Patricio Montojo arrived only weeks before battle and described ships intended mainly to support operations against Filipino rebels, not to face Dewey's Asiatic Squadron. Reina Cristina and Castilla were unprotected cruisers, and Castilla's leaking propeller shaft left her immobile after her eight-inch guns had been transferred ashore. Don Antonio de Ulloa had engines under repair and all of her port-side armament removed, while other cruisers and gunboats were likewise in overhaul or stripped to reinforce batteries. Across the squadron, nineteen nominally serviceable torpedo tubes had no serviceable torpedoes at all. The inventory shows why ship counts concealed a severe readiness gap between Montojo's colonial force and Dewey's practiced squadron.
Chapter · 38:14-43:52
Why Spain's Manila cruisers could not fight as a fleet
Broken machinery, guns transferred ashore, and a complete lack of usable torpedoes reduced Montojo's nominal cruisers and gunboats to a force suited for colonial policing rather than fleet combat.