With the collapse of their protection the Spaniards broke and ran again, the screaming shrapnel bursting all around them.
At the fall of the lighthouse the _Marblehead_ signalled, "Well done," and then a moment later, "Cease firing."
The only man killed instantly was a marine named Eagan. A sailor from one of the boats died of his wounds on the same day. Commander Maynard of the _Nashville_ was grazed across the chest, and Lieutenant Winslow was wounded in the hand.
The list of casualties resulting from this display of heroism was two killed, two fatally and four badly wounded. The Spanish loss could not be ascertained, but it must necessarily have been heavy.
_May 11._ The Spanish batteries in Cardenas Harbour were silenced on May 11th, and at the same time there was a display of heroism, on the part of American sailors, such as has never been surpassed.
A plan of action having been decided upon, the _Wilmington_ arrived at the blockading station from Key West on the morning of the eleventh. She found there, off Piedras Bay, the cruiser _Machias_, the torpedo-boat _Winslow_, and the revenue cutter _Hudson_, which last carried two 6-pounders. Shortly after noon the _Wilmington_, _Winslow_, and _Hudson_ moved into the inner harbour of Cardenas, and prepared to draw the fire of the Spanish batteries on the water-front. The _Wilmington_ took a range of about twenty-five hundred yards.
The Cardenas land defences consisted of a battery in a stone fortification on the mole or quay, a battery of field-pieces, and of infantry armed with long-range rifles. The gunboats were equipped with rapid-fire guns.
Firing commenced at one o'clock, and when the Cardenas batteries were silenced at two in the afternoon, the _Wilmington_ had sent 376 shells into them and the town. Her 4-inch guns had been fired 144 times. She had aimed 122 shots from her 6-pounders, and 110 from her 1-pounders, over six shots a minute.
When the _Wilmington_ ceased firing she had moved up to within one thousand yards range of the Spanish guns, and there were only six inches of water under her keel. The _Wilmington_ draws nine feet of water forward and ten and a half feet aft. When the soundings showed that she was almost touching, her guns were in full play, and the Spaniards had missed a beautiful opportunity. The Spanish gunners must have miscalculated her distance and misjudged her draught, else they would have done more effective work at a range of two thousand yards.