A small battery on the eastern side of the bay opened fire on the New York, and the flagship quickly responded with her heavy guns.  Probably twenty-five eight-inch shells were sent from the battery at our ships, but all of them fell short.  A few blank shells were also fired from the incomplete battery.

One or two of those whizzed over Admiral Sampson’s flagship.  After completing their work the ships put out to the open sea, the flagship returning to its post off Havana, while the Cincinnati and the Puritan remained on guard off Matanzas.  While the flagship New York, her sister cruiser, the Cincinnati, and the monitor Puritan were locating the defenses of Matanzas harbor the batteries guarding the entrance opened fire on the New York.  Their answer was a broadside from Admiral Sampson’s flagship, the first fire being from the forward eight-inch gun on the port side.  The monitor attacked the Point Maya fortification, the flagship went in close and shelled Rubalcaya Point, while the Cincinnati was soon at work shelling the fortification on the west side of the bay.  In less than twenty minutes Admiral Sampson’s warships had silenced the Spanish batteries.

The explosive shells from the forts fell wide of the ships.  The last one fired from the shore was from Point Rubalcaya.  The monitor Puritan let go with a shot from one of her twelve-inch guns, and its effect was seen when a part of the fortification went into the air.  The battery at Maya was the stronger of the two and its fire more constant, but all its shells failed to hit our ships.

The target practice of the flagship was an inspiring sight.  At every shot from her batteries, clouds of dust and big pieces of stone showed where the Spanish forts were suffering.  The New York, after reducing the range from over six thousand to three thousand yards, fired shells at the rate of three a minute into the enemy’s forts, each one creating havoc.  The Puritan took equally good care of Point Maya.  When she succeeded in getting the range, her gunners landed a shell inside the works at every shot.

When permission was given to the Cincinnati to take part in the first battle between Yankee and Spanish forces, the cruiser came up to within 2,000 yards of the shore, and almost immediately her guns were at work.  Cadet Boone on the flagship fired the first gun in answer to the Spanish batteries.

The Spanish mail steamer Argonauta, Captain Lage, was convoyed into Key West harbor by the United States cruiser Marblehead on May 3.  Colonel Vicente De Cortijo of the Third Spanish cavalry, who, with nineteen other army officers, was taken on the prize, is a brother-in-law of Lieutenant General Valeriano Weyler.  Colonel De Cortijo and the other officers were transferred to the Guido and the privates to the Ambrosio Bolivar, two other trophies of the first week of the war.

The Argonauta herself was no mean prize, being of 1,000 tons burden, but the value of the capture was mainly in the prisoners of war and the mail matter going to General Blanco.  Her cargo was general merchandise, with a large quantity of ammunition and supplies for the Spanish troops in Cuba.