Determined to make no mistakes, the Americans took the Spanish fleet in the Atlantic at its strength on paper, ignoring the rumours of its neglect and inefficiency, and prepared to meet it accordingly. Spain possessed five armoured cruisers and a battleship, which were admitted by the Americans to be equal to America’s six best ships, a few other vessels, and some torpedo boat destroyers. The real state of the Spanish ships is best revealed by Admiral Cervera himself. In one letter he wrote:-- “The _Colon_ has not received her big guns; the _Carlos V._ has not been delivered, and her 10-cm. artillery is not yet mounted; the _Pelayo_ is not ready for want of finishing her redoubt, and, I believe, her secondary battery; the _Victoria_ has no artillery, and of the _Numancia_ we had better not speak.”[51] In another letter he complained of the absence of plans and of the supplies he had asked for not being forthcoming. “The _Colon_ has not yet her big guns, and I asked for the bad ones if there were no others. The 14-cm. ammunition, with the exception of about three hundred shots, is bad. The defective guns of the _Vizcaya_ and _Oquendo_ have not been changed. The cartridge cases of the _Colon_ cannot be recharged. We have not a single Bustamente torpedo.... The repairs of the servomotors of the _Infanta Maria Teresa_ and the _Vizcaya_ were only made after they had left Spain.” And after his defeat at Santiago, when asked where were certain large guns which should have been on his ships, he answered that he supposed they were in the pockets of certain officials in Spain. [Illustration: SPANISH BATTLESHIP “PELAYO.” _Photograph by Marius Bar, Toulon._] On May 19th, the Spanish fleet entered Santiago, after having crawled across the Atlantic to Curaçao, much to the relief of the Americans, who wondered where the fleet was and feared lest it should attack New York or some other wealthy Atlantic port. Once the fleet was inside, a strict blockade was maintained to see that it did not get out unnoticed. But the venture had to be made sooner or later. “The fleet under my command offers the news, as a 4th of July present, of the destruction of the whole of Admiral Cervera’s fleet. Not one escaped.” This was the message Admiral Sampson despatched on July 3rd to the Secretary of the Navy at Washington.