Editing Spanish–American War (section)

==Cámara's squadron==
[[File:Escuadra española en la ría de Ferrol.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Cámara's Flying Relief Column|Spanish East Asia Rescue Squadron]], which never saw engagement; oil on canvas painted around 1897{{efn|Painting is signed with initials A.A. by Antonio Antón and Antonio Iboleón. It is an idealized view — since the ships represented never sailed together — of the Spanish Squadron of Instruction steaming in a choppy sea under partly cloudy skies in 1896, before the Spanish-American War of 1898. On the left is the [[battleship]] {{ship|Spanish battleship|Pelayo||2}} with [[Naval ensign|ensign]], followed by the armored cruisers {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Cristóbal Colón||2}} and {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Infanta Maria Teresa||2}} and the [[protected cruiser]] {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Alfonso XIII||2}}; on the right are the armored cruisers {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Emperador Carlos V||2}} (with ensign), {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Almirante Oquendo||2}}, and {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Vizcaya||2}}. The [[torpedo gunboat]] {{ship|Spanish warship|Destructor||2}} steams on the [[Port and starboard|starboard]] side of ''Pelayo''. Two {{sclass|Furor|destroyer}}s steam along the [[Bow (ship)|bows]] of ''Emperador Carlos V''.}}]]

Shortly after the war began in April, the Spanish Navy ordered major units of its fleet to concentrate at Cádiz in southern Spain to form the 2nd Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral [[Manuel de la Cámara|Manuel de la Cámara y Livermoore]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.spanamwar.com/pelayo.htm |title=The Spanish–American War Centennial Website: ''Pelayo'' |access-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-date=January 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128102921/http://www.spanamwar.com/pelayo.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Two of Spain's most powerful warships, the [[battleship]] {{ship|Spanish battleship|Pelayo||2}} and the brand-new [[armored cruiser]] {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Emperador Carlos V||2}}, were not available when the war began—the former undergoing reconstruction in a French shipyard and the latter not yet delivered from her builders—but both were rushed into service and assigned to Cámara's squadron.<ref>Nofi, p. 58</ref> The squadron was ordered to guard the Spanish coast against raids by the U.S. Navy. No such raids materialized. While Cámara's squadron lay idle at Cádiz, U.S. Navy forces destroyed Montojo's squadron at Manila Bay on 1 May and bottled up Cervera's squadron at Santiago de Cuba on 27 May.

During May, the Spanish [[Ministry of the Navy (Spain)|Ministry of the Navy]] considered options for employing Cámara's squadron. Minister of the Navy [[Ramón Auñón y Villalón]] made plans for Cámara to take a portion of his squadron across the Atlantic Ocean and bombard a city on the [[East Coast of the United States]], preferably [[Charleston, South Carolina]], and then head for the Caribbean to make port at San Juan, Havana, or Santiago de Cuba,<ref name="tucker85">Tucker, Spencer C., ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=8V3vZxOmHssC&dq=admiral+manuel+camara+born+1835&pg=PA85 ''The Encyclopedia of the Spanish–American and Philippine–American Wars''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923144607/https://books.google.com/books?id=8V3vZxOmHssC&dq=admiral+manuel+camara+born+1835&pg=PA85 |date=September 23, 2023 }}, Santa Barbara, CS: ABC-CLIO LLC, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1851099511}}, p. 85</ref> but in the end this idea was dropped. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence reported rumors as early as 15 May that Spain also was considering sending Cámara's squadron to the Philippines to destroy Dewey's squadron and reinforce the Spanish forces there with fresh troops.<ref name=OToolep222>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WozGjq1OAi0C&dq=Deway+Pelayo+Carlos&pg=PA222 O'Toole, G. J. A., ''The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012054757/https://books.google.com/books?id=WozGjq1OAi0C&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=Deway+Pelayo+Carlos&source=bl&ots=mtnauGUHbu&sig=ACfU3U2bbqUunBmiGMmydHgNY7c_1V1VIw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjetp2A96XpAhVUlnIEHRtQA4cQ6AEwCXoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=Deway%20Pelayo%20Carlos&f=false |date=October 12, 2020 }}, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984, {{ISBN|0393303047}}, p. 222</ref> ''Pelayo'' and ''Emperador Carlos V'' each were more powerful than any of Dewey's ships, and the possibility of their arrival in the Philippines was of great concern to the United States, which hastily arranged to dispatch 10,000 additional U.S. Army troops to the Philippines and send two U.S. Navy [[Monitor (warship)|monitors]] to reinforce Dewey.<ref name=OToolep222/>

