American planners concentrated the North Atlantic and Flying Squadrons because Cervera's Caribbean Squadron appeared to be Spain's premier overseas force. Its core consisted of Infanta Maria Teresa, Vizcaya, Almirante Oquendo, and the Italian-built Cristóbal Colón, accompanied by the destroyers Plutón and Furor. Cristóbal Colón sailed without her rejected ten-inch guns and carried wooden substitutes in their barbettes, leaving her smaller weapons as the only usable battery. Ship names and displacement alone therefore overstated the fighting power that Cervera brought across the Atlantic.
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Cervera commands Spain's hollow Caribbean Squadron
Spain's feared Caribbean Squadron gathered four armoured cruisers and two destroyers, but incomplete weapons made its impressive paper strength misleading.