Cosme García (A-2) was a Spanish Navy A-class submarine commissioned in 1917. She was one of three Italian F-class submarines constructed in Italy for the Spanish Navy. One of the first four operational submarines the Spanish Navy acquired, she served for most of her service life under the Kingdom of Spain, playing a role in the Rif War in 1922. In 1927 she experienced the first serious accident in the history of the Spanish Submarine Force. She briefly was a unit of the Spanish Republican Navy under the Second Spanish Republic in 1931 before she was stricken from the navy list that year.
The Spanish Navy named Cosme García in honor of Cosme García Sáez (1818–1874), a Spanish inventor who claimed that he invented the first submersible.
Design
Construction and commissioning In 1915, the Spanish Cortes Generales passed the Miranda Law, a naval construction program which called for a Spanish Navy force that included 28 submarines. It authorized the construction of the navy's first four operational submarines, which also were the navy's first submarines since the 19th century, as well as a submarine rescue ship. The Ministry of the Navy contracted with the Fore River Shipyard in the United States to build one of the new submarines, which became . For the other three, it turned to Italy, purchasing three Italian F-class submarines from the FIAT-San Giorgio shipyard in La Spezia. The three Italian-built vessels became the Spanish Navy's submarines.
Cosme García (A-2) was laid down at La Spezia on 1915 with the Italian designation F23. She was launched on 1917. The shipyard delivered Cosme García and her sister ships and at La Spezia on 1917 and the Spanish Navy commissioned all three submarines the same day, with Cosme García receiving the pennant number A–2.
Service history 1917–1921
After their commissioning, the three A-class submarines made a cruise along the Italian coast from La Spezia to Genoa under the overall command of Narcíso Monturiol′s commanding officer — Capitán de corbeta (Corvette Captain) Mateo García de los Reyes, a future contralmirante (counter admiral) and minister of the navy — who had taken command of the Spanish Navy's Submarine Division on 1917. They tested their equipment and conducted diving tests during the voyage. After a few days at Genoa, where they completed fitting out, they got underway on 1917 for their delivery voyage to Spain. The protected cruiser — which served as the Spanish Navy's submarine tender from 1917 until the submarine rescue ship arrived in Spain and took over the role in December 1920 — escorted the flotilla on its voyage. The three submarines and Extremadura arrived in Spain at Tarragona on 1917. They departed Tarragona on 1917 and proceeded to the submarine base at the Cartagena Naval Base in Cartagena. All four Spanish Navy submarines — the three A-class submarines and Isaac Peral — then made a cruise along the Spanish coast, visiting various ports to display themselves and their capabilities to the Spanish public.
On the night of 1919 the three A-class submarines arrived at Barcelona in company with the battleship and the torpedo boat No. 18 after a voyage from Cartagena. During the summer of 1919 all four Spanish submarines undertook their first extended cruise, accompanied by Extremadura. During this cruise, they conducted exercises off Chipiona, then called at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Vigo, Ferrol, and Gijón before arriving at Santander on 1919. While at Santander, they put to sea under escort by the destroyers and on and conducted maneuvers off Cabo Mayor during the day with King Alfonso XIII aboard Narciso Monturiol. The submarines and Extremadure arrived at San Sebastián under escort by the gunboat on the afternoon of for an overnight stop. They got back underway on and proceeded to Pasajes, where they conducted maneuvers. They subsequently visited Bilbao and Gijón on the northern coast of Spain and Lisbon in Portugal. Except for A-3, which remained in Vigo for repairs until December 1919, the vessels returned to Cartagena in September 1919.
Under the command of García de los Reyes, now a capitán de fragata (frigate captain), the submarine flotilla and its escorts — the destroyer and the torpedo boats No. 1 and No. 4 — made a training voyage in the Mediterranean Sea in June 1920. The vessels arrived at Mahón on Menorca in the Balearic Islands on . They stopped at Alicante, then reached Almería on . They got back underway on the morning of and headed for the coast of North Africa, where they visited Melilla and Ceuta before arriving at Cartagena. A royal order of 1920 reorganized the Spanish submarine force, creating a submarine training division consisting of Isaac Peral, the three A-class submarines, Kanguro, and two torpedo boats.
In 1921, the submarine flotilla undertook a training voyage to the Canary Islands in which it departed Cartagena on , called at Cádiz, and then set course for Lanzarote. They visited several ports in the Canaries, then stopped at Cádiz and Ceuta before returning to Cartagena on 1921.
In September 1921, the submarine training division conducted a training cruise in the Mediterranean Sea under García de los Reyes's overall command. After departing Cartagena, the three A-class submarines, Kanguro, and the torpedo boats No. 1, No. 3, No. 21, and No. 22 visited Alicante and Gandía before calling at Valencia from . They then made a stop at Vinaròs before proceeding to Barcelona.
