Cristóbal Colón was a Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armored cruiser of the Spanish Navy that fought at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War.

[2] Cristóbal Colón was part of the Spanish Navy's 1st Squadron when tensions with the United States were rising after the explosion and sinking of the battleship USS Maine in the harbor at Havana, Cuba on 15 February 1898.

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

France was neutral and would not supply coal, so the Spanish squadron departed on 12 May 1898 for Dutch-owned Curaçao, where Cervera expected to meet a collier.

Some of her men joined others from the fleet in a Naval Brigade to fight against a U.S. Army overland drive toward Santiago de Cuba.

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.

With Vice Admiral Cervera aboard, Infanta María Teresa was to lead the escape, sacrificing herself by attacking the fastest American ship, armored cruiser USS Brooklyn, allowing the rest of the squadron to avoid action and run westward for the open sea.

While Infanta María Teresa and Vizcaya charged Brooklyn, Cristóbal Colón, Almirante Oquendo, and the two destroyers turned west and worked up steam to make a run for the open sea.

When Brooklyn turned eastward and away from Infanta María Teresa, all four Spanish armored cruisers wound up in the same line-ahead formation they had formed when leaving the harbor, brushing past the last obstacle in their path, the armed yacht USS Vixen.

[3] When the range dropped to 2,000 yards (1,830 m), the commanding officer of Cristóbal Colón, Captain Emilio Díaz-Moreu y Quintana, decided that after a 50-mile run, the chase was over; in order to save the lives of her crew, he beached her at the mouth of the Turquino River, 75 miles (65 nmi; 121 km) west of Santiago, at 1315 hours and order his men to open the valves to scuttle the cruiser to prevent it from being captured.

The team did not notice that the ship was scuttled, only when they towed it, they realized she lacked watertight integrity and quickly capsized and sank, a total loss.