By
the time the Spanish–American War broke out in 1898, the Iowa was
one of the most powerful warships afloat. Four 12-inch guns. Thick armor. A
deep, steady hull built to fight, not parade. She represented a country that
had finally decided it intended to be taken seriously at sea.
Battleship Iowa at sea
The New York Times called her “a floating fortress, built less for ceremony than for punishment,” while Harper’s Weekly said the ship looked “as if she had been designed to endure blows rather than admire them.”
Much of the ship’s personality came from her captain. Charles Edgar Clark.
He believed in drills, discipline, and doing things correctly even when no one was watching. Sailors described him as calm, blunt, and unmovable once his mind was made up. Lieutenant John M. Ellicott, one of the ship’s junior officers, said Clark “spoke little, expected much, and wasted no time convincing anyone twice.”
