On April 30, Cervera set sail from Cape Verde, and panic gripped the U.S. populace, who did not know what his ships might do—attack the largely undefended East Coast while the fleet sailed about in a vain effort to engage him, prey upon American shipping, or perhaps sail up the Potomac and set fire to Washington, D.C.
Cervera managed to evade the U.S. fleet for several weeks, confounding his American counterparts and managing to re-coal in the process. Meanwhile Villaamil, who was in disagreement with both the Spanish Government's shaky war direction and Cervera's rather passive strategy, advocated trying to offset the superiority of the American forces by scattering the fleet and taking the initiative through quick and dispersed daring actions; he even volunteered to lead an audacious diversionary attack to New York with his destroyers, but his proposals were not accepted.