Spanish ironclad Duque de Tetuán
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} | |
| Name | Duque de Tetuán |
| Namesake | Leopoldo O'Donnell, 1st Duke of Tetuan |
| Builder | Reales Astilleros de Esteiro |
| Commissioned | 1874 |
| Stricken | 1897 |
| Fate | Scrapped 1900 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | floating battery |
| Displacement | 703 tons |
| Length | 43 m (141 ft) |
| Beam | 9.5 m (31 ft) |
| Draft | 2.15 m (7.1 ft) |
| Installed power | 190 ihp |
| Speed | 6 knots |
| Complement | 60 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) 1 x 16-centimetre (6.30 in) cannon 4 x 12-centimetre (4.72 in) cannons |
| Armor | 100-millimetre (3.9 in) iron |
| Notes | 21 tons of coal |
The floating battery Duque de Tetuán was an ironclad warship, a low-freeboard vessel similar in design to a monitor, of the Spanish Armada, and was constructed during the Third Carlist War to provide coastal defense and the fire support of troops ashore. Only completed after the end of the conflict it was designed for, the ship was considered a failure, and it was assigned to the defense of Ferrol. Duque de Tetuán remained in this duty until it was decommissioned, and was scrapped in 1900.
Design
Designed and constructed by the Reales Astilleros de Esteiro at Ferrol[1] to meet an Armada requirement for a floating battery capable of providing gunfire support to troops ashore during the Third Carlist War, Duque de Tetuán was of wooden construction, its hull plated with iron armor 100 millimetres (3.9 in) thick.[2] Some of the armor plate used in the construction of Duque de Tetuán came from the earlier Armoured frigate Tetuan,[3] which had burned under suspicious circumstances during the Cantonist rebellion at Cartagena.[4]
Armament consisted of a single 160-millimetre (6.3 in) cannon, with four 120-millimetre (4.7 in) rifled cannon supplementing the larger weapon.[2] The construction of Duque de Tetuán took place at Carthagena, and the incomplete vessel was among the vessels captured by the rebel forces when they seized the city.[5]
Career
Despite the urgent need for such a vessel to provide fire support in the government's campaign against the Carlists, Duque de Tetuán would not be completed in time to participate in the war.[2] Of little use in any offensive role due to its design, the vessel was considered "a failure as a ship of war",[6] and was assigned to the defense of the Armada base at Ferrol. Duque de Tetuán was to serve in this unglamorous role, seeing no action, for the duration of its career.[2]
Considered a third-rate ship by the close of the 19th century, Duque de Tetuán was decommissioned and struck from the official strength of the Armada by 1897.[7] However, in 1898, the outbreak of the Spanish-American War led to Duque de Tetuán being recommissioned, to once more defend Ferrol against attack, the ship being fitted with controls for the electric mines that had been laid to protect the base.[8]
After the end of the war, Duque de Tetuán was once again decommissioned, and the ship was sold for scrap in 1900.[2]
References
- Notes
- ^ Reales Astilleros de EsteiroTemplate:Es icon
- ^ a b c d e "Batería flotante Duque de Tetuán". La Marina Blindada en el Siglo XIX Template:Es icon Accessed 2010-05-13.
- ^ Lillo, Luis, González and Rodríguez González 2001, p. 80.
- ^ Greene and Massignani 1998, p. 281.
- ^ Forbes p. 706.
- ^ Keltie 1887, p.468.
- ^ Proceedings XXIII, p. 769
- ^ Rodríguez González 1998, p. 194.
- Bibliography
- Forbes, Archibald, G.A. Henry and Major Arthur Griffiths, et al. Battles of the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I. London: Cassell and Company, 1896. Reprinted by Kessenger Publishing (Whitefish, MT), 2007. ISBN 1-4325-3125-5.
- Greene, Jack and Alessandro Massignani. Ironclads at War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-9382-8958-6.
- Keltie, J. Scott, ed. The Statesman's Year-Book: Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the Civilised World for the year 1887. London: MacMillan & Co, 1887.
- Lillo, Coello (2001). Agustín Buques de la Armada Española: A través de la fotografía (1849-1900) (in Spanish). Madrid: Agualarga. p. 80. ISBN 9788495088376.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, Volume XXIII. Baltimore: The Lord Baltimore Press, 1897.
- Rodríguez González, Agustín Ramón (1998). Operaciones de la Guerra de 1898: una revisión crítica (in Spanish). Madrid: S.L. Actas. p. 194. ISBN 9788487863721.
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