page_title: USS Iowa (BB-4)
section_title: Battle of Santiago de Cuba
hierarchical_section_title: USS Iowa (BB-4) / Service history / Spanish–American War / Battle of Santiago de Cuba
caption_attribution_description: English: Watching the battle from the deck of USS Iowa (Battleship # 4). Note the volume of dense gun smoke around the ship in left center. Copied from the Journal of Naval Cadet Cyrus R. Miller. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
context_page_description: USS Iowa (BB-4) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1890s. The ship was a marked improvement over the previous Indiana-class battleships, correcting many of the defects in the design of those vessels. Among the most important improvements were significantly better seaworthiness owing to her greater freeboard and a more efficient arrangement of the armament. Iowa was designed to operate on the high seas, which had been the impetus to increase the freeboard. She was armed with a battery of four 12-inch guns in two twin-gun turrets, supported by a secondary battery of eight 8-inch guns.
  Upon entering service in June 1897, Iowa conducted training operations in the Atlantic Ocean before moving to the Caribbean in early 1898 as tensions between the United States and Spain over Cuba grew, leading to the Spanish–American War. The ship took part in the bombardment of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then participated in the blockade of Cuba during the war, and after the Spanish cruiser squadron was found in Santiago de Cuba, she patrolled off the harbor to block their escape.
context_section_description: At 08:45 on 3 July, Cervera sortied with his flag aboard the cruiser Infanta Maria Teresa, followed by Cristóbal Colón, Vizcaya and Almirante Oquendo and the destroyers Plutón and Furor. Iowa was in her blockade station, steaming at about 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) when her men were called from their quarters for the morning inspection at 09:15. The Spaniards cleared the roadstead at 09:35; luckily for the Spanish, New York was out of position at the time and Massachusetts was replenishing her coal at Guantánamo Bay. Toward the end of inspection aboard Iowa, lookouts aboard Brooklyn spotted Cervera approaching and fired one of her guns to warn the other American ships, which quickly ordered their crews to general quarters. As the Spanish ships attempted to break out to the west, Cervera charged at Brooklyn with Infanta Maria Teresa to delay the American pursuit and give his other ships time to escape. The Spanish coastal batteries also contributed their fire in the first stage of the battle but had little effect.
  Iowa, Brooklyn, and Texas opened fire at about 09:40 at a range of about 6,000 yards (5,500 m). Iowa quickly got steam in her boilers up to increase speed to close with the fleeing cruisers; the range fell steadily until she was just 2,500 yards (2,300 m) away from Infanta Maria Theresa. Iowa fired a broadside at the cruiser and then turned to port to cross the t of Vizcaya, though the Spanish cruiser turned to avoid the maneuver. Iowa nevertheless fired a broadside at a range of 1,800 yards (1,600 m) before turning to port and then back to starboard to come alongside Cristóbal Colón. The two ships were about 1,400 yards (1,300 m) apart and Iowa's entire battery opened fire, enveloping her in thick black smoke and hampering her gunners' ability to spot targets. Cristóbal Colón and Almirante Oquendo engaged Iowa, and one of the vessels struck her with what was estimated to be a 6-inch (152 mm) shell. It failed to explode, but still tore a large hole in the side of her hull. A second shell from one of the cruisers struck Iowa and exploded, causing relatively minor damage and starting a fire that was quickly put out. Several small shells struck her upper works, including her bridge and funnels, but the damage inflicted was minimal.
  By this point in the battle, heavy American gunfire had set Infanta Maria Theresa on fire, and, fearing a magazine explosion, Cervara ordered her run aground at 10:25. Almirante Oquendo's captain issued similar instructions five minutes later, as his ship, too, was burning badly. Vizcaya was also forced ashore shortly thereafter, but her flag remained flying, so Iowa continued to bombard the vessel until she hauled it down at 10:36, a sign of surrender. Meanwhile, the two Spanish destroyers had also been badly damaged by the American battleships; Indiana had nearly cut Plutón in half with a 13-inch shell, forcing her to run aground, where she exploded. And Furor had been savaged by Iowa's, Oregon's, and Indiana's secondary batteries, leading her crew to surrender to the gunboat Gloucester. Cristóbal Colón managed to break away from the American fleet for a time, but she also ran aground later in the day.
  At around 11:00, Iowa lowered five of her cutters to pick up the crews of the wrecked cruisers. Among the men rescued was Captain Antonio Eulate, Vizcaya's commander; he attempted to surrender his sword to Evans, but he returned it to Eulate. In total, Iowa picked up 23 officers and 248 enlisted men, of whom 32 were wounded. Her crew also recovered the bodies of five men who were then buried with military honors. In addition, Iowa's boats also transferred men to other vessels in the American fleet. On 20 July, four days after the Spanish garrison at Santiago de Cuba surrendered, Iowa suffered a boiler accident while she was patrolling off the city. The manhole gasket on one of her boilers blew out, sending boiling water out into the boiler room. The crew set a board across a bucket and Fireman 2nd Class Robert Penn climbed across to shut off the boiler, risking being badly burned, and h
caption: Iowa's crewmen watch the U.S. fleet's gunfire during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
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