Cristóbal Colón (ship, 1896)
 Armored cruiser Cristóbal Colón (around 1897) |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | September 25, 1895 |
| Launch | September 16, 1896 |
| Namesake | Christoph Columbus |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | May 16, 1897 |
| Whereabouts | on July 3, 1898 aground and abandoned after battle (21 dead) |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
Construction: 6,840 ts |
| length | |
| width |
18.25 m |
| Draft |
7.85 m (maximum) |
| crew |
543 man (1898) |
| drive |
|
| speed |
20.25 kn (37.5 km / h) |
| Range |
8,300 nautical miles at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
The Cristóbal Colón was an armored cruiser of the Spanish Navy . The construction of the ship named after the navigator and discoverer Christopher Columbus had already been approved in July 1889 in Italy under the name Giuseppe Garibaldi II ; The keel was laid on the Ansaldo - Werft (Cantieri Navali di Ansaldo Sestri Ponente) in Sestri Ponente (a district of Genoa , Italy) but was delayed due to problems in funding and was ultimately take place until September 25, 1895th The Spanish Navy bought the ship during construction. The armored cruiser belonged to the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi class consisting of a total of ten units . After being launched on September 16, 1896, the ship was commissioned and handed over to the Spanish Navy on May 16, 1897. The commandant of the Cristóbal Colón was Capitán de Navío Don Emilio Díaz Moreu .
Technical data and special features
The Cristóbal Colón was 108.91 m long and 18.25 m wide. The average draft was about 7.20 m; with full equipment and maximum coal load, however, it could grow up to 7.85 m. Although the cruiser is assigned to the Giuseppe Garibaldi class according to the construction scheme , it was slightly smaller than its sister ships : the Cristóbal Colón was almost three meters shorter and had a standard displacement of around 800 ts lower . This resulted in a slightly higher speed with largely the same machine performance. Another deviation from the equipment and construction scheme of the class was found in the main artillery. Typically, the Giuseppe Garibaldi -class cruisers carried a heavy 25.4 cm gun in a single turret forward and two 20.3 cm guns in a twin turret aft. The Cristóbal Colón , however, should have been equipped with two 25.4 cm guns from the start (a single turret in the front and one aft ).
Machine system
The Cristobal Colon was 24 coal fired Niclausse - water tube boilers and two vertically installed triple-expansion machine via two shafts , each with a screw driven. The engine output was 13,655 PSi , which enabled a top speed of 20.25 kn (approx. 37.5 km / h). The shipyard thus easily exceeded the required maximum speed of 19.5 kn. However, this value obtained in test drives in May 1897 did not correspond to the performance achieved later in use; Above all, the poor maintenance of the hull and engine meant that hardly more than 18 knots were reached during the Spanish-American War and the sea battle off Santiago de Cuba . Normally there was a coal supply of around 650 tons on board. A maximum of up to 1,200 tons could be bunkered. With a full load of coal and a cruising speed of 10 knots, the cruiser had a range of around 8,300 nautical miles . One advantage of the ship during the sea battle at Santiago de Cuba was that it still had a remaining stock of around 30 tons of very high quality coal from Cardiff in the bunkers. This allowed the cruiser to initially pull out a head start and separate itself from the US ships. Only after this coal supply had been used up and inferior Cuban and Caribbean coals were fired instead , did the speed of the ship drop to only about 15 knots, which ultimately sealed its fate.
