A few years later, the Great War (1868–78) would begin in Cuba, in which Dominicans such as Máximo Gómez, Modesto Díaz, the Marcano brothers and others, many of whom had been Dominican reserve officers of the Spanish Army, participated. The Virginius Affair (31 October 1873), in which Spanish naval forces seized a filibustering ship flying the U.S. flag off Jamaica and executed more than fifty of its officers, crew, and passengers, seriously strained relations with the United States, but U.S. intervention in Cuba was averted by the diplomatic pressure of Britain. Cuba's first war of independence ended inconclusively. Spain sustained heavy casualties and the island sustained over $300 million in property damage, largely due to Máximo Gómez's scorched-earth policy designed to halt sugar production and make the island unprofitable to Spain.