View source for Bombardment of Fort San Carlos

{{Short description|Military action}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict    = Bombardment of Fort San Carlos
|partof      = the [[Venezuela Crisis of 1902-1903|Venezuelan Crisis]]
|image       = Fuerte San Carlos 1902.jpg
|image_size  = 260
|caption     = ''Front page of "[[Le Petit Parisien]]" depicting the bombardment of Fort San Carlos''
|date        = January 17, 1903
|place       = [[San Carlos de la Barra Fortress]], [[Venezuela]]
|result      = Venezuelan victory<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1903/01/19/101966652.pdf GERMANS SHELL A FORT - New York Times. January 19, 1903]</ref>
|combatant1  = {{flagicon|Venezuela|1863}} [[United States of Venezuela]]
|combatant2  = {{flag|German Empire}}
|commander1  = {{flagicon|Venezuela|1863}} [[Jorge Antonio Bello]]
|commander2  = {{flagicon|German Empire|naval}} [[Richard Eckermann]]
|strength2   = 1 [[light cruiser]]<br>1 [[gunboat]]
|strength1   = 4 [[artillery|artillery pieces]]<br>1 [[fort]]
|casualties2 = 1 gunboat damaged
|casualties1 = 3–6 wounded
|casualties3 = 25–40 civilians killed
|notes=
}}
{{Campaignbox Venezuelan Crisis}}

The '''Bombardment of Fort San Carlos''' occurred during the [[Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903|Venezuelan Crisis]] on January 17, 1903, when two warships of the [[Imperial German Navy]] tried to penetrate into [[Lake Maracaibo]] but were repulsed by the garrison of Fort [[San Carlos de la Barra Fortress|San Carlos de la Barra]] after a brief exchange of fire.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1903/01/24/archives/german-commander-blames-venezuelans-commodore-scheder-says-that.html GERMAN COMMANDER BLAMES VENEZUELANS - New York Times. January 24, 1903]</ref>

==Bombardment==
On January 17, the [[gunboat]] [[SMS Panther|SMS ''Panther'']] and [[unprotected cruiser]] [[SMS Falke (1891)|SMS ''Falke'']] were chasing a merchant [[schooner]] which had evaded the blockade and entered the lake. Both ships intended to enter the lake and blockade the city of [[Maracaibo]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1903/01/24/archives/german-commander-blames-venezuelans-commodore-scheder-says-that.html GERMAN COMMANDER BLAMES VENEZUELANS - ''New York Times''. January 24, 1903]</ref>

Guarding the entrance that connects the lake with the [[Gulf of Venezuela]] was the Castle of San Carlos de la Barra. The shallow waters that connected Lake Maracaibo with the sea were only passable by major ships in the strait that separated San Carlos from the island of Zapara, and even there a local [[maritime pilot|pilot]] was needed to navigate the sandbanks and shallow waters of the passage.

The captain of ''Panther'', not knowing the bathymetry of shallow waters of the site, ran aground on sandbars between the islands of San Carlos and Zapara, near the Castle of San Carlos de la Barra, commanded by General Jorge Antonio Bello. This was within range of the Castle's artillery. Soon after, the ships began to bombard the fortress and the Venezuelan troops responded. The Venezuelan artillerymen Manuel Quevedo and Carlos José Cárdenas, with an 80&nbsp;mm German-made Krupp cannon, scored several hits on ''Panther'', leaving it severely damaged. After half an hour of combat, the Germans withdrew. Six people were injured in the Castle of San Carlos. Three days later, on 20 January, the German protected cruiser SMS ''Vineta'' arrived from Puerto Cabello in relief of the damaged ''Panther''. ''Vineta'' bombarded the Castle of San Carlos for eight hours. Intentionally or not, the ship's fire also reached the nearby port, killing between 25 and 40 civilians.

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Acción del castillo de Maracaibo.jpg|thumb|300px|A painting of [[Battle of Lake Maracaibo|Fort San Carlos in 1823]]. The fort retained its layout eighty years later when it confronted SMS Panther.]]
Four days later ''Panther'' returned to reduce the fort, accompanied by the [[protected cruiser]] [[SMS Vineta (1897)|SMS ''Vineta'']], with bigger guns. For eight hours the ships bombarded the fort. The Venezuelan garrison, although outgunned, fired back, but by the end of the conflict Fort San Carlos was in ruins and burning. Shells also hit the nearby port; whether intentional or not, the bombardment killed 25 civilians, prompting the arrest of German and British citizens by Venezuelan authorities.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1903/01/24/archives/german-commander-blames-venezuelans-commodore-scheder-says-that.html GERMAN COMMANDER BLAMES VENEZUELANS - New York Times. January 24, 1903]</ref><ref>[http://www.sg.inter.edu/raep/2004M03/Index_files/043ToH%E91i.HTM Theodore Roosevelt's 'Cuban Missile Crisis': Venezuela 1902 ]{{dead link|date=July 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The action had not been approved by the British commander of the "Particular Service Squadron"  Commodore Robert Archibald James Montgomerie, who had been warned by [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]] after the Puerto Cabello bombardment of 13 December not to engage in such action without consulting London; the message was not passed to the German commander, who had been told previously to follow the English commander's lead. The incident caused "considerable negative reaction in the United States against Germany". The Germans said that the Venezuelans fired first, which the British concurred with but declared the bombardment "unfortunate and inopportune" nonetheless.

The German Foreign Office said that ''Panther'''s attempted incursion into the lagoon of Maracaibo had been motivated by a desire to ensure the effective blockade of Maracaibo port, by preventing it from being supplied across the adjacent Colombian border.{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}} Subsequently US president [[Theodore Roosevelt]] informed the German Ambassador that Admiral [[George Dewey]] had orders to keep the Caribbean fleet ready to sail from [[Puerto Rico]] to Venezuela at an hour's notice.{{Clarify|date=December 2015}}

==See also==
*[[Gunboat diplomacy]]
*[[Second Moroccan Crisis]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{1903 shipwrecks}}

{{coord missing|Venezuela}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Carlos, Bombardment of Fort}}
[[Category:Naval battles involving Germany]]
[[Category:Naval battles involving Venezuela]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1903]]
[[Category:1903 in Venezuela]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1903]]
[[Category:Naval bombing operations and battles]]
[[Category:January 1903 events]]
[[Category:Building bombings in South America]]
[[Category:Attacks on military installations]]
[[Category:Attacks on government buildings and structures in Venezuela]]