Spanish battleship Pelayo

"Pelayo" was a battleship of the Spanish Navy which served in the Spanish fleet from 1888 to 1925. For many years, she was the most powerful unit of the Spanish Navy.

Technical Characteristics

Ordered in November 1884, "Pelayo" was built at La Seyne in France. Her keel was laid in April 1885, and she was launched on 5 February 1887 and completed in the summer of 1888. She was originally intended to be the first of a new class of battleships, but a crisis with the German Empire in the Caroline Islands in 1890 led to the cancellation of these plans and the diversion of funds to the construction of the "Infanta Maria Teresa"-class armored cruisers. "Pelayo" was viewed as too slow and having too little coal endurance for colonial service, and ended up being the only member of her class.

The design of "Pelayo" was based on that of the French battleship "Marceau", modified to give her a draft that was 3 feet (0.9 m) shallower so tha 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 convert|6.4|in|mm|sing=on gun was a bow chaser. Her armor belt was 6 feet 11 inches (2.1 m) wide amidships and extended 2 feet (0.6 m) above and almsot convert|5|ft|m below the waterline. Internally, had French-style cellular construction with 13 watertight bulkheads ad 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 of the day which the design of modern battleships were soon to abandon. Her main guns could be loaded in any position, and consisted of two Hontoria-built 12.5-inch (317.5-mm) mouned fore and aft on the centerline and two Hontoria 11-inch (280-mm) 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 6.4-inch (160-mm) and 4.7-inch (120-mm) guns replaced by 5.5-inch (140-mm) 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 convert|6.4|in|mm|sing=on and convert|4.7|in|mm|sing=on guns removed but her new convert|5.5|in|mm|sing=on 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 United States Navy raids against the Spanish coast. She then was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Manuel de Camara, which was to steam to the Philippines and defeat the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron, which had controlled Philippine waters since defeating the Spanish squadron of Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasaron in the Battle of Manila Bay.

Camara's squadron -- consisting of "Pelayo", armored cruiser "Emperador Carlos V", auxiliary cruisers "Patriota" and "Rapido", destroyers "Audaz", "Osado", and "Prosepina", and transports "Buenos Aires" and "Panay" -- sortied from Cadiz on 16 June 1898, passing Gibraltar on 17 June 1898. It arrived at Port Said, Egypt, on 26 June 1898, and requested permission to transship coal, which the Egyptian government finally denied on 30 June 1898 out of concern for Egyptian neutrality.By the time Camara's squadron arrived at Suez on 5 July 1898, the squadron of Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete had been annihilated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, freeing up the U.S. Navy's heavy forces from the blockade of Santiago de Cuba. Fearful for the security of the Spanish coast, the Spanish Ministry of Marine recalled Camara's squadron on 7 July 1898, and "Pelayo" returned to Spain, where Camara's 2nd Squadron was dissolved on 25 July 1898. "Pelayo" spent the last month of the war in Spanish waters, and thus missed combat.

After the war, she resumed her duty of showing the flag, attending naval reviews in Toulon, France, in 1901 and in Lisbon, Portugal, and Vigo Bay, Spain, in 1904. But the Spanish Navy found it difficult to find a role for "Pelayo", which had no similar ships with which to operate. There was thought of having her operate with Spain's new dreadnoughts when they began to commission during the World War I era, but by then she was too old and slow to be compatible with them. She thus earned the nickname "Solitario", meaning "individualist."

"Pelayo" fired her guns in anger only once, when she bombarded Moroccan insurgents in 1909 during the second Rif War.

"Pelayo" underwent a major refit in 1910. In 1912, she was badly damaged in Fonduko Bay 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

*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.
*Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, Eds. "Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905." New York, New York: Mayflower Books Inc., 1979. ISBN 0831703024.
*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 0870219073.
*Nofi, Albert A. "The Spanish-American War, 1898". Conshohocken, Pennsylvania:Combined Books, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0938289578.

External links

* [http://www.spanamwar.com/pelayo.htm The Spanish-American War Centennial Website: "Pelayo"]