This was the signal. The _Baltimore_ and the _Boston_ followed, and before five minutes had passed every ship was pouring shot and shell on the Spanish squadron and forts. Great guns and small guns, slow-fire guns and rapid-fire guns, hand guns and machine guns, all boomed and barked together, and their shot whistled and screamed, until it sounded like a mighty carnival of death. Down the Spanish line swept the American ships. Then they turned and swept back, firing from the other side of the ships. Six times, this way, they passed the Spanish ships, while the air was full of great iron balls and dense clouds of smoke floated over all. You will not ask which side had the best of the battle after I tell you one thing. The Americans had been trained to aim and fire, and the Spaniards had not. Here overhead flew a Spanish shell. There another plunged into the water without reaching a ship. Hardly one of them reached its mark. Not an American was killed or wounded. A box of powder went off and hurt a few men, and that was all. But the Spanish ships were rent and torn like deer when lions get among them, and their men fell by dozens at a time. It was one of the most one-sided fights ever seen. Admiral Montojo, of the Spanish fleet, could not stand this. He started out with his flagship, named the _Reina Cristina_, straight for the _Olympia_, which he hoped to cut in two. But as soon as his ship appeared all the American ships turned their guns on it, and riddled it with a frightful storm of iron. The brave Spaniard saw that his ship would be sunk if he went on. He turned to run back, but as he did so a great eight-inch shell struck his ship in the stern and went clear through to the bow, scattering death and destruction on every side. It exploded one of the boilers. It blew open the deck. It set the ship on fire. White smoke came curling up. The ship fought on as the fire burned, but she was past hope. Two torpedo-boats came out, but they could not stand the storm any better than the _Reina Cristina_. In a few minutes one of them was cut through and went like a stone to the bottom. The other ran in faster than she had come out and went ashore. For two hours this dreadful work went on. Then Dewey thought it was time to give his men a rest and let them have some breakfast, so he steamed away. Three of the Spanish ships were burning like so much tinder, and it was plain that the battle was as good as won. A little after eleven o'clock the American ships came back fresh as ever, all of them with the Stars and Stripes afloat. The Spanish flag was flying too, but nearly every ship was in flames. But the Spaniards were not whipped yet. They began to fire again, and so for another hour the fight went on. At the end of that time the guns were silenced, the flags had gone down, and the battle was won.