilant Oquindo, which was following behind, was also unlucky, and a shot from the Oregon's 13-inch guns sent two shells directly into the hull, and the Amilant Teoquindo lost power on the spot.

The Okundo, slumped on the surface of the sea, was targeted by the Texas, and the shells hit the deck of the Okundo into a slaughterhouse.

A 12-inch main gun shell from the USS Texas hit the front main turret of the Okundo, tearing the head of the turret commander standing in front of the lookout hole straight from his neck, and the flying head smashed into the back wall of the turret, leaving a cloud of red and white flesh. The six gunners in the turret were bleeding and slumped on the deck, and although there were no external injuries, the shock wave shattered their internal organs, and their abdominal cavity had become a mass of broken cotton wool.

Immediately after the bridge was shot, most of the officers were killed, and the seriously wounded captain ordered all torpedoes to be fired at the Americans, hoping for a miracle, and then ordered to dump tar on the deck to completely burn the battleship, while he himself fulfilled his last duty in the raging flames.

Just as the Texas had to dodge the incoming torpedoes, the ammunition depot of the Okundo exploded, and the violent explosion broke the entire battleship in two, and the surviving sailors jumped into the sea with a miserable howl of flames, but most of them never surfaced again, and such a cruel and tragic scene even caused the captain of the Texas to Colonel John W. Phillip to order the cheering American sailors to shut up immediately.

And the Vistaya is also in a bitter battle, she has been using her hull to cover the Cologne in front of her left, as the best ship in the fleet, the Cologne is the most likely to escape.

As a result, the Viskaya was set on fire by two American protective cruisers, but the Viskaya was a belt cruiser, and the American shells did not damage it very much, and in return, Viskaya rewarded the Columbia with an 11-inch shell, which was not as rotten as the one that hit the Brooklyn in history.

The violent explosion immediately caused the Columbia's bow protection to be gnawed off by a dog, and then the second shell hit the bridge of the Columbia, killing all the officers below the captain, but that was the end of the Viskaya's victory. The Minneapolis poured shells onto the Viskaya without any pressure.

Even a broadside gunner once asked the officer behind him very blankly: "Why can't I see my own bullet hitting the water?" I can't fix the aim that way. This question made the officer stunned for a long time before he reacted: "If there is no water jet, it means that you have hit, stupid!" ”

After the Texas took out the Okundo and turned its guns to aim at the Viscaya, the Viskaya also came to its own end, and when it was torn apart, she tried her last to adjust the course and hit the Texas, but a shell that hit the bow torpedo tube and detonated the torpedo in it completely destroyed the Viskaya.

The Viskaya, whose bow was almost destroyed, could only drag the whole body to the fire and choose to rush to the beach and run aground.

As Servera's fleet was on the verge of annihilation, the ironclad ships Pelayo, Carlos V and Prince of Asturias, who had come to their aid, finally joined the battle.

The Spanish fleet lined up on the right side of the American fleet made the Americans, who were still beating their left children to their heart's content, immediately be flanked, and it would not be right to say that it was a flanking attack, after all, the Spanish fleet on the left had already been beaten by the Americans.

However, the Americans, whose main firepower was concentrated on the left, could only hurriedly turn their guns in the face of the Spanish fleet at this time, and the Spanish reinforcement fleet opened fire. R1152