The U.S. ship scuttled at the entrance to Santiago Harbor was USS Merrimac.
On June 3, 1898, Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson and a volunteer crew deliberately sank the collier Merrimac in the narrow entrance to Santiago de Cuba. Their goal was to block Spanish warships inside the harbor and prevent them from escaping into the open sea.
The plan failed because Spanish shore batteries damaged the vessel before it reached the desired position. Merrimac sank, but not directly across the channel, leaving enough room for the Spanish squadron to remain operational. Hobson and his crew were captured and became celebrated heroes in the United States.
Merrimac is easy to confuse with USS Maine, the battleship whose destruction in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, intensified calls for war. Maine was not scuttled at Santiago; its explosion happened months earlier and at a different Cuban port. The successful destruction of the Spanish fleet came later, during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on July 3.