The Last Voyage of the Antonio Lopez

By the time the Compania Trasatlantica Espanola (Spanish Transatlantic Company, or STC) awarded the contract of the would-be SS Antonio Lopez to the William Denny & Brothers Company of Dumbarton, Scotland, the sun had already set on the Imperial Spanish presence in the Western Hemisphere. Only two colonias de ultramar (overseas territories) remained of the once-vast empire, Cuba and Puerto Rico. However, the owner of the STC, Don Antonio Lopez y Lopez de la Madrid, understood that the residents of these islands and the newly created Spanish-speaking republics of Central and South America were an important market for Spanish goods. So he commissioned the building of a fast, brig-rigged, three-decked, steel-hulled, steam-propelled vessel to supply them with mail and goods.

1891–1898: Peacetime 

The ship would have many “firsts.” She was the first Spanish commercial transoceanic steel-hulled vessel. She had electrical lighting in every room—a new advance and a luxury at the time. Her first-class service deck had other comforts as well: an ice machine, marble floors, hot water showers, and a grand piano.

The vessel also was designed to be used as a military transport if needed. To that end, she had a “double bottom” extending throughout the length of the hull and divided into six sections. This relatively new hull design protected her against low-energy collisions such as groundings. The double-bottom space also could be used for ballast or extra fuel if needed. She also had seven transverse watertight bulkheads to protect her against high-energy collisions such as mines or torpedoes. She carried 1,100 bunks in storage to be deployed when used as a troop transport.

She was 370 feet long with a 42-foot beam and 30-foot draft, and registered at 6,400 tons. Powered by a compound two-cylinder steam engine supported by six circular boilers, a four-blade propeller pushed the Antonio Lopez at a speed of 14-plus knots. 

Her hull was launched on 8 November 1881 and delivered to the STC base at the port city of Cadiz, Spain, on 2 March 1882. So proud was Don Antonio that he named the vessel after himself. Thus, the SS Antonio Lopez.

For most of her career, the Antonio Lopez carried passengers, troops, cargo, and mail between Cadiz, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. She carried up to 250 passengers distributed in three classes of service.

However, as the tension and threat of war between the United States and Spain increased following the USS Maine explosion; by spring 1898, the Antonio Lopez was in Cadiz awaiting further developments. 

1898: War, Blockade, and the Last Voyage

Following the declarations of war by both the United States and Spain in April 1898 and the invasion of Cuba, Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, Commander U.S. Naval Forces Atlantic, sailed for Puerto Rico. His mission was to block the entrance to San Juan Bay. He had received information that Spanish Admiral Pascual Cervera’s Atlantic Fleet had sailed from the Cape Verde Islands for Puerto Rico, to gather supplies in San Juan and then make for the U.S. forces in Cuba. 

Sampson’s squadron arrived off the coast of San Juan on 12 May 1898. Daybreak revealed no sign of Cervera’s fleet, but intending to probe the harbor coastal defenses, Sampson’s ships engaged in a three-hour gunfire exchange with the coastal artillery guns on the massive Spanish castle fortresses of El Morro and San Cristobal. This would become known as the First Naval Battle of San Juan. (The Second Naval Battle of San Juan would take place on 22 June 1898 when the Spanish cruiser Isabel II and destroyer Terror engaged in an unsuccessful effort to break the blockade.) After breaking off the engagement, Sampson left for Cuba but ordered the USS Saint Paul (SP-1643) to remain, blockading the entrance to the bay.

The effects of this blockade were soon felt by the Puerto Rican populace. Although the Spanish had amassed large quantities of coal on the island in anticipation of a conflict with the United States, civilian supplies were lacking. There were shortages of food and other goods, so on 16 June 1898 the Antonio Lopez was ordered to sail from Cadiz for Puerto Rico. Her orders were to arrive at night and thus unseen, break the blockade, and land the much-needed supplies.

She sailed with a crew of 79 under the command of Captain Gines Carreras. In addition to supplies for the civilian population, she carried important military supplies to reinforce the defense of San Juan. These included artillery pieces, mortars, 3,600 artillery rounds, 500,000 rations, an electric searchlight, and 50 tons of gunpowder. Traveling at top speed, it took her only 11 days to cross the Atlantic. She arrived under the cover of darkness as planned, but although the Madrid government had ordered the Bay entrance buoy light be lit at night in anticipation of her arrival, it was not. Neither was the lighthouse tower atop El Morro Castle. The city itself was “blacked out” at night to avoid silhouetting targets for the blockading American cruisers. Thus, when she arrived off the coast the night of 27 June, the Antonio Lopez missed the entrance to the bay and continued westward along the north coast of the island. 

Daybreak found the ship off the coast near the town of Dorado, a few miles to the west of San Juan. Realizing his error, Captain Carreras turned to port and headed back east toward the entrance of the bay. He stayed close to the shore seeking the protection of the coastline. As he made way toward the city, a signal man atop San Cristobal Castle saw the Antonio Lopez’s funnel smoke and signaled her approach to the artillery gunners with a pennant, lest she be confused with an American ship and fired upon.

