Qualla: Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado

Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

"You must get your cargo to Puerto Rico, even if the ship were lost." The telegram from Claudio Lopez Bru, president of the Compania Transatlantica Espanola, left Captain Ramon Acha Caamano with little ambiguity. His vessel, the Antonio L. Lopez, was bound from Cadiz with a hold full of military supplies for the Spanish garrison. Between the ship and San Juan stood the United States Navy. It was June 1898, the Spanish-American War was weeks old, and the blockade around Puerto Rico was tightening. The Antonio Lopez would try to run it. She would not succeed.

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Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado: Built on the Clyde

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

William Denny and Brothers built the Antonio Lopez at their Dumbarton shipyard on Scotland's River Clyde, launching her on November 8, 1881, and completing her the following year. She was a working merchant steamship - single screw, driven by a two-cylinder compound steam engine ...

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Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado: Running the Blockade

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By June 1898, the Spanish-American War had transformed the Caribbean into a theater of naval operations. American warships patrolled the approaches to Puerto Rico, intercepting supply vessels bound for the island's Spanish garrison. The Antonio Lopez sailed from Cadiz carrying mi...

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Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado: Salvage and Sacrifice

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Captain Acha Caamano had followed his orders to the letter. Now came the practical work of recovering what the ship had carried. His salvage crews moved quickly, retrieving nearly the entire cargo from the grounded, burning vessel. Only minor articles and a single cannon - lost o...

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Antonio Lopez: The Blockade Runner Resting Off Dorado: A Landmark Beneath the Waves

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Antonio Lopez's wreck site lies in approximately 1,700 feet of water off Dorado, Puerto Rico. In 1997, the site was designated a National Historic Landmark - recognition of its singular status as the only known Spanish shipwreck in U.S. waters from the Spanish-American War. T...

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