Armament
The armament also came almost entirely from abroad. The main supplier was the Elswick Ordnance Company (EOC) in Elswick , a district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England . The main armament was originally intended to consist of two 25.4 cm L / 40 model 1898 guns in a single turret in front of and aft of the main superstructure. When the EOC operated under the new name Sir WG Armstrong-Whitworth & Company from 1897 , this led the Spanish Admiralty to fears that the renamed group might be supplying outdated guns or remnants. Therefore, the Spanish fleet command insisted on the latest model of the 25.4 cm gun (model 1898) available at the time. However, this delayed the completion of the ship as these guns had just entered the production line. The result was that the Cristóbal Colón did not have any heavy artillery when it was commissioned in May 1897 and only had wooden dummy tubes in the two main artillery towers in order to at least preserve the silhouette of the cruiser. The installation of the new gun barrels, the delivery of which was scheduled for April 1898, could no longer be realized due to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War at the end of April 1898 and the dispatch of the ship to the Caribbean . The armored cruiser was only involved in the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba with a main artillery made of wooden mock-ups. The cannons could have fired an armor-piercing shell weighing 227 kilograms over a considerable distance of about 18,000 m at the time. At that time, however, there were no ways of aiming guns at such a distance; usually the fought was at a maximum distance of about 6 to 7 km.
The middle artillery , however, was comparatively strong and consisted of ten 15.2 cm L / 40 guns Model 1892, supplied by the Elswick Ordnance Company, and six 12 cm L / 40 guns Model 1891 of the Hontoria model . While the 15.2 cm cannons were housed in five individual casemates on both sides of the ship on the battery deck, the individually positioned 12 cm cannons, protected by armor shields, were on the slightly less armored upper deck above the casemates, with three each Guns could fire to starboard and port . The range of the 15.2 cm guns was almost 9,200 m, with the shell weight 45.3 kilograms . The 12 cm cannons fired a 20.4 kilogram grenade over a maximum distance of 9,050 m.
The light armament of the Cristóbal Colón consisted of ten individually positioned 5.7 cm Hotchkiss cannons and ten 3.7 cm revolver cannons as well as two 2.54 cm Nordenfelt mitrailleuses on Mars on the battle mast. The torpedo armament consisted of five 18-inch Whitehead torpedo tubes .
Working time
While the question of the main armament was still unsolved, the Spanish-American antagonism sharpened drastically after the so-called Maine incident in Havana from February 1898. The Cristóbal Colón was then relocated , together with the armored cruiser Infanta Maria Teresa , to São Vicente , Portugal , at the beginning of April , where both ships arrived on April 15, 1898. In the course of the following days, the armored cruisers Vizcaya and Almirante Oquendo as well as two torpedo boats reached the base. Together the ships formed the newly established 1st Squadron under the command of Admiral Pascual Cervera .
The Cristóbal Colón was the most modern of all Spanish ships, but its combat effectiveness suffered from the lack of heavy artillery and the poor quality of much of its coal. Although the machinery was still in better condition than the engines on the older ships, the Cristóbal Colón could not take advantage of this because of the poor quality of coal.
After the outbreak of the Spanish-American War at the end of April 1898, neutral Portugal demanded that Spanish ships leave the port of São Vicente within 24 hours of the declaration of war . Admiral Cerveras therefore relocated his squadron in May via Fort-de-France ( Martinique ), where a coal takeover was denied due to the neutrality of France , to Willemstad in the Netherlands on Curaçao . A small amount of coal could be added there. After learning of the United States Navy blockade of San Juan in May, Admiral Cervera changed his plan to call at this port and instead led his squadron to Santiago de Cuba , not knowing that the US fleet was only off San Juan consisted of two cruisers that would not have been up to his association.
On May 19, 1898, the Spanish ships reached Santiago de Cuba. At the end of May, a strong American blockade squadron , consisting of seven ships, including the armored cruisers USS Brooklyn and USS New York and the liners USS Texas , USS Massachusetts , USS Iowa and USS Oregon , took up position in front of Santiago de Cuba and locked the Spanish one in port. In the weeks that followed, there were only occasional small artillery duels, which were conducted at great distances and which did not cause any significant damage. However, when American and Cuban troops threatened Santiago de Cuba from the land side from the end of June 1898, Admiral Cervera realized that he would inevitably have to attempt an escape with his ships in order not to get stuck in a trap. On July 3, at 9:00 a.m., the Spanish ships broke out of the port, although they were only partially ready for action.
