The class was a series of three dreadnought battleships that were built for the Spanish Navy between 1909 and 1921: , , and . The ships were ordered as part of an informal mutual defense agreement with Britain and France, and were built with British support. The construction of the ships, particularly the third vessel, was significantly delayed by shortages of materiel supplied by the UK during World War I, particularly armaments; was almost complete in May 1915 but her guns were not delivered until 1919. The ships were the only dreadnoughts completed by Spain and were the smallest of the type built by any country. The class's limited displacement was necessitated by the constraints imposed by the weak Spanish economy and existing naval infrastructure, requiring compromises on armor and speed to incorporate a main battery of eight guns.
represented Spain during the opening of the Panama Canal in 1915 and conducted training exercises with after she entered service later that year. Both ships conducted long-range voyages to North and South America in 1920–1921; was damaged in an accidental grounding off the coast of Chile. Both vessels provided gunfire support to ground forces engaged in the Rif War, which started in mid-1921, and joined them there after her commissioning later that year. In 1923, ran hard aground off Cape Tres Forcas while bombarding Rif positions and could not be freed before storm damage destroyed the ship in November 1924. Some of her guns were salvaged and later used as coastal artillery in Spain. The two surviving ships of the class supported the landing at Alhucemas, where served as the flagship.
After King Alfonso XIII was deposed and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed in 1931, was renamed and both members of the class were reduced to reserve to reduce costs. returned to service for use as the fleet flagship in 1933. Plans to modernize the ships in the mid-1930s were interrupted by the start of the Spanish Civil War. was seized by the rebel Nationalist faction at the start of the conflict while the Republican government retained control over . was used to enforce a blockade of Republican-controlled ports in northern Spain; the Spanish Republican Navy briefly deployed to break the blockade but neither side attacked the other. was lost after striking a mine in April 1937, though almost her entire crew was saved. was attacked by German and Italian bombers during the war before being destroyed by an accidental explosion in June 1937. Guns from were recovered and used for coastal batteries.
Background
The Spanish public blamed the Navy for the country's disastrous losses in the Spanish–American War of 1898 but recognized the need to modernize and rebuild it. The first attempt to rebuild the Navy came in the Fleet Plan of 1903, which called for a fleet centered on seven battleships and three cruisers. This plan proved to be too ambitious for the weak Spanish economy and an unstable Spanish parliament was unable to provide funding. The Fleet Plan of 1905 proposed a fleet of eight battleships, a number of torpedo boats, and submarines; this plan also fell victim to the weaknesses of the Spanish government and a lack of public support. International developments, particularly conflicts with Germany in the First Moroccan Crisis, provided the impetus and public support necessary for the Spanish government to embark on a major naval construction program.
In April 1904, Britain and France reached the , putting aside their traditional rivalry to oppose German expansionism. The agreement directly affected Spain because it settled matters of control over Morocco and placed Tangier under joint British–French–Spanish control. The agreement brought Spain closer with Britain and France, leading to an exchange of notes between the three governments in May 1907, by which time a strong cabinet led by Antonio Maura had come to power. The notes created an informal agreement to contain the German-led Central Powers; Britain would concentrate the bulk of the Royal Navy in the North Sea while Spain would contribute its fleet to support the French Navy against the combined fleets of Italy and Austria-Hungary. Britain and France would provide technical assistance to develop new warships for the Spanish fleet. Accordingly, Maura secured passage of the Fleet Plan of 1907, which proposed the construction of three battleships, several destroyers, torpedo boats, and other craft. The construction plan was to last for eight years. Debates over the plan took place in the (General Courts—the Spanish legislature) until the end of November and a final approval vote on 2 December. The 1907 Fleet Plan was formally signed into law on 7 January 1908.
Development
Work on the new design had begun before the fleet plan was approved by the legislature. Initial plans called for the three ships to displace and have an armament of four and at least twelve guns in a manner similar to standard British pre-dreadnoughts of the period. The commissioning of the revolutionary "all-big-gun" in late 1906 prompted Commodore José Ferrándiz y Niño, the Spanish naval minister, to press the (Navy Technical Board) to revise its design to match the new, more powerful type of battleship in March 1907. Some consideration was given to reducing the caliber of the main battery to 11- or 9.2-inch (279 or 234 mm) guns, but six of the nine board members agreed that the 12-inch gun should be retained. With the general type of ship determined, the Navy began discussions over general design requirements, given the limitations that would be imposed on the new ships.
