The remains of the Cervera's fleet: Important witnesses of a naval fight

In the depths of Santiago de Cuba's west coast still lies the oxidized remains of what it was one of the most prestigious naval squadrons of Spain from the nineteenth century: The Fleet of the Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete. After declaring war to Spain due to the mysterious explosion of the battleship Maine, the United States sent to Santiago de Cuba two of its most powerful naval fleets to eliminate the Spanish ships which were anchored off the Caribbean bay. The Maine's blew up was the pretext used by the American government to meddling in the war that Cuba had won virtually to Spain. Military superior, the ten American ships commanded by the Admiral Sampson, were positioned in front of the Morro Castle. After fencing the entrance of the bay, they bombed at the same time the six ships of the Spanish navy that were emerging slowly one to one from the narrow mouth of the creek. It was 9:35 am on Sunday, July 3, 1898 when the battle boats of Santiago de Cuba started this way. The Spanish vessels ventured off the Yankees cannons in what became a shooting practice of the Americans. Finally the Spanish squad was reduced to damaged ships that were forced to run around while other less fortunate sunk under the waters of the Caribbean Sea. One hundred years later the conservation of the wrecks of the jetsam is a historical and cultural necessity. "The preservation of the sunken ships of the squadron of Cervera is not homogeneous. We must take into account the situation in each ending, as there are some who barely got damaged as is the case of Christopher Columbus' cruise battleship that suffered only five impacts, others simply were disastrously bombed as in the case of Vizcaya and the Admiral Oquendo," referred to TV Santiago the underwater researcher Jesus Vicente Gonzalez Diaz, one of the divers who has reached more times until the remains of the squad. The cruise protected, Infanta Maria Teresa, flagship of the Spanish squad that was the first to leave, was burned near the coast and the Americans, with the desire to boast of a good trophy of war, they tugged it to take it to the States United, attempt which failed when a bad weather made the wounded boat capsizing in the Bahamas near Cat Island. The rest of the squadron is spread from the first kilometers on the west coast just off the bay to the front of the popular "La Mula" River, near Ocujal. "The jetsams or remains of the sunken boat, have suffered the climate brunt of over a century. But I think one of the most dangerous factors for conservation is the action of man. We have charted a plan of care for the underwater heritage, plan that operated from community members near the sites of collapse until the maritime authorities," explains Gonzalez Diaz. The preservation of Cuban underwater heritage is the way for further rely on what one day will be erected as a symbol of the value of marine Spaniards.

Santiago de Cuba Newspaper News posted on 5/13/2008 11:58:46 AM

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