Spanish_ironclad_Tetuán

Spanish ironclad <i>Tetuán</i>

Spanish ironclad Tetuán

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The Spanish ironclad Tetuán was an armored frigate built in the royal dockyard at Ferrol during the 1860s for the Spanish Navy. She was captured by rebels during the Cantonal Revolution in 1873 and participated in the Battle off Cartagena. While under repair after the battle, the ship was destroyed by fire and broken up in 1874.

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Description as an ironclad

Tetuán was 279 feet 1 inch (85.1 m) long at the waterline, had a beam of 55 feet 9 inches (17.0 m) and a draft of 21 feet 8 inches (6.6 m). The ship displaced 6,200 long tons (6,300 t). She had a single horizontal trunk steam engine that drove her propeller using steam provided by eight boilers. The engine was designed to produce a total of 4,520 indicated horsepower (3,370 kW) which gave the ship a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). For long-distance travel, Tetuán was fitted with three masts and ship rigged.[1] She carried 1,200 long tons (1,219 t) of coal.[2]

The ship was armed with thirty 68-pounder smoothbore guns.[1] Her waterline and Battery were protected by 5.1 inches (130 mm) of wrought-iron armor.[3]

Construction and career

Tetuán, named for the 1860 Battle of Tétouan, was built by the Royal dockyard in Ferrol. She was laid down in May 1861 and launched on 19 March 1863 and completed in January 1866.[4][5]

In mid-1873, the First Spanish Republic was beset with the Cantonal Revolution while fighting the Third Carlist War. The revolutionaries seized Cartagena on 12 July while the bulk of the Mediterranean Squadron was in port. This included Tetuán and the armored frigates Vitoria and Numancia, and the armored corvette Méndez Núñez. The German and British ironclads SMS Friedrich Carl and HMS Swiftsure seized Vitoria and a wooden steam frigate as pirates after they threatened to bombard Almeria unless a ransom was paid and later turned them over the national government on 26 September. On 11 October, all three Cantonist ironclads, Numancia, Tetuan, and Méndez Núñez were at sea when they were attacked near Cartagena by a small government fleet led by Vitoria. Reluctant to actually sink the rebel ships, the government ships kept their distance and thwarted rebel attempt to close with them. The latter suffered 13 dead and 49 wounded in the skirmish, although Tetuán was damaged in the battle. The ship was under repair[6] when she was destroyed by fire (either by accident or deliberately) on 30 or 31 December, two weeks before the city surrendered to government forces.[3][4]

Footnotes

  1. [1]
    Silverstone, p. 388
  2. [2]
    Gardiner, p. 380
  3. [3]
    "Spanish Ironclads Tetuan, Mendes Nunes and Arapiles", p. 407
  4. [4]
    Silverstone, p. 395
  5. [5]
    "The Bombay Mails". The Times. No. 24519. London. 30 March 1863. col F, p. 12.
  6. [6]
    Greene & Massignani, pp. 278–81

References

  • Greene, Jack & Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Combined Publishing. ISBN 978-0-938289-58-6.
  • Lyon, Hugh (1979). "Spain". In Gardiner, Robert (ed.). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. pp. 380–386. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
  • de Saint Hubert, Christian (1984). "Early Spanish Steam Warships, Part II". Warship International. XXI (1): 21–45. ISSN 0043-0374.
  • Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.
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