Does it sound familiar to the story of a Spanish ship attacking the U.S. East Coast? If the answer is no, let me tell you this fascinating story was the beginning of a media war, in which the yellow press had a key role. In this period, it was told the story of a never existing Spanish warship that was going towards the United States to attack. This story was mainly to provoke fear among citizens and the American government to take actions.
This could be compared to what’s happening nowadays when we expereience misleading information situations everywhere, from social media to ads. So, let’s find out more about this imaginary Spanish ship made up by the press.
How it all started
In 1898, there was a conflict between Cuba and Spain, but also a media war in the United States. In this media war, there was no need to use guns because what it worked for the press was tabloid headlines. These are attention-grabbing newspaper titles which focus on scandal, crime or shocking events by oversimplifying or distorting the truth.
Two powerful newspapers were the ones that used these tabloid headlines: the New York World (Joseph Pulitzer) and the New York Journal (William R. Hearst). They started a yellow press campaign that led to the never seen Spanish ship story.
The yellow press
This is a style of newspaper reporting that focuses on sensationalism over facts. You might think this wasn’t any important because people would read the newspaper and that’s it. Not at all, the yellow press’ aim was to influence the public opinion and boost their sales and they did it very well.
These newspapers were making sure the public knew about supposed atrocities committed in Cuba by Spain. What’s more, they wrote about Spanish ships getting closer to the U.S. that were planning to attack cities like Charleston, New York and Boston. Of course, they achieved what they were looking for, a huge wave of fear from the entire region.
Panic among the U.S.
Witnessing people were scared about the situation, the American government ordered the switching off of every light from coastal cities to avoid being easily seen from the sea. Also, National Guard troops were activated along with artillery batteries, organized evacuations and the U.S. Navy rolled out ships to patrol the sea.
All of this was started by an imaginary Spanish warship that the yellow press made up.
The reality behind the Spanish Navy
What was actually happening was that Spain didn’t have enough naval capabilities to attack the United States. The yellow press mentioned two Spanish ships that were in very bad conditions, for example:
- The Terror had so many failures and it barely reached Puerto Rico, where it was neutralized.
- The Pelayo was considered the most powerful ship in Spain and it was sent to the Suez Canal, but it never got to the Atlantic Ocean. So, the attacking plan was canceled and the fleet came back to the Canary Islands.
Basically, no Spanish ship was ever near to bomb the United States as it was written in the yellow press.
The never seen Spanish ship
The threat was created by the yellow press by using a ‘’ghost ship’’. Pulitzer and Hearst made society feel more scared than they should have, but all of this was one of the reasons that contributed to the declaration of war by the United States against Spain.
What we should learn from this story is that we need to have enough information about what we read. Nowadays this fake news situation is more common due to social media and how fast misleading information is spread. So, don’t be immediately alarmed if you read about a ‘’ghost ship’’ in the future.