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Spanish battleship Pelayo
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Spanish battleship Pelayo
Pelayo was a Spanish Navy battleship in commission from 1888 to 1924. She was Spain's first battleship and the most powerful unit of the Spanish Navy at the time she entered service. As a capital ship of unique design and capabilities and the only Spanish battleship to enter service prior to the dreadnought España in 1914, Pelayo posed a problem for the Spanish Navy, which had difficulty finding a tactical role for her. In her early years, however, she gained great popularity as she played a significant role in representing the Spanish Navy at important naval and international events. She supported Spanish operations during the First Melillan campaign in 1893–1894. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, she took part in an abortive sortie to the Philippines, but returned to Spain without seeing action in the war. She later fired her guns in anger for the first time during the Second Melillan campaign in 1909, and she subsequently participated in the Kert campaign in 1911 and 1912 and in bombardments of the coast of Spanish Morocco in 1913.
Pelayo was named for Pelagius of Asturias (ca. 685–737), a nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias and is credited with initiating the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, traditionally dated to have begun with the Battle of Covadonga (c. 718 or 722).
Pelayo 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 heavy self-contained gun turrets. Her design was based on that of the French barbette ship Marceau, modified to give her a draft that was 3 feet (0.9 m) shallower so that she could transit the Suez Canal at full-load displacement. She displaced 9,900 tons and was 105.60 metres (346 ft 5 in) in length, 20.20 metres (66 ft 3 in) in beam, 15.50 metres (50 ft 10 in) in depth, and 7.50 metres (24 ft 7 in) in draft. She had a crew of 630 men.
Pelayo′s 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 in) guns, also in barbettes, with one mounted on either beam. Her lone 16-centimetre (6.3 in) gun was a bow chaser. She also was armed with twelve 120-millimetre (4.7 in) guns, six on each side, three 57-millimetre Hotchkiss quick-firing guns, thirteen 37-millimetre revolvers, four machine guns, and seven 356-millimetre (14 in) torpedo tubes.
The ship had two funnels. Her propulsion system consisted of 12 boilers and two vertical compound steam engines driving two screws. On trials, she achieved 9,600 indicated horsepower (7,159 kW) under forced draft and reached 16.7 knots (30.9 km/h; 19.2 mph). She could carry 800 tons of coal. She originally was equipped with 4,000 square feet (372 m2) of sails, but they were deleted soon after her completion and her rigging was replaced by two military masts.
Pelayo had Creusot steel armor. Her belt armor was 2.1 metres (6 ft 11 in) wide amidships and extended 0.6 metres (2 ft) above and almost 1.5 metres (5 ft) below the waterline; it ranged in thickness from 45.1 to 29.8 centimetres (17.75 to 11.75 in). Her barbettes had from 40.0 to 29.8 centimetres (15.75 to 11.75 in) of armor, while her gun shields had 7.94 centimetres (3.125 in), her conning tower 15.56 centimetres (6.125 in), and her deck 7.0 to 5.1 centimetres (2.75 to 2 in). Internally, she had French-style cellular construction with 13 watertight bulkheads and a double bottom.
Pelayo 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 steaming endurance for colonial service; moreover, battleship designers abandoned the barbette ship concept in the 1890s, and she ended up as the only member of her class.
The ship was the only battleship in the Spanish fleet until the entry into service of the dreadnought battleship España in 1914, and her unique design and capabilities made it difficult for the Spanish Navy to plan for her tactical employment, as she had no capital ships of similar capabilities with which to operate. During her operational life, the Spanish Navy made plans to organize a division made up of Pelayo and the old armored frigates Numancia and Vitoria, but the armored frigates were old and in poor condition, and the plans were dropped. After Spain began to commission her first dreadnoughts in 1914, the Spanish Navy planned to organize a division around Pelayo, but by then Pelayo herself was too old and in too poor of a condition, and these plans also were scrapped. As a result of her unique design and the difficulty of operating her with other ships, the Spanish Navy nicknamed her "Solitario", meaning "The Individualist," "The Solitary One," or "The Lonely One."