The Barcelona visit lasted a week, and took place to allow Minister of the Navy José Gómez Acedo and the chief of the naval staff, Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) Salvador Buhigas, to review the Spanish Navy's submarine and torpedo boat flotillas and demonstrate for them the navy's newest acquisitions. Kanguro arrived at Barcelona on the afternoon of 1921, followed by Isaac Peral, and A-3 and then by the torpedo boats No. 1, No. 5, No. 21, and No. 22. There to meet them were the troopship Almirante Lobo — which had arrived at Barcelona on the afternoon of 1921 carrying two seaplanes of the Spanish Naval Air Arm — as well as Audaz and the protected cruiser . What followed were the Spanish Navy's first sea-and-air exercises.
Amidst a thick fog that later dissipated, the two flotillas got underway at 09:30 on 1921 to begin maneuvers. With crowds looking on from shore and aboard private boats, Kanguro and the torpedo boats left port first, followed later by Almirante Lobo and the submarines. Two seaplanes also took off, and a tethered balloon was launched. Kanguro stood by while the submarines carried out various activities during the day.
On the morning of , Kanguro weighed anchor and led the squadron out of the harbor, followed by the submarines and then the torpedo boats. Almirante Lobo and Audaz accompanied them. With Gómez Acedo and Buhigas embarked on the vessels conducted diving maneuvers and antisubmarine warfare exercises with naval aircraft. The activities concluded later in the morning, and Gómez Acedo and Buhigas transferred from to Audaz and then to Río de la Plata. Meanwhile, the submarine training division and its escorts resumed their training cruise later in the day, next visiting Mahón before calling at Valencia again and then returning to Cartagena.
The submarine flotilla completed a voyage from Cartagena to Almería on 1921. It returned to Cartagena on .
1922–1927
In late July 1922, Cosme García played a role in the Rif War, which had broken out in 1921, pitting Spanish forces against Berber tribes in Spanish Morocco. Escorted by the battleship , Cosme García and Isaac Peral departed Málaga to bring fresh water to the Spanish garrison on Peñón de Alhucemas, a Spanish-held islet in the Alhucemas Islands which was under siege by Riffian forces. After completing the mission, the three vessels arrived at Melilla on 1922.
By August 1922, the Spanish Navy's submarine flotilla consisted of the three A-class submarines, Isaac Peral, and the new B-class submarines , , and . All seven submarines departed Cartagena on 1922 and made a stop at Ceuta. Leaving A-3 behind to undergo repairs and rejoin them later, the other submarines got back underway on bound for San Sebastián, where in September 1922 the submarine flotilla took part in commemorative events marking the 400th anniversary of the completion of the first circumnavigation of the world, begun in 1519 by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan and completed after Magellan's death by the Spanish navigator, shipowner, and explorer Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522. The Spanish royal family visited the submarine flotilla when it called at Pasajes. After the royal visit, the submarine flotilla conducted exercises and made port calls at Ferrol, Marín, and Vigo. On 1922, Cosme García, Isaac Peral, B-1, B-2, B-3, and the tug Cíclope arrived at Cádiz. The same vessels departed Cádiz on 1922 in company with Kanguro and proceeded to Cartagena.
With King Alfonso XIII observing from aboard the destroyer , the submarine flotilla conducted maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea off Cartagena in March 1923. Later in 1923, the Spanish Navy reorganized its submarine force, creating a submarine division based at Mahón made up of Cosme García and Narcíso Monturiol and a training division based at Cartagena consisting of Isaac Peral, A-3, B-1, B-2, B-3, and the submarine . In October 1923, Cosme García, Narcíso Monturiol, and the torpedo boat No. 6 conducted training exercises off Mahón. The two submarines arrived in Barcelona on 1923 in company with No. 6 to undergo repairs. With them complete, the two submarines and No. 6 put back to sea on 1923 bound for Mahón.
Cosme García and Narcíso Monturiol completed a refit at Barcelona on 1925, departing soon thereafter to return to their base at Mahón. Both submarines had their hulls cleaned at Barcelona in July 1925 and again returned to their base at Mahón, accompanied by the torpedo boat No. 6. They both underwent repairs in dry dock at Barcelona in December 1925.
1927 accident Escorted by the torpedo boat No. 6, Cosme García and Narciso Monturiol arrived at Barcelona on 1927 after a voyage from Mahón to begin a two-month stay in dry dock there for their annual repairs and maintenance. Cosme García entered dry dock on . After the completion of her repairs, she was refloated, and on 1927 began post-refit testing and trials. That morning she tested her diesel engines, then moored at a pier. That afternoon, her crew attempted a pierside test of her starboard torpedo tube′s firing valves by flooding the tube and then clearing it with a blast of compressed air. However, when they opened the outer tube door to flood the tube at 14:14, the locking mechanism designed to prevent both the outer and inner doors from opening at the same time malfunctioned, and the inner door suddenly burst open as well, allowing a massive amount of water to flood into the torpedo room. The crewmen in the torpedo room closed the hatch to the officer's quarters astern of the torpedo room and then tried to close the inner torpedo tube door, but the force of the inrushing water was too great. They then tried to close the outer door, but had only partial success. With the flooding out of control and the water at chest level, the crew closed the bow and torpedo-loading hatches, sealed the watertight compartments, disconnected the batteries, and then abandoned ship without loss of life, closing the stern and conning tower hatches as they left. Cosme García sank slowly by the bow with a slight list to port.