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.
The Winslow soon manœuvred so that she was peppering at all three gunboats at once. The sea was very heavy, and the knife-like torpedo-boat rolled so wildly that it was impossible to do good gun practice, but despite this big handicap, the rapidity of her fire and the remarkable effectiveness of her guns demoralised all three opponents, which, after the Winslow had fired about fifty shells, began to gradually work back toward the shelter of the harbour.
They were still hammering away with their 6-pounders, but were wild. Several shells passed over the Winslow. One exploded a hundred feet astern, but the others fell short.
At last a 1-pounder from the Winslow went fair and true, and struck the hull of the Lopez a little aft of amidships, apparently exploding on the inside.