Segismundo Bermejo

Biography

Segismundo Bermejo y Merelo (9 March 1832 – 2 December 1899) was a Spanish Navy officer who served as chief of Staff of the Navy and Minister of the Navy during the Spanish–American War. He was most notable for his role in dispatching Pascual Cervera y Topete, in command of a squadron of four cruisers and three destroyers, to Cuba in May 1898. It set up the conditions for the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. Bermejo himself was forced to resign as Minister of the Navy after the defeat of the Spanish Pacific Squadron at the Battle of Manila Bay by the United States Navy, and died a year later.