The naval battle of Santiago de Cuba
The Cristóbal Colón was fourth and last. While the two Spanish top ships , including the flagship Infanta Maria Teresa , were badly hit in the first hour of the battle and had to sit on the ground on fire, the Cristóbal Colón and the Vizcaya were able to temporarily break away from the enemy. After a bitter battle with the American armored cruiser Brooklyn , the Vizcaya finally had to set itself aground at 11:06 a.m. and brushed the flag .
The only remaining ship of the Spanish squadron was the Cristóbal Colón , pursued by the armored cruisers Brooklyn and New York and the liner Oregon , heading west at around 18 knots, with a small supply of high-quality coal from Cardiff making this relatively high speed possible. When this small supply, about 30 tons, was used up around 12.30 p.m. and lower quality coals were fired instead, the speed dropped drastically to only about 14 to 15 knots. This enabled the US ships in pursuit to catch up with the Cristóbal Colón and take them under fire. The ship received at least six hits from the two US armored cruisers until about 1 p.m. one 20.3 cm hit on the port side at the level of the rearmost 12 cm gun, as well as three 12.7 cm shells and two lighter projectiles.
The resulting damage was rather minor and did not affect the seaworthiness of the ship. However, when the Oregon ship of the line, which had meanwhile arrived, took the armored cruiser with its 33 cm guns under fire from 1 p.m. and two grenades struck close to the ship, captain Díaz Moreu realized that an escape was no longer possible. In order not to sacrifice his crew in a senseless fight, he ordered the Cristóbal Colón to be set up on the bank and the flag to be painted.
At 1:54 p.m. the ship ran about 48 nautical miles west of Santiago de Cuba, in front of the mouth of the Río Turqino , on an underwater rock . The US ships in pursuit then stopped their fire and began to launch boats to rescue castaways.
Victims under the occupation
In the hours that followed, the New York , Brooklyn and Oregon could accommodate almost the entire crew of the Cristóbal Colón . A total of 21 of 543 crew members were killed, two of them when leaving the ship and 19 by direct enemy action. Another 23 seamen were injured. In order to prevent Spanish sailors who came to the beach from being lynched by Cuban rebels , the Americans also sent a landing team to the coast.
Recovery attempts and whereabouts of the wreck
After the rescue operations were completed, an American rescue team went on board the cruiser in the evening hours of July 3 and examined whether it was possible to hide the ship, which was considered to be modern. Without the damage along and below the waterline having been adequately investigated or sealed, the American steamer USS Vulcan , which had arrived and was used as a salvage ship , finally pulled the Cristóbal Colón down from the reef at dusk, whereupon the cruiser quickly capsized to starboard . The ship sank almost completely; only the guns of the middle artillery on the port side and one of the two screws still protruded from the water. For a while the Americans tried to raise the ship after all. However, since another attempt turned out to be too risky and too costly, it was ultimately abandoned.
The wreck of the Cristóbal Colón still lies on its starboard side off the Cuban coast. Until about the mid-1980s , parts of the wreck could still be seen over the water at low tide . In the meantime, however, the ship has collapsed severely as a result of corrosion . Metal thieves have also stolen many parts from the surrounding villages over the decades. The stern pointing towards the coast is about 13 m deep, the bow facing the open sea is about 32 m deep. Dives to the Cristóbal Colón are possible, and because of the partially collapsed decks, it is possible to penetrate the interior of the ship. However, in view of the continuing deterioration and instability of the wreck, this should be done with great caution.
literature
- Chesneau, Roger / Kolesnik, Eugene M. (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860 - 1905 . New York 1979.
- Trask, David F .: The war with Spain in 1898 . New York / London 1981.
- Tucker, Spencer C. (Eds.): The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and the Philippine-American Wars. A political, social and military history . 3. Edition. Santa Barbara 2009.
Web links
- General information and pictures of the Cristóbal Colón . (Spanish)
- On the course of the sea battle near Santiago de Cuba. (Spanish)
- The Cristobal Colon on wrecksite.eu
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNJAP_10-40_EOC.htm
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/colonhits.htm
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/colonawash.htm
- ↑ Ibid.
Coordinates: 19 ° 56 ′ 0 ″ N , 76 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ W.