Bombardment of Fort San Carlos

Four days later Panther returned to reduce the fort, accompanied by the protected cruiser SMS Vineta, 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 by Admiralty 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 that Panther'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 president Theodore Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador that Admiral George Dewey had orders to keep the Caribbean fleet ready to sail from Puerto Rico to Venezuela at an hour's notice.^{[clarification needed]}

• Gunboat diplomacy
• Second Moroccan Crisis