Description

On April 27 1898 six American ships of the line led by the Olympia with Commodore George Dewey aboard headed toward Manila Bay After several days of sailing over the South China Sea Dewey hoped to sail past the Spanish fort at Corregidor to arrive at Manila without detection and sailed without lights in order to do so He made it into the bay where the naval battle with the Spanish South Pacific Squadron began in the wee hours of May 1 1898 Dewey was a student of the Mahanian school of naval strategy so called for the aggressive Alfred T Mahan a top naval strategist and President of the Naval War College As such he concentrated his efforts on the offensive preferring to meet the Spanish fleet on his own terms and to avoid if it all possible fire from landbased batteries that lined Manila Bay He refused to engage the batteries on land sailing straight past the firing batteries and toward the Spanish fleet Dewey issued his most famous command just before 600 that morning You may fire when ready Gridley