Vitoria was an iron-hulled Spanish Navy armored frigate commissioned in 1868. She took part on the rebel side in the Glorious Revolution of 1868. She participated on both sides during the Cantonal Rebellion of 1873–1874, first on the side of the Canton of Cartagena and then, after her crew surrendered to neutral warships, on the side of the central government of the First Spanish Republic. During the rebellion, she played a major role on the central government side in the Battle of Portmán in 1873. Vitoria bombarded rebel towns in northern Spain in 1875 during the Third Carlist War. She was reconstructed in the late 1890s and reclassified as a coast defense ship, serving as such during the Spanish-American War in 1898. She was hulked in 1903 and thereafter hosted training activities until 1907. She was decommissioned in 1908 and stricken and scrapped in 1912.
Vitoria was named after the Battle of Vitoria, a victory by a British, Portuguese and Spanish army against French forces on 21 June 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars.Silverstone, p. 395 After the accession of King Amadeo I on 30 December 1871, she was renamed Victoria, but she reverted to her original name Vitoria when he abdicated in February 1873.
Design and description
Vitoria was long at the waterline, had a beam of and a draft of .de Saint Hubert, p. 23 She displaced .Silverstone, p. 388 Her crew consisted of 561 officers and enlisted men.
The ship was fitted with a John Penn and Sons trunk steam engine that drove the single propeller shaftSpanish Ironclads Numancia and Vitoria, p. 287 using steam provided by eight boilers. The engines were rated at a total of 1,000 nominal horsepower or , and gave Vitoria a speed of de Saint Hubert, pp. 22–23 The ironclad carried a maximum of of coalLyon, p. 380 that gave her a range of at . She was fitted with a three-masted ship rig with a sail area of around .de Saint Hubert, pp. 22, 24
The frigate's main battery was originally intended to consist of thirty 68-pounder gun smoothbore guns mounted on the broadside, but she was fitted with four Armstrong and three Armstrong rifled muzzle-loading guns, and fourteen Trubia smoothbore guns. The nine-inch and 160-millimeter guns were situated on the gun deck while the eight-inch guns were positioned on the main deck, one on each broadside, and another in the forecastle as the forward chase gun. By 1883, the Trubia guns had been replaced by four more nine-inch guns. When Vitoria was refitted in France in 1896–1898, her armament was changed to six Hontoria 160 mm and eight Canet rifled breech-loading guns and a pair of torpedo tubes.de Saint Hubert, pp. 27–28
Vitoria had a complete wrought iron waterline belt of armor plates. Above the belt, the guns, except for the chase gun, were protected by of armor. The ends of the ship and the deck were unarmored.
Construction and commissioning The Spanish Ministry of the Navy authorized the construction in the United Kingdom of two armoured frigates, Vitoria and , on 14 July 1862. The ministry ordered Vitoria from Thames Iron Works at Blackwall, London, England on 11 December 1862. She was laid down on 15 January 1863 and launched on 4 November 1865. She was completed in January or May 1867, according to different sources, and delivered to the Spanish Navy in November 1867. Her construction cost was 8,168,120.17 pesetas.
According to one source, Vitoria was commissioned in February 1868. However, Spain was fighting the Chincha Islands War with Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru at the time, and the United Kingdom, as a neutral country, embargoed her, delaying her departure for Spain. She remained in the United Kingdom until the United Kingdom, Spain, and Chile — which was awaiting the delivery from England of the screw corvettes and for the Chilean Navy — worked out an agreement allowing Vitoria to make her delivery voyage.
Service history 1868–1873 Vitoria finally departed London on 16 August 1868 and arrived at Ferrol, Spain, on 18 August. When the Glorious Revolution against the rule of Queen Isabella II broke out on 19 September 1868, Vitoria sided with the rebel forces led by Juan Bautista Topete and Juan Prim. On 23 September 1868, she captured the paddle gunboat , which had aboard the captain general of the Department of Ferrol, Admiral Francisco de Paula Pavía, who was loyal to Isabella II. She disembarked him in La Coruña. The revolution ended on 27 September 1868 in the deposition of Isabella II and the proclamation of a Provisional Government.
In June 1869, Vitoria was part of the Mediterranean Squadron, with also included the armoured frigates and , the screw frigates Asturias and , and several smaller vessels. In 1870, her Rivera cannons were replaced by twelve rifled and cased Palliser guns.
On 24 November 1870 at Cartagena, Spain, Minister of the Navy José María Beránger Ruiz de Apodaca and President of the Congress of Deputies Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla came aboard Villa de Madrid, the flagship of Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) José Ignacio Rodríguez de Arias, who commanded a squadron that also included Vitoria and Numancia. The three ships departed Cartagena on 26 November 1870 and steamed in company to La Spezia, Italy, where the Spanish dignitaries offered the Spanish crown to Prince Amadeo of Savoy.Fernández Duro, pp. 339–350. Amadeo boarded Numancia and the Spanish ships returned to Spain, arriving at Cartagena on 30 December 1870. Upon Amadeo's accession to the throne, Vitoria′s name was changed to Victoria. She remained in the Mediterranean Squadron until the Cantonal Rebellion broke out in 1873.
