Bombardment of Fort San Carlos
Part of theVenezuelan Crisis
Front page of "Le Petit Parisien" depicting the bombardment of Fort San Carlos
Date January 17, 1903 Location San Carlos de la Barra Fortress,Venezuela Result Venezuelan victory[1]
Belligerents
United States of Venezuela	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Jorge Antonio Bello	Richard Eckermann
Strength
4artillery pieces 1fort	1light cruiser 1gunboat
Casualties and losses
3–6 wounded	1 gunboat damaged
25–40 civilians killed

TheBombardment of Fort San Carlos occurred during theVenezuelan Crisis on January 17, 1903, when two warships of theImperial German Navy tried to penetrate intoLake Maracaibo but were repulsed by the garrison of FortSan Carlos de la Barra after a brief exchange of fire.^[2]

On January 17, thegunboatSMS Panther andunprotected cruiserSMSFalke were chasing a merchantschooner which had evaded the blockade and entered the lake. Both ships intended to enter the lake and blockade the city ofMaracaibo.^[3]

Guarding the entrance that connects the lake with theGulf 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 localpilot was needed to navigate the sandbanks and shallow waters of the passage.

The captain ofPanther, 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 mm German-made Krupp cannon, scored several hits onPanther, 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 SMSVineta arrived from Puerto Cabello in relief of the damagedPanther.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.

Four days laterPanther returned to reduce the fort, accompanied by theprotected cruiserSMSVineta, 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.^[4][5]

The action had not been approved by the British commander of the "Particular Service Squadron" Commodore Robert Archibald James Montgomerie, who had been warned byAdmiralty 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 thatPanther'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]} Subsequently US presidentTheodore Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador that AdmiralGeorge Dewey had orders to keep the Caribbean fleet ready to sail fromPuerto Rico to Venezuela at an hour's notice.^{[clarification needed]}

• Gunboat diplomacy
• Second Moroccan Crisis

• Naval battles involving Germany
• Naval battles involving Venezuela
• Conflicts in 1903
• 1903 in Venezuela
• Maritime incidents in 1903
• Naval bombing operations and battles
• January 1903 in South America
• Building bombings in South America
• Attacks on castles
• Attacks on government buildings and structures in Venezuela
• 20th-century naval battles

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