Conde de Venadito and the Allianca incident

Conde de Venadito suspected the American merchant ship Allianca of carrying arms to Cuban insurgents in March 1895. Acting in a customs-enforcement role, the cruiser fired solid shot intended to warn or compel the merchantman to stop rather than to sink it. With a top speed of roughly fourteen knots, however, the Spanish ship could not complete the interception and Allianca escaped. The failed chase simultaneously highlighted Spanish weakness and fed anti-Spanish sentiment through sensational reporting in the American press.