Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad

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For other ships with the same name, see
Spanish Ship Santisima Trinidad
.
Santísima Trinidad
History
Spain
NameNuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad
Namesake
Holy Trinity
Ordered23 October 1767
BuilderHavana, Cuba
Laid downOctober 1767
Launched20 March 1769
CompletedAugust 1769
Commissioned1 December 1769
HomeportCádiz, Spain
FateCaptured at Trafalgar, 21 October 1805; scuttled 22 October.
General characteristics
Class and type140-gun first-rate
Displacement4,950 tons
Length61.3 m (201 ft)
Beam16.2 m (53 ft)
Draught8.02 m (26.3 ft)
Troops≈140
Complement1,050 crewmen
Armament
  • 112 guns as built:
  • lower deck 30 × 36 pdrs,
  • middle deck 32 × 24 pdrs,
  • upper deck 32 × 12 pdrs,
  • quarterdeck and forecastle 18 × 8 pdrs.

Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad, nicknamed La Real, sometimes confused with the merchant galleon

spar deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle, and to 136 guns around 1802 (plus 4 small guns on the poop), thus creating what was in effect a continuous fourth gundeck although the extra guns added were actually relatively small. She was the heaviest-armed ship in the world when rebuilt, and bore the most guns of any ship of the line outfitted in the Age of Sail
.

Design and construction

She was built at

naval architect Matthew Mullan (domiciled in Spain under the name Mateo Mullán), originally intended as a ship of 112 guns. He died on 25 November 1767, and the construction of the ship was continued by his son, Ignacio Mullán. The ship was launched in March 1769 and completed in August 1769 as a 116-gun three-decker.[1] She was considerably larger than her British contemporary Victory and somewhat bigger than the French Bretagne
.

There is no complete plan of the ship in existence,[dubious – discuss] but there are of the 112-gun ship from 1765, from which the original dimensions of the ship may be found. Here, the units of length are the Spanish Burgos foot (27.86 cm) and the SI metre (100 cm), respectively: length = 2132⁄3 (59.53); keel = 1825⁄12 (50.82); beam = 573⁄4 (16.09); draught = 2811⁄12 (8.06).[Note 1]

She was reputed to be the largest warship in the world, for which she was nicknamed El Escorial de los mares by the Spanish, until surpassed in sheer size by the new type French 120-gun ships such as Océan (1790) and Orient (1791). In 1795, her forecastle was joined to her quarterdeck to create a fourth deck containing a battery of eight pounder guns, giving her a total of 130 guns. Her armament seems to have been quickly reduced to 130 from 136 guns, but she still carried more guns than any other ship of her time.

The weight of the additional guns, so high above her waterline, made her poor sailing qualities even worse, leading to her nickname El Ponderoso.[2] Some naval officers suggested that she should be restricted to defending the Bay of Cádiz.

Santísima Trinidad remains notable as one of the few four-decker

U.S. Navy constructed the four-deck, 136-gun Pennsylvania and the French Navy, the 120-gun Valmy, (both with similar flush deck arrangement). The Royal Navy planned — but did not build — the 170-gun four-decker Duke of Kent
.

Service

In July 1779,

American War of Independence. Santísima Trinidad became the flagship of the Spanish fleet, taking part in the Franco-Spanish operations in the English Channel in the late summer of that year.[citation needed
]

On 12 August 1780 she took part in the capture of 55 merchant ships from a convoy of 63, escorted by the ship of the line HMS Ramillies and three frigates.[3] In 1782 she was incorporated into the Mediterranean Squadron, participating in the Great Siege of Gibraltar and she fought in the brief and indecisive Battle of Cape Spartel.[citation needed] In 1795, she was modified by the addition of extra 8-pounder guns on a new deck between her forecastle and quarterdeck.[citation needed]

Infante don Pelayo going to rescue Santisima Trinidad at Battle of Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797

In 1797, she was the

Cadiz for repairs.[citation needed
]

Eight years later, commanded by Francisco Javier Uriarte and the flagship of

Thomas Fremantle. She was taken in tow by the 98-gun second rate Prince,[4] but was eventually scuttled by her British captors northwest of Cádiz.[5][6]

It is possible that her wreck was found by coincidence during testing of a new sidescan sonar of the Spanish Navy, in 2009.[7] An earlier attempt to find her wreck was inconclusive as lack of visual evidence could not confirm the identity of the ships found.[6]

Replicas

Museo Naval de Madrid

A full-size representation[8] of the Santísima Trinidad could be seen in the harbour of Alicante, in Spain. It worked as a restaurant, but has been closed.

A non-profit non-governmental Canadian association, the Friends of Santísima Trinidad,

Havana, Cuba with the construction of a new 1:25 four-metre-long scale model of La Santísima Trinidad. Interior construction details are exposed on one side of the vessel, and visitors are able to use a computer interface and touch screen to take a virtual tour of the ship in Spanish, English, and French. The model is displayed in the Naval Museum of La Habana, opened in June 2008 at Castillo de la Real Fuerza
, the oldest building in Cuba and the oldest stone fortress in the New World.

Notes

  1. ^ For exact figures, and those in the General characteristics frame, see: José Cayuela Fernandez, Trafalgar, hombres y naves entre dos épocas: Ariel (2004)

Sources and references

  1. ^ Gervasio de Artinano y de Galdacano, La Arquitectura Naval Espanola (en Madera) (Madrid 1920), p.365
  2. ^ El Ponderoso, the ponderous is a pun on el poderoso, the powerful.
  3. ISBN 0-85177-477-6
  4. ISBN 1-84176-892-8
  5. ^ Fremont-Barnes and Hook, page 81
  6. ^ a b "Battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Lord Nelson's Fatal Victory". nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic Magazine. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  7. ^ "Have the remains of the Santísima Trinidad been discovered?". www.km.kongsberg.com. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  8. ^ "Barco restaurante Santisima Trinidad". 27 May 2016. Retrieved 22 Nov 2019.
  9. ^ "Friends of the Santísima Trinidad". Archived from the original on 26 July 2011.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santísima Trinidad.

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