In 1872, Cámara was assigned to the Maritime Department of Havana in Cuba, where the Ten Years' War had broken out in 1868. In Cuban waters, he took command of the gunboat , patrolling the Cuban coast aboard her and assisting in the defense of Guantánamo against the Cuban rebel forces of Antonio Maceo Grajales, an action for which he received both the Cross of Military Merit and a second award of the Cross of Naval Merit. He also commanded the paddle steamer "Don Álvaro de Bazán" and the sloop-of-war during the war.