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Spanish battleship Pelayo
Pelayo was a Spanish Navy battleship in commission from 1888 to 1924. She was Spain's first battleship and the most powerful unit of the Spanish Navy at the time she entered service. As a capital ship of unique design and capabilities and the only Spanish battleship to enter service prior to the dreadnought España in 1914, Pelayo posed a problem for the Spanish Navy, which had difficulty finding a tactical role for her. In her early years, however, she gained great popularity as she played a significant role in representing the Spanish Navy at important naval and international events. She supported Spanish operations during the First Melillan campaign in 1893–1894. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, she took part in an abortive sortie to the Philippines, but returned to Spain without seeing action in the war. She later fired her guns in anger for the first time during the Second Melillan campaign in 1909, and she subsequently participated in the Kert campaign in 1911 and 1912 and in bombardments of the coast of Spanish Morocco in 1913.
Pelayo was named for Pelagius of Asturias (ca. 685–737), a nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias and is credited with initiating the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, traditionally dated to have begun with the Battle of Covadonga (c. 718 or 722).
Pelayo 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 heavy self-contained gun turrets. Her design was based on that of the French barbette ship Marceau, modified to give her a draft that was 3 feet (0.9 m) shallower so that she could transit the Suez Canal at full-load displacement. She displaced 9,900 tons and was 105.60 metres (346 ft 5 in) in length, 20.20 metres (66 ft 3 in) in beam, 15.50 metres (50 ft 10 in) in depth, and 7.50 metres (24 ft 7 in) in draft. She had a crew of 630 men.
Pelayo′s 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 in) guns, also in barbettes, with one mounted on either beam. Her lone 16-centimetre (6.3 in) gun was a bow chaser. She also was armed with twelve 120-millimetre (4.7 in) guns, six on each side, three 57-millimetre Hotchkiss quick-firing guns, thirteen 37-millimetre revolvers, four machine guns, and seven 356-millimetre (14 in) torpedo tubes.
The ship had two funnels. Her propulsion system consisted of 12 boilers and two vertical compound steam engines driving two screws. On trials, she achieved 9,600 indicated horsepower (7,159 kW) under forced draft and reached 16.7 knots (30.9 km/h; 19.2 mph). She could carry 800 tons of coal. She originally was equipped with 4,000 square feet (372 m2) of sails, but they were deleted soon after her completion and her rigging was replaced by two military masts.
Pelayo had Creusot steel armor. Her belt armor was 2.1 metres (6 ft 11 in) wide amidships and extended 0.6 metres (2 ft) above and almost 1.5 metres (5 ft) below the waterline; it ranged in thickness from 45.1 to 29.8 centimetres (17.75 to 11.75 in). Her barbettes had from 40.0 to 29.8 centimetres (15.75 to 11.75 in) of armor, while her gun shields had 7.94 centimetres (3.125 in), her conning tower 15.56 centimetres (6.125 in), and her deck 7.0 to 5.1 centimetres (2.75 to 2 in). Internally, she had French-style cellular construction with 13 watertight bulkheads and a double bottom.
Pelayo 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 steaming endurance for colonial service; moreover, battleship designers abandoned the barbette ship concept in the 1890s, and she ended up as the only member of her class.
The ship was the only battleship in the Spanish fleet until the entry into service of the dreadnought battleship España in 1914, and her unique design and capabilities made it difficult for the Spanish Navy to plan for her tactical employment, as she had no capital ships of similar capabilities with which to operate. During her operational life, the Spanish Navy made plans to organize a division made up of Pelayo and the old armored frigates Numancia and Vitoria, but the armored frigates were old and in poor condition, and the plans were dropped. After Spain began to commission her first dreadnoughts in 1914, the Spanish Navy planned to organize a division around Pelayo, but by then Pelayo herself was too old and in too poor of a condition, and these plans also were scrapped. As a result of her unique design and the difficulty of operating her with other ships, the Spanish Navy nicknamed her "Solitario", meaning "The Individualist," "The Solitary One," or "The Lonely One."
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