Battle of Nipe Bay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Nipe Bay

Date	July 21, 1898
Location	Nipe Bay, Cuba
Result	American victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Spain

United States

Commanders

Captain Hunker

Strength

1 cruiser
3 small gunboats
3 coastal forts

4 gunboats

Casualties and losses

1 cruiser sunk
3 forts destroyed

v • d • e Cuban Campaign

Cárdenas – Cienfuegos – Guantánamo Bay – Las Guasimas – Tayacoba – Aguadores – El Caney – San Juan Hill – Naval Santiago – Santiago - Nipe Bay – Manimani

The Battle of Nipe Harbor of July 21, 1898 was a naval engagement in the Spanish-American War.

[edit] Battle

The action fought by four US gunboats against the Spanish cruiser Jorge Juan which was supported by forts guarding the harbor. The harbor had been designated as a rendezvous point for the forces delegated to attack Puerto Rico. Upon finding the harbor still occupied by Spanish forces, the small American squadron led by USS Topeka sunk the Jorge Juan and silenced the harbor forts, later stripping several items from Jorge Juan's sinking hulk as trophies. The americans themselves suffered little or no casualties. The gunboats also encountered several mines in the bay but did not receive any damage from them and a few days after the battle the small squadron departed.

[edit] Aftermath

It was later decided that the bay wasn't nessesary for operations against Puerto Rico, but the battle did cause signifigant damage to the Spanish navy and denied them the use of the port for the remainder of the war.