[[File:Spanish Fleet, Suez Canal 1898.jpg|thumb|[[Manuel de la Cámara|Cámara's]] [[Squadron (naval)|squadron]] in the [[Suez Canal]] in July 1898. His [[flagship]], the [[battleship]] {{ship|Spanish battleship|Pelayo||2}}, can be seen in the foreground. The last ship in the line is the [[armored cruiser]] {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Emperador Carlos V||2}}. The squadron never saw combat.]]
On 15 June, Cámara finally received orders to depart immediately for the Philippines. His squadron, made up of ''Pelayo'' (his [[flagship]]), ''Emperador Carlos V'', two [[auxiliary cruiser]]s, three destroyers, and four colliers, was to depart Cádiz escorting four [[Troopship|transports]]. After detaching two of the transports to steam independently to the Caribbean, his squadron was to proceed to the Philippines, escorting the other two transports, which carried 4,000 Spanish Army troops to reinforce Spanish forces there. He then was to destroy Dewey's squadron.<ref name=":2">Nofi, p. 168</ref><ref name="tucker85"/><ref>Cervera's papers, pp. 151–54</ref> Accordingly, he sortied from Cádiz on 16 June<ref>Nofi, p. 273</ref> and, after detaching two of the transports for their voyages to the Caribbean, passed Gibraltar on 17 June<ref name=":2"/> and arrived at [[Port Said]], at the northern end of the [[Suez Canal]], on 26 June.<ref name="Cervera's papers, p. 154">Cervera's papers, p. 154.</ref> There he found that U.S. operatives had purchased all the [[coal]] available at the other end of the canal in [[Suez]] to prevent his ships from coaling with it.<ref>French Ensor Chadwick, "[https://books.google.com/books?id=ditAAAAAYAAJ&dq=ethelbert+watts+cairo&pg=PA388 The relations of the United States and Spain: the Spanish–American War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220210132/http://books.google.com/books?id=ditAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA388&dq=ethelbert+watts+cairo&ei=DIiqTMbBE5KuNoiwzKoD&cd=7#v=onepage&q=ethelbert%20watts%20cairo&f=false |date=February 20, 2014 }}," Volume 2, p. 388 (1911).</ref> He also received word on 29 June from the [[British government]], which [[History of Egypt under the British|controlled Egypt]] at the time, that his squadron was not permitted to coal in Egyptian waters because to do so would violate Egyptian and British neutrality.<ref name="Cervera's papers, p. 154"/><ref name="tucker85"/>

Ordered to continue,<ref name=encycamerican1925p243>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tHzFM6104e0C&q=Camara&pg=PA243 |title=''The Encyclopedia Americana'', New York: The Americana Corporation, 1925, p. 243 Retrieved 6 May 2020 |year=1924 |access-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002162756/https://books.google.com/books?id=tHzFM6104e0C&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=admiral+Manuel+de+la+camara+%22retired%22&source=bl&ots=HHb0N_Le-7&sig=ACfU3U0M170RXrV_tQVJR7zxYL1JKPxRvg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwibuIDXsp_pAhUKj3IEHbEzAJMQ6AEwCHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Camara&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Cámara's squadron passed through the Suez Canal on 5–6 July. By that time, word had reached Spain of the annihilation of Cervera's squadron off Santiago de Cuba on 3 July, freeing up the U.S. Navy's heavy forces from the blockade there, and the [[United States Department of the Navy]] had announced that a U.S. Navy "armored squadron with cruisers" would assemble and "proceed at once to the Spanish coast."<ref name=encycamerican1925p243/> Fearing for the safety of the Spanish coast, the Spanish Ministry of the Navy recalled Cámara's squadron, which by then had reached the [[Red Sea]], on 7 July 1898.<ref>Nofi, p. 283</ref> Cámara{{'}}s squadron returned to Spain, making stops at [[Mahón]] on [[Menorca]] in the [[Balearic Islands]] on 18&nbsp;July<ref name=todoavantepelayo1888>{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Pelayo_(1888) |title=Pelayo (1888) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=6 April 2022 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=17 March 2025 |language=es}}</ref> and at Cartagena on either {{nowrap|20<ref name=todoavantepelayo1888/> or 23 July<ref name="tucker85"/>}}, according to different sources, before arriving at Cadiz,<ref name="tucker85"/> where it was dissolved on 25&nbsp;July 1898.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Pelayo_(1888) |title=Pelayo (1888) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=6 April 2022 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=17 March 2025 |language=es}}</ref> No U.S. Navy forces subsequently threatened the coast of Spain, and Cámara and Spain's two most powerful warships thus never saw combat during the war.<ref name="tucker85"/>