[1] When Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) José Reguera y González Polo took command of the Spanish Navy's Training Squadron in January 1896, it consisted of Almirante Oquendo, Infanta María Teresa, Vizcaya, and the battleship Pelayo.

[1] During the first half of August 1897, Almirante Oquendo, Infanta Maria Teresa, Vizcaya, and the torpedo gunboat Destructor visited the Arsenal de Ferrol to have their bottoms cleaned and painted.

[4] After loading coal, they departed Ferrol in mid-August for duty with the Training Squadron, by then under the overall command of Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) Segismundo Bermejo y Merelo, and proceeded to Cádiz, Spain, where the new armored cruiser Cristóbal Colón joined them.

[1] On 27 November 1897, the squadron — composed of Almirante Oquendo, Infanta María Teresa, Vizcaya (serving as Cervera's flagship), and Cristóbal Colón — got underway from Cádiz and began maneuvers focused on crew training and gunnery practice during a voyage to Levante.

[1] Destructor and the destroyers Furor and Terror remained behind in Cádiz until their bottoms were cleaned, but later joined the squadron at Santa Pola, as did the torpedo boats Ariete, Azor, and Rayo from Cartagena.

[1] On the evening of 12 February 1898, Almirante Oquendo got underway from Cartagena bound for Havana to reinforce the Spanish Navy squadron in the Antilles as tensions with the United States rose.

[1] Ordered back across the Atlantic Ocean as war approached, both ships were assigned to the Spanish Navy's 1st Squadron, which was concentrating at São Vicente in Portugal's Cape Verde Islands under Cervera's command.

Ordered by neutral Portugal in accordance with international law to leave São Vicente within 24 hours of the declaration of war, Almirante Oquendo and the rest of Cervera's squadron departed on 29 April 1898, bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

By the beginning of July 1898, that drive threatened to capture Santiago de Cuba, and Cervera decided that his squadron's only hope was to try to escape into the open sea by running the blockade.

Almirante Oquendo was to be the fourth ship in line during the escape, following Cervera's flagship Infanta Maria Teresa, Vizcaya, and the armored cruiser Cristobal Colon, with the destroyers Furor and Pluton bringing up the rear.

While Infanta Maria Teresa sacrificed herself by attacking the fastest American ship, the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn, Almirante Oquendo and the others were to put on all the speed they could and run westward for the open sea.

While Infanta Maria Teresa and Vizacaya charged Brooklyn and the two destroyers turned westward farther inshore, Almirante Oquendo followed Cristobal Colon in a dash to the west.

Almirante Oquendo now found herself back in the line-ahead formation the squadron had formed when it left its anchorage, in fourth place behind the other three armored cruisers, although now without the following destroyers, which were being chased farther inshore.

Postwar, a U.S. Navy survey team evaluating Spanish wrecks for their potential for being raised and put in American service concluded that Almirante Oquendo was beyond salvage.

The third gun, mounted in 1903 to commemorate Rear Admiral William T. Sampson – who was in overall operational command of the U.S. naval forces that fought in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba – is on display in a park in Palmyra, New York.