King Amadeo I abdicated and the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed in February 1873. Victoria returned to her original name, Vitoria after the king's abdication.
Cantonal Rebellion Cantonal service On 12 July 1873 the Canton of Cartagena declared its independence from the First Spanish Republic, beginning the Cantonal Rebellion. The central government regarded the Cantonalists as separatists, and combat broke out between it and the Cantonalists. Vitoria was at Cartagena at the time and came under Cantonalist control. On 20 July, the central government of the First Spanish Republic declared that ships flying the red flag of the Canton were pirates, and other naval powers made similar declarations and sent warships to Spanish waters to protect their interests.
On 22 July, Vitoria captured the central government paddle gunboat . Vitoria and Vigilante then steamed to Alicante and persuaded the city government to join the rebels.O'Shea, p. 706 However, the city government returned its loyalty to the central government when the two Cantonalist ships departed later the same day.
Vitoria got underway from Cartagena on the evening of 28 July 1873 with the screw frigate , which also had joined the Cantonalists, to steam along the coast of Spain to recruit Spaniards to the Cantonalist cause and to raise money for the Canton from coastal cities. The Cantonal squadron lacked naval officers, and the ships were under the command of a cavalry general, Juan Contreras y Román, commander of the Canton's army, who was aboard Vitoria. The two ships arrived off Almería early on the morning of 29 July, and after negotiations between Contreras and local officials that lasted all day, Contreras informed the officials that if they did not pay him US$100,000 and give him the city's books and all the money in its treasury, his ships would destroy the town at daybreak on 30 July. In return, the local authorities informed him that they would not comply and would not allow him to disembark.
At 08:30 on 30 July, a messenger from the ships came ashore to deliver a notice to the city's consular officials that the ships would open fire in an hour, but he was unsuccessful. At 10:00, Almansa provided covering fire for four armed launches attempting to land Cantonalist troops, but rifle fire from shore drove off the launches without a landing, reportedly with eight men killed and 16 wounded aboard the launches. Vitoria and Almansa then fired about a dozen projectiles at the city before hoisting a white flag of truce. When the city's forces hoisted a black flag in response, the ships resumed fire, this time with projectiles. With occasional lulls, the ships continued firing until 16:30. Sometime between 18:30 and 19:00, they weighed anchor and headed west. Vitoria and Almansa next stopped at Motril, where they extorted a payment of US$12,000 to be paid to them at Málaga. They then headed for Málaga.
Learning of the incident at Almería, the German commander of the international squadron off Spain, Reinhold von Werner, sent his flagship, the Imperial German Navy armored frigate , and the British Royal Navy battleship to intervene. Before Vitoria and Almansa could reach Málaga, Friedrich Carl and Swiftsure intercepted them on 1 August 1873. The wooden Almansa, with Contreras aboard, stood little chance against the two armored ships, and after a brief exchange of gunfire,Greene & Massignani, pp. 279–280Pérez Crespo, pp. 219–229. the two Cantonalist ships surrendered to avoid Contreras and Almansa′s 400-man crew being killed or injured.Pérez Crespo, pp. 217–218. Facing little opposition from the Cantonalist crews, Swiftsure and Friedrich Carl detained the two ships without prior approval from London or Berlin.Pérez Crespo, pp. 211–212. Swiftsure and Friedrich Carl officially took custody of Vitoria and Almansa as pirate ships on 2 August. After laborious negotiations, Werner turned over the two Spanish ships to Royal Navy Vice-Admiral Hastings Yelverton, who in turn sent them to Gibraltar, where the British returned them to the Spanish central government on 26 September 1873. The Spanish central government incorporated them into its squadron under the command of Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Miguel Lobo y Malagamba, who made Vitoria his flagship.
Central government service The central government squadron, composed of Vitoria, Almansa, the screw frigates Carmén and , the paddle gunboats and , the screw corvette , and the screw schooner , got underway from Gibraltar bound for Cartagena on 5 October 1873. News of the passage of this squadron through Almería reached Cartagena on 9 October, and the Cantonalist forces made plans to attack it. Contreras took command of the Canton's squadron,Pérez Crespo, pp. 332–334. which consisted of Numancia, the armoured corvette , the armoured frigate , and the paddle gunboat Despertador del Cantón (formerly named in Spanish Navy service).
On 10 October 1873, the central government squadron arrived off Cartagena to establish a blockade. During the evening of 10 October, Lobo kept his ships just outside Cartagena's harbor off of Escombreras, an islet at the mouth of the harbor. Later, during the night of , he ordered his ships to raise sail, probably to economize on their use of coal, and a strong north wind blew his squadron offshore and eastward to a position east of Portmán, Spain.