[1] Tragedy struck the Cámara family on 28 March 1856 when one of Cámara′s sisters, Matilde de la Cámara Livermore, who had boarded the Spanish steamship Miño in Liverpool, England, for a voyage to Barcelona, Spain, was among 94 people who drowned when Miño sank in the Strait of Gibraltar off Tarifa, Spain, after colliding with the British transport ship Minden.

[1] In subsequent years he saw duty aboard the paddle steamers Isabel II and Pizarro, the screw frigate Petronila, the vessel Valdés, and the paddle steamers Isabel la Católica, Francisco de Asís, and Antonio Ulloa,[1] served as interim commanding officer of the schooners Cristina and Juanita,[1] and took part in the Hispano-Moroccan War of 1859–1860, in which his superiors noted that he displayed fine qualities as an officer.

[3] Cámara went to the Gulf of Mexico in 1862 for service in the blockade,[3][8] during which he served on the general staff of French Navy Vice Admiral Edmond Jurien de La Gravière.

[1][3][9] In that year, the Chincha Islands War with Peru — joined later by Bolivia, Chile, and Ecuador — broke out in the southeastern Pacific Ocean.

[3] For his actions during the war, Cámara received the Cross of Naval Merit First Class and was appointed to the post of commander of the Spanish Marine Corps.

[1] After the Spanish steam corvette Tornado captured the American sidewheel paddle steamer Virginius — which was transporting men, munitions, and supplies to Cuban rebels — off Cuba on 30 October 1873 and Spanish authorities subsequently executed many of her passengers and crew, the resulting crisis with the United States, known as the Virginius Affair, almost led to war.

Cámara, in command of Favorita at the time, played a role in the final resolution of the affair, boarding the United States Navy steamer USS Despatch off Bahia Honda, Cuba, on 16 December 1873 and making arrangements with U.S. Navy Captain W. D. Whiting for Virginius′s return, which took place without incident the next day under Cámara′s supervision from aboard Favorita.

[1] After regaining his health, he was assigned that year to the post of major general of the Maritime Department of Havana, serving concurrently as commander of the Antilles Squadron.

[1] In 1893, he became port captain at Málaga,[3] a position in his home town in which he hoped to have greater rest than he had found possible in his deployments over the previous years.

However, the First Rif War broke out in Melilla in 1893, and the conflict made it necessary to send a large number of Spanish Army troops to Morocco.

Cámara showed great skill in finding and hiring suitable ships in various Spanish ports, and received numerous commendations for his work during the war.

[3] Shortly after the Spanish–American War began in April 1898, the Spanish Navy ordered major units of its fleet to concentrate at Cádiz to form the 2nd Squadron, under Cámara′s command.

[18] Two of Spain's most powerful warships, the battleship Pelayo and the brand-new armored cruiser Emperador Carlos V, were not available when the war began, the former undergoing reconstruction in a French shipyard and the latter not yet delivered from her builders.

During a meeting of senior Spanish naval officers in Madrid on 23 April 1898, Cámara voted with the majority to send the squadron of Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete to the Caribbean.

Cámara's squadron lay idle at Cádiz while the Spanish Ministry of Marine considered options for redressing the situation in the Caribbean and the Philippines.

In late May 1898, Spanish Minister of Marine Ramón Auñón y Villalón made plans for Cámara to take a squadron consisting of an armored cruiser, three auxiliary cruisers, and a dispatch boat across the Atlantic Ocean and bombard a city on the United States East Coast – preferably Charleston, South Carolina – after which the squadron was to head for the Caribbean and make port in Puerto Rico at San Juan or in Cuba at either Havana or Santiago de Cuba.

[21] His orders directed him to depart Cádiz with Pelayo (his flagship), Emperador Carlos V, the auxiliary cruisers Patriota and Rapido, the destroyers Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina, the transports Buenos Aires, Panay, Alfonso XII, and Antonio Lopez, and four colliers carrying 20,000 tons of coal.

After that, he was told to coal either along the coast of Sumatra or in Singapore or Batavia, and then either make an optional stop at Labuan, Borneo, or proceed directly to Mindanao.

Once in the Philippines, he was to disperse (to places such as Balabac, Jolo, Basilan, and Zamboanga) or concentrate his squadron as best he saw fit to ensure the safe arrival of the troops.

[25] However, intelligence operatives in Spain had made the United States aware of Cámara's itinerary, and the U.S. acting vice consul to Egypt in Cairo, diplomat Ethelbert Watts, had acquired a lien on all coal available in Suez.

It was renamed the Instructional Squadron in January 1899,[1] and as its commander he became chief of training ships for naval cadets, making voyages in the waters of the Iberian Peninsula and to the Canary Islands.

[30] Cámara married Emma Díaz Gayen (1857–1935)[2] in the Church of Santa María del Sagrario in Málaga on 1 August 1878.