Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón (September 7, 1839 – September 30, 1917) was a career Spanish naval officer who commanded Spain's Pacific Squadron based in the Philippines during the Spanish–American War. Considered a man of high ability and experience, he was given the difficult task of defending the Spanish Philippines with a small navy and low supplies against a larger U.S. Asiatic Squadron. Despite his valor and determination, Montojo's navy was defeated at the Battle of Manila Bay (1 May 1898) by U.S. Navy Commodore George Dewey, which was a decisive naval battle of the war. He was later held accountable for the defeat and was court-martialed in Spain. Although the decision was later overturned, Montojo was still discharged from the Spanish Navy. Early life and career Born in Ferrol, Galicia, Montojo studied at the Naval School in the southern Spanish city of Cádiz and was assigned as a midshipman in 1855. By 1860, he had become a sublieutenant and fought against the Moros of Mindanao in the Philippines before he returned to Spain in 1864. During his stay in the Philippines, the Spanish officer visited China and the French colony in southern Vietnam. Montojo fought in the Battle of Abtao and the Battle of El Callao under Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez against Peru and assumed a post at the Secretariat of the Admiralty. He was promoted to the rank of Commander in 1873. His new duties included commanding several warships at the Havana naval station as well as those in the Río de la Plata. Montojo remained in Madrid until November 1891, when he was promoted to flag officer. In 1892, he became a candidate for the Order of Isabella the Catholic, and in 1897, he received the Military Order of María Cristina. Service in Philippines By 1898, Montojo returned to the Philippines as rear admiral, serving as general commander of all Spanish Philippine naval stations and taking part in operations against Filipino insurgents. At a meeting with the colony's captain general, Basilio Augustín, on March 15, 1898, he expressed his concerns that their forces would be destroyed by the Americans in battle because of their disadvantages, as it became apparent that war with the United States was increasingly likely. Of the 37 ships in the Spanish naval fleet stationed in the Philippines, most were small gunboats and so there were only seven ships that would be used