The Spaniards answered, but this time the shot went wild.  The McCulloch then sent a third shell, and almost immediately, the Boston repeated with one of her big guns.  After that the shore battery ceased, and the last half of the fleet steamed into the bay without further interruption.  At no time did the batteries on Corregidor fire.  All the firing by the Spanish came from the south battery, which was much nearer.  Five or six shells were fired by the Americans, and the Spanish shot three times, doing absolutely no damage.  There were conflicting reports among the naval officers as to the firing at the entrance to the bay, but it is certain that the McCulloch fired three shots.  During this firing, the chief engineer of the McCulloch died of nervous shock.

When Spanish ships were sighted.

After passing through the channel the American line moved very slowly.  The men on the McCulloch were in a fighting fever after the brush at the entrance to the harbor, and were expecting every minute to hear cannonading from the heavy ships ahead.  The fleet crept on and on, waiting under the cover of darkness, and not certain as to their location or at all sure that they would not run into a nest of mines at any moment.

It was nearly 1 o’clock when they were safely in the bay.  Between that hour and 4:30 the fleet, moving slowly in a northeasterly direction, headed for a point perhaps five miles to the north of Manila.  After covering about seventeen miles, and with the first light of day, the Spanish ships were sighted off to the east under shelter of the strongly fortified naval station at Cavite.  The batteries and the town of Cavite are about seven miles southwest of Manila, and are on an arm of land reaching northward to inclose a smaller harbor, known as Baker bay.  From where the fleet first stopped, the shapes of the larger Spanish cruisers could be made out dimly, and also the irregular outlines of the shore batteries behind.  It was evident, even to a landsman, that the Spanish fleet would not fight unless our vessels made the attack, coming within range of the Cavite batteries.

The signaling from the flagship and the hurried movement on every deck showed that the fleet was about to attack.  In the meantime the McCulloch received her orders.  She was to lie well outside, that is, to the west of the fighting line, and protect the two cargo ships, Nanshan and Zafiro.  The position assigned to her permitted the American fleet to carry on their fighting maneuvers and at the same time to keep between the Spanish fleet and the three American ships which were not qualified to go into the battle.

Governor-general’s proclamation.

Shortly before 5 o’clock Sunday morning and when every vessel in the fleet had reported itself in readiness to move on Cavite, the crews were drawn up and the remarkable proclamation issued by the governor-general of the Philippine islands, on April 23, was read to the men.  Every American sailor went into battle determined to resent the insults contained in the message, which was as follows: