San Martín (ship)
today 
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 Historical representation of a Spanish galleon |
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| Ship data | ||
| Surname: | San Martín | |
| Completion: | 1578 | |
| Crew: | 161 sailors and 491 soldiers | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Type: | galleon | |
| Length over all: | approx. 37 m | |
| Width: | approx. 9.30 m | |
| Draft: | approx. 3.10 m | |
| Displacement: | approx. 1000 t | |
| Drive: | sail | |
| Armament | ||
| 18 pound colubrines on the lower battery deck : | 18th | |
| half 9 pound colubrines on the lower battery deck : | 22nd | |
| further armament:: | 8 smaller swivel guns and 4 hunting rifles | |
The San Martín was an early modern Spanish sailing warship with which Alonso Pérez de Guzmán , the Duke of Medina-Sidonia, led the Spanish Armada against the English fleet of Queen Elizabeth I of England as its flagship in 1588 .
construction
The San Martín was a Spanish three-masted galleon , which originally came from Portugal. She was designed by the Portuguese crown as a Portuguese merchant and warship. Her real name was São Martinho. This ship was later confiscated by the Spanish. Foremast and mainmast were each occupied with two square sails, the mizzenmast had latin sails . The bowsprit sail could also be set on the bowsprit. The armament carried along was installed on the battery decks and the stern fort , and two more guns near the waterline in the transom . Galleons had a pronounced stern and a much smaller bow fort .
history
Admiral Alonso Pérez de Guzmán , Duke of Medina-Sidonia, set sail on the San Martin on March 22, 1588 on behalf of King Philip II (Spain) in order with his fleet, the Spanish Armada , consisting of 130 ships, which were manned by 8,000 seamen and 19,000 soldiers to sail towards England . The ships were armed with over 2,600 cannons . The beheading of the Scottish Queen Maria Stuart gave King Philip II the justification for an invasion of England - for this he sent the Spanish Armada. The departure of the fleet dragged on until May 30, 1588. The Armada was to take a Spanish invading army under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, on board in the Netherlands and cross it to England.
The first skirmishes finally took place in the English Channel , but the results were not decisive for the battle. When the Armada anchored in the port of Calais , the English fleet attacked with incendiary ships and was thus able to prevent an orderly battle formation of the Spaniards. These had to flee the port and fought in the subsequent naval battle of Gravelines without any order of battle. The English fleet ultimately benefited from their more modern armed, more agile and faster ships under the leadership of Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake and was able to put the Armada, including the flagship San Martin, to flight. The Armada ran into a storm that caused additional losses. A total of around 12,000 Spaniards and 6,000–8,000 English died, with the number of British victims being largely due to illness. Admiral Alonso Pérez de Guzmán managed to return to Santander on the San Martín . But this was also due to the special structure of this ship. Even after several hours of continuous bombardment of British galleons, the English could not sink this ship. It is an incorruptible proof of Portuguese shipbuilding. At that time, all ships from Portugal had a hull that was built in a so-called super structure. These ships were therefore hardly vulnerable (unsinkable) in sea battles. But the Achilles tendon were heavy sea storms. Even they could not withstand these tremendous forces permanently.
literature
- Attilio Cucari: Sailing Ships - The Queens of the Seas, History and Typology , Munich: Bassermann Verlag, 2008, Italian original edition: Velieri , Mondadori Electra SpA 2004, Milano