USS Amphitrite (BM-2) - Spanish-American War

Spanish-American War

In February 1898, tensions between the United States and Spain served as the backdrop for the explosion, in Havana Harbor, of the armored cruiser Maine. As the United States and Spain moved toward war, a flurry of orders began deploying the Navy to be ready for hostilities. Amphitrite sailed from Port Royal on 5 April, and arrived at Key West on the 8th. She remained there until the 22nd, before she operated from that place from 22 to 27 April. She was at sea when the United States declared war on Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War.

On 1 May, Amphitrite and her sister ship Terror departed Key West, and shortly thereafter joined Rear Admiral William T. Sampson's fleet on the way east from its cruise off the coast of Cuba in search of Admiral Pascual Cervera's squadron. Because the monitors could not carry large amounts of coal, Sampson directed that the monitors be towed by the heavier ships. Iowa drew Amphitrite, a task recalled with little affection by the former's commanding officer, Capt. Robley D. Evans, in his autobiography:

"When we reached the rendezvous, late in the evening, we found there, among other ships, two monitors—the Terror and the Amphitrite ... I was directed to tow the Amphitrite with the Iowa. The sea was very smooth, and we were soon pulling her along at nine knots, but before the job was finished I wished I had never seen a monitor. When once out from the protection of the shoals the sea began to rise, and soon everything in the way of towlines had been parted, and it was only when we slowed down to seven knots or less that we could make anything hold. We found ourselves in the open sea looking for an enemy who could steam at the speed of sixteen to eighteen knots while we could barely maintain seven. The prospect of catching him was not very bright. However, we were doing our best with the tools the Government had given us to work with ..."

After "many vexatious delays", Evans writes, the American ships arrived off their destination, San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the afternoon of the 11th.

On the morning of 12 May, Amphitrite was assigned to the 1st division, and steamed sixth in column as Sampson's ships stood toward San Juan. The admiral had seen that there were no Spanish ships in harbor—the object of his cruise—but decided to attack the defenses of the port, to "develop their defenses and strength" and then turn to the westward to continue the hunt. Beneath fair skies, the American ships stood through the long swells toward their objective.

Calling "all hands" at 0400 hours to complete preparations for action, the ships went to general quarters an hour later. Iowa began the action at 0516 hours with her forward 6-pounders. For two and a half hours, the ships bombarded the Spanish positions at San Juan. Amphitrite hurled 17 10-inch shells shoreward, as well as 30 4-inch shells, 30 3-pounders and 22 6-pounders in the course of the action. The blast from the ship's 10-inch guns destroyed the gig and railings on the superstructure, and other items of minor damage which did not "destroy in any degree the efficiency of the vessel." The chronic irritation of the ship- poor ventilation -afflicted the ship in the course of the action, when a gunner's mate on duty in the after turret died from the heat. Amphitrite's Capt. Barclay commented on the lamentable conditions in his after-action report, pointing out that when the ship was closed up at action stations, the "utter lack of ventilation below ..." produced "heat so intense as to render it almost impossible for men stationed there to remain at their posts."

Toward the end of the action, Amphitrite lost the services of half of her main battery, when an armored hose on the exhaust pipe of the after turret burst, disabling it "at a moment when it could have rendered very efficient service." The monitor had sent the signal to the flagship that her after turret had been disabled, at 1912 hours; at 1945 hours, Iowa sounded "secure."

Sampson's fleet then formed column to the northwest and retired. Amphitrite returned to Key West, her base of operations, on 19 May, and remained there until the 24th. Over the next two and a half months, Amphitrite operated put of Key West on blockade duty, expanding her area of operations to include waters off Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, in late July, shortly before she shifted to Cape San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 2 August for a stay of over two weeks' duration.

At 1900 hours on 6 August 1898, a party of officers and men under Ensign K. M. Bennett left the ship to occupy the lighthouse at Cape San Juan. About an hour before midnight on the 8th, a large Spanish force attacked the lighthouse, but the Americans drove them off in the Battle of Fajardo.

A relief party from Amphitrite landed on the morning of the 9th; 60 women and children were then sent out to the tug Leyden. They closed the lighthouse and left the flag flying, and returned to the ship.

Amphitrite departed Cape San Juan on 18 August for Guánica, Puerto Rico, arriving the following day, and lingered there until 31 August, on which day she sailed for St. Nicholas Mole, Haiti. Proceeding then to Hampton Roads, she arrived there on 20 September. Departing that port six days later on 26 September, Amphitrite moved up to Boston, Massachusetts, where she remained from 29 September 1898 to 25 February 1899.