“The President, in the name of the American people, thanks you and your officers and men for your splendid achievement and overwhelming victory. In recognition he has appointed you acting admiral, and will recommend a vote of thanks to you by Congress as a foundation for further promotion.” _May 8._ A brilliant, although unimportant, affair was that in which the torpedo-boat _Winslow_ engaged off Cardenas Bay. The _Winslow_ and gunboat _Machias_ were on the blockade off Cardenas. In the harbour, defended by thickly strewn mines and torpedoes, three small gunboats had been bottled up since the beginning of the war. Occasionally they stole out toward the sea, but never venturing beyond the inner harbour, running like rabbits at sight of the American torpedo boats. Finally a buoy was moored by Spaniards inside the entrance of the bay to mark the position for the entrance of the gunboats. The signal-station on the shore opposite was instructed to notify the gunboats inside when the torpedo-boats were within the limit distance marked by the buoy. The scheme was that the gunboats could run out, open fire at a one-mile range thus marked off for them, and retreat without the chance of being cut off. The men of the _Winslow_ eyed this buoy and guessed its purpose, but did not attempt to remove it. On the afternoon of the eighth the _Machias_ stood away to the eastward for a jaunt, and the _Winslow_ was left alone to maintain the blockade. In a short time she steamed toward Cardenas Harbour. There was great excitement at the signal-station, and flags fluttered hysterically. The three gunboats slipped their cables and went bravely out to their safety limit. Three bow 6-pounders were trained at two thousand yards. In a few minutes the shore signals told them that the torpedo-boat was just in range. Every Spaniard aboard prepared to see the Americans blown out of the water. Three 6-pounders crackled, and three shells threw waterspouts around the _Winslow_, but she was not struck. Instead of running away, she upset calculations by driving straight ahead, attacking the boats, and Lieutenant Bernado no sooner saw the first white smoke puffs from the Spanish guns than he gave the word to the men already stationed at the two forward 1-pounders, which barked viciously and dropped shot in the middle of the flotilla. On plunged the _Winslow_ to within fifteen hundred yards of the gunboats, while the row raised by the rapid-fire 1-pounders was like a rattling tattoo. The Spaniards were apparently staggered at this fierce onslaught, single-handed, and fired wildly. The _Winslow_ swung around broadside to, to bring her two after guns to bear as the Spanish boats scattered and lost formation.