The Spanish Navy was principally concerned with defending its main naval bases at Ferrol, Cádiz, and Cartagena; given this requirement, the ships would not need an extensive cruising range. The need to keep the new battleship design tightly constrained due to the frail Spanish economy and industrial sector was of secondary importance. A third constraint was the need to build ships small enough to fit in existing dockyard facilities because Spain had insufficient funds to both build larger battleships and to enlarge the navy's dockyards. As a result, the design requirements called for relatively heavy offensive power with minimal range and armor protection. The Navy began discussing the design requirements with Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers in 1907. On 5 September 1907, Vickers provided a proposed design for a 15,000-ton battleship armed with eight 12-inch guns. This design was the basis for the requirements for the design competition, which was issued on 21 April 1908. Rather than simply order the ships from foreign builders, the government required any tender to include provisions for the submitter to take control of and modernize the Spanish shipyard facilities that would build the vessels. While this would increase costs and delay completion of the ships, the government decided improving domestic facilities was an important goal of the program.
Four shipbuilders submitted bids: the Italian Gio. Ansaldo & C. led a group that included the Austro-Hungarian Škoda Works and the French ; the French firm Schneider-Creusot partnered with and ; the Spanish firm (SECN), which was formed by Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth, and John Brown & Company; and a group of Spanish industrialists backed by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company and William Beardmore and Company. Only the first three proposals were seriously considered; the fourth was considered to be too vague. The (the Navy Staff) and the Navy Minister were responsible for reviewing the three proposals. Ansaldo prepared two design variants; the first called for four twin gun turrets for the main battery with one forward, one aft, and two offset amidships. The second proposal had two triple turrets fore and aft with a twin turret on the centerline amidships. Artillery experts in the Navy rejected the second variant. The SECN and Schneider designs featured the same arrangement as the first Ansaldo proposal.
In October 1908, the Artillery Committee met to make its recommendations to the . The Committee concluded the SECN and Schneider proposals were superior to the Ansaldo version but neither had a marked advantage over the other. The following month, the Naval Construction Committee met to evaluate the proposals. It recommended the SECN design followed by Schneider and with Ansaldo last. The Office of the Navy Controller also evaluated the proposals in November and advised the only the SECN bid met the design requirements without any legal, administrative, or cost problems. Given the strategic context that foresaw the likely use of the ships against the Italian and Austro-Hungarian fleets, the Ansaldo-led consortium had obvious drawbacks. In February 1909, the Navy requested a revised design from SECN to incorporate several alterations including an increased freeboard to improve seakeeping, an increased height and length of the main belt armor, and the addition of individual rangefinders for each gun turret. SECN agreed to make the changes on 20 March and the company received the contract on 14 April.
Due to the constraints imposed by the Spanish economy, the resulting design produced the smallest dreadnought-type battleships ever built. They were obsolete before completion due to rapid technological change—most significantly the advent of the superdreadnought battleships—and lengthy delays in completion of the later units of the class.
Design
General characteristics
The -class ships were long at the waterline and long overall. They had a beam of and a draft of ; their freeboard was amidships, much lower than was normal for battleships of the period. They displaced as designed and up to at combat load. The vessels had two tripod masts and a small superstructure. They were equipped with six searchlights. The ships were reasonably stable compared to foreign designs but they had a low metacentric height of at full loading that caused them to have poor stability when damaged. Steering was controlled with a single semi-balanced rudder. At full speed, the ships could make a 180 degree turn in the space of .
Each ship had a crew of 854 officers and enlisted men, though in peacetime the crew was limited to around 700 for habitability reasons. The enlisted crew spaces were located forward in the upper deck and were cramped and unhygienic; they were split between two areas, the first being a large mess deck between the barbettes for the forward turret and the starboard wing turret. The rest of the enlisted men were housed in the forward casemates for the secondary guns. The cabins for non-commissioned officers were also located in the casemates. The superstructure included several cabins for senior officers. The ships were initially painted black but in the 1920s they were repainted gray. funnel bore a white identification band and bore two; these bands were removed from both ships after the start of the Civil War. was also repainted dark gray at this time.
Machinery The ships' propulsion system consisted of four-shaft Parsons steam turbines and steam was provided by twelve coal-fired water-tube Yarrow boilers. The turbines drove three-bladed screw propellers that had diameters of . Two spare screws were kept aboard each ship. The boilers were trunked into a single funnel that was placed amidships; the funnel's location far from the foremast kept the latter's spotting top free from smoke interference but still rendered the spotting top on the mainmast essentially useless.