Montojo lacked a ship capable of exploiting Dewey's withdrawal for breakfast. His mobile protected cruisers displaced only about 1,000 tons, carried six 4.7-inch guns, and made roughly fourteen knots. Closing with the much larger American cruisers would expose those lightly protected ships to overwhelming fire. The temporary pause therefore offered the Spanish squadron no practical opportunity to counterattack.
Notable Point · 1:21:22-1:22:02
Why Dewey's breakfast pause was not exploitable
Montojo's few mobile cruisers were too small, slow, and weakly armed to close with Dewey's squadron while the Americans paused for breakfast.