 During the Philippine – American War , Yorktown stood in to Baler Bay , on the west coast of Luzon , on 11 April 1899 , on a mission to relieve a Spanish garrison that had been under siege by Filipino troops for nine months . Lt. James C. Gillmore and a party of sailors in the ship 's whaleboat provided a decoy , ostensibly taking soundings of a nearby river . Meanwhile , Standley and an enlisted man landed farther up the coast to reconnoiter . The next day , Gillmore and his boat crew drifted into a trap , running aground too far from the river 's mouth and out of sight of Yorktown . Filipino troops , hidden in the jungle @-@ covered banks , raked the boat with rifle fire . Two American sailors were killed ; two were mortally wounded ; and the remainder , including Gillmore , were slightly wounded . The survivors were taken prisoner until freed by U.S. Army troops . Standley completed his mission and , together with the enlisted signalman , made it back to the ship . 