The USS Yosemite, which had taken up the Saint Paul’s blockading station three days earlier, was patrolling to the east of the Bay’s coast near the Cangrejos area (the present-day coastal shoreline off the international airport). One of her lookouts noticed the pennant flying announcing the arrival of the Lopez and raced toward her.

The Third Naval Battle of San Juan

As the distance closed between the ships, the Yosemite opened fire with her 5-inch guns on the Lopez. Captain Contreras increased speed toward the entrance to the bay seeking the protection of the San Juan fortifications’ naval guns. He also veered closer to the coast. As the Yosemite gunners found their mark, the Lopez ran aground on a barrier reef formation known colloquially as the Cayo Angelina (Angelina barrier reef) off the coast of Dorado (along present-day State Road 165). Events now would unfold rapidly.

The Spanish cruiser Isabel II, guarding the bay entrance, was ordered to make way to the leeward side of the mouth of the bay and engage the Yosemite. The Spanish gunboats General Concha and Ponce de Leon joined her. They scored no hits but got the attention of the Yosemite, which turned to port and engaged them. While the Isabel II and General Concha remained under protection of the El Morro guns, the Ponce de Leon sped out of the bay toward the Antonio Lopez.

Once aground, and with the Yosemite’s 5-inch rounds hitting his ship, Captain Carreras gave the order to abandon ship. Some sailors did not wait for the boats to be lowered and jumped in the water, having decided to make a swim for the nearby shore. 

Soon after, the Ponce de Leon reached and tied up on the Lopez’s starboard side and took in some cargo off the stricken vessel. Meanwhile, the Diego Ordonez rifled coastal guns from the El Morro had commenced firing on the unarmored Yosemite. The first round was 300 yards short, and the next one went over her. The Yosemite’s skipper, Commander William H. Emory, did not wait for the third round before he turned to starboard and out to sea, out of range of the guns. The Third Naval Battle of San Juan was over by around 1300 on 28 June 1898. 

The Lopez had received five direct hits, with eight sailors lightly injured. 

The Fiery End of the Antonio Lopez

That same afternoon, several cargo ships came out of the bay and approached the Lopez and began removing supplies. The arduous work of offloading the cargo would last several days under the protection of the Isabel II, General Concha, and Ponce de Leon. A 78-mm Army Militia artillery battery, manned mostly by Puerto Rican volunteers, was placed in the Punta Salinas area to support and protect the salvage operation as well. Some of the cargo was lowered onto barges and taken to shore. (The Punta Salinas Peninsula later became U.S. Army Fort Mascaro Coastal Artillery site during World War II. Currently it hosts the 140th USAF ANG 140th Air Defense Squadron.) From there, it was carried to the nearby train yard in Dorado and transported to San Juan. Nearly all the cargo was recovered (including the piano). Several attempts were made at towing the ship, but with no success. During these activities, the Yosemite remained on station, on the horizon, watching the operation, reluctant to venture close within the range of the coastal naval guns. 

By the end of June, with the salvaging operation completed, efforts to salvage the wreck were abandoned. The troops and artillery units supporting and guarding the unloaded supplies stood down and returned to their usual posts. About two weeks later, the USS New Orleans arrived off the coast of San Juan to relieve the Yosemite. An armored cruiser with better protection and heavier armament, she made her way to within three miles of the Antonio Lopez and on the morning of 15 July fired 20 incendiary shells into her. The wreck caught fire after the third round. 

The Antonio Lopez would burn for several days and nights. The fire could be seen by San Juan residents. The scene was immortalized on an oil painting on wood, Manuel Jordan’s Escenas de la Guerra (Scenes from the War). After several days, her bulkheads collapsed and she began taking on water. She would sink in the shallow water a few weeks later.

Present Day: An Underwater Landmark

The wreck of the Antonio Lopez is located on the rocky floor of the Angelina barrier reef, approximately one mile off the coast and seven miles west of San Juan Harbor along the northern coast of Puerto Rico. She lies about 1,700 feet from the northwest tip of Angelina Reef, on a magnetic bearing of 332 degrees, in about 30 feet of water. Angelina Reef is above sea level and can be seen easily while traveling along State Road 165 between the Levitt-Town area of Toa Baja and Dorado. 

“Antonio Lopez is best located on small craft by navigating NNE off the beach behind “El Caracol” Restaurant (by the southbound curve of Highway 165), until flushing the two white radar domes of Fort Mascaro USAF Military Reservation in Punta Salinas. With the domes never overlapping, navigate east, on a magnetic bearing of103 degrees. This bearing cuts across the three standing, starboard boilers of the Antonio Lopez. easily seen from a slow-moving boat. —National Park Service

The ship is substantially intact, at the exact place of her grounding. Machinery, boilers, deck remains, masts, rigging, anchors, hawse pipes, chains, rudder, smokestack, extensive steel hull remains, and the complete double bottom are exposed and relatively intact and easy to identify. The main anchor lies nearby.