Spanish battleship Pelayo
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2016) |
Pelayo in 1889.
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History | |
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Name | Pelayo |
Namesake | Pelagius of Asturias |
Builder | La Seyne , France |
Laid down | April 1885 |
Launched | 5 February 1887 |
Completed | summer 1888 |
Nickname(s) | Solitario ("Solitary" or "Lonely") |
Fate | Disarmed 1923; scrapped 1925 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Battleship |
Displacement |
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Length | 393 ft 8 in (119.99 m) |
Beam | 66 ft 3 in (20.19 m) |
Draft | 24 ft 9 in (7.54 m) maximum |
Installed power | 9,600 ihp (8,000 ihp on trials with natural draft) |
Propulsion | 2-shaft, vertical compound, 12 return-tube boilers; in 1897–1898 her boilers were replaced by 16 Niclausse boilers. |
Sail plan | As built 4,000 square feet (1,219 square meters), but quickly removed. |
Speed |
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Complement | 520 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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Armor |
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Notes | 800 tons of coal |
Pelayo was a battleship of the Spanish Navy which served in the Spanish fleet from 1888 to 1925. She was the first battleship and the most powerful unit of the Spanish Navy at the time. Despite its modern design for the time, Pelayo and the rest of the Spanish Asia-Pacific Rescue Squadron never engaged in combat during the Spanish–American War. Some historians have argued that had the battleship, along with the modern armored cruiser Carlos V, participated directly in the conflict the course of the war would have been altered dramatically and possibly lead to a Spanish victory, thus retaining Spain's status as a colonial power.[1]
Technical characteristics
Ordered in November 1884, Pelayo was built by
The design of Pelayo was based on that of the French battleship Marceau, modified to give her a draft that was 3 feet (0.91 m) shallower so that she could transit the Suez Canal at full load displacement. Originally equipped with sails, she had them deleted soon after completion. She had two funnels. Her 16-centimetre (6.30 in) gun was a bow chaser. Her armor belt was 6 feet 11 inches (2.11 m) wide amidships and extended 2 feet (0.61 m) above and almost 5 feet (1.5 m) below the waterline. Internally, she had French-style cellular construction with 13 watertight bulkheads and a double bottom.
She was a barbette ship, an ancestor of the modern battleship with the main battery mounted in open barbettes on armored rotating platforms, in contrast to the heavy self-contained turrets more common to the period, in favor of which the progress of the design of modern battleships would soon abandon the barbette design.
Her main guns could be loaded in any position, and consisted of two Gonzalez Hontoria-built 32-centimetre (12.6 in) Canet guns mounted fore and aft on the centerline and two Gonzalez Hontoria 28-centimetre (11.0 in) guns, also in barbettes, with one mounted on either beam
Pelayo was reconstructed at La Seyne in 1897–1898, receiving armor for her midships battery and having her 16-and-12-centimetre (6.30 and 4.72 in) guns replaced by 14-centimetre (5.51 in) pieces, one mounted as a bow chaser and the rest on the broadside. However, the installation of these new guns was disrupted and delayed when she was rushed back into service after the Spanish–American War began.
During a major refit in 1910, her torpedo tubes were removed.
Operational history
Pelayo spent her early years in Spanish waters, showing the flag in various naval reviews and exhibitions, notably in Greece in 1891, at Genoa, Italy, in 1892, and Kiel, Germany, in 1895.
She began a reconstruction at La Seyne in 1897, and was there when the Spanish–American War broke out in April 1898. She was rushed back into service with her old 16-and-12-centimetre (6.3 and 4.7 in) guns removed but her new 14-centimetre (5.5 in) guns not yet mounted, and entered service with the Reserve Squadron on 14 May 1898.
She remained in Spanish waters for a month to guard against
Cámara's squadron—consisting of Pelayo, armored cruiser
After the war, she resumed her duty of showing the flag, attending naval reviews in
Pelayo fired her guns in anger only once, when she bombarded Moroccan insurgents in 1909 during the
Pelayo underwent a major refit in 1910. In 1912, she was badly damaged in Fonduko Bay[citation needed] due to a navigational error. She was repaired, but thereafter served as a training ship, including service in 1920 and 1921 as a gunnery training ship in the Training Division. Pelayo was disarmed in 1923 and scrapped in 1925.
References
- ABC. Archived from the originalon 28 January 2016.
Bibliography
- Cervera y Topete, Pascual. Office of Naval Intelligence War Notes No. VII: Information From Abroad: The Spanish–American War: A Collection of Documents Relative to the Squadron Operations in the West Indies, Translated From the Spanish. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.
- Gibbons, Tony. The Complete Encyclopedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers: A Technical Directory of All the World's Capital Ships From 1860 to the Present Day. London: Salamander Books, Ltd., 1983.
- Gray, Randal, Ed. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.
- ISBN 0-938289-57-8.
- Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Spain". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 380–386. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
- Pastor y Fernandez de Checa, M. (1977). "The Spanish Ironclads Numancia, Vitoria and Pelayo, Pt. III". F. P. D. S. Newsletter. V (4): 25–28. OCLC 41554533.
- Warship International Staff (2015). "International Fleet Review at the Opening of the Kiel Canal, 20 June 1895". Warship International. LII (3): 255–263. ISSN 0043-0374.