Vizcaya (ship, 1891)
 Armored cruiser Vizcaya (around 1898) |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Armored cruiser |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | October 7, 1889 |
| Launch | July 8, 1891 |
| Namesake | Spanish province of Bizkaia |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | August 2, 1894 |
| Whereabouts | on July 3, 1898 aground after a battle and abandoned (76 dead) |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
6,890 ts |
| length | |
| width |
19.86 m |
| Draft |
6.6 m (maximum) |
| crew |
498 men (1898) |
| drive |
|
| speed |
20.82 kn (38.5 km / h) |
| Range |
9,700 nautical miles at 10 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
The Vizcaya was an armored cruiser of the Spanish Navy . The ship was named after the Spanish province of Bizkaia (Spanish: Vizcaya ) on the northern Spanish Atlantic coast. The cruiser, approved on October 13, 1887, belonged to the three-unit Infanta Maria Teresa class and was launched on October 7, 1889 at the shipyard of the Sociedad Astilleros del Nervión (Nervión Shipbuilding Company) in Sestao (a suburb of Bilbao , Spain ) laid on the keel. The ship was built in cooperation with the British shipyard Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company , which also drafted the planning drawings, so the ships of the Infanta Maria Teresa class were structurally based on the British armored cruisers of the Edgar class and the Orlando- class (two of which had been built at Palmers). The Vizcaya was launched on July 8, 1891 and was not put into service until August 2, 1894 due to delays in the installation of the armament.
Armament and technology
The main armament of the Vizcaya consisted of two heavy 28 cm L / 35 guns Model 1883 of the Hontoria type . It was a former 27.4 cm Canet gun of the French armaments company Schneider et Cie. Manufactured under license and equipped with a slightly larger caliber . Both cannons were housed in individual towers, with one tower each in front and aft of the superstructure. These guns fired a 266 kilogram tank shell over a maximum distance of almost 10,500 m. Although housed in barbeds , which were heavily protected with 267 mm thick armor plates , both towers were inadequately protected against projectiles falling from above, in front or at an angle with a max. 76 mm thick armored hood. Although the rate of fire of these guns is given as around one shot per minute, this interval should not have been reached under real combat conditions and also because of the few practice shooting by the Spanish Navy at that time.
The middle artillery consisted of a total of ten 14 cm Hontoria guns L / 50. Five of these rapid fire guns stood in individual mountings on both sides of the superstructure and were only protected by a 15 mm thick splinter shield. The lighter armament also included eight 5.7 cm Hotchkiss cannons and eight five-barreled 3.7 cm Hotchkiss revolver cannons as well as two eight-barreled Nordenfelt mitrailleuses (caliber 2.54 cm). The torpedo armament of the Vizcaya comprised eight lighter torpedo tubes in caliber 35.6 cm (the torpedoes had a range of about 800 m), with two tubes below and six above the waterline.
The armor of the Vizcaya was very strong in places. The ship was protected by belt armor up to 305 mm thick . With this, the cruiser was better protected than almost all other armored cruisers of the time. However, the vertical expansion of this armor was again very small. The armored belt, for example, which stretched about 65 percent of the ship's length, usually only reached half a meter above the waterline . Since the cruiser was deeper in the water due to the numerous additional decorations as well as the extensive amount of coal (during the march across the Atlantic) and the vegetation on the hull, this protective effect was reduced to just a little more than 30 cm. The upper half of the fuselage and the superstructure, with the exception of the navigating bridge, were only weakly armored or not armored at all. During the battle of Santiago de Cuba it later became apparent that even heavy shells from US ships, if they hit the armored belt, usually did not penetrate it. On the other hand, the American grenades wreaked havoc on the less protected parts of the hull and superstructure.
Which was driven Vizcaya from one of six Niclausse - water tube boilers and two vertically installed triple-expansion engines existing machinery, the total of 13,800 PSi made. The ship thus reached a top speed of 20.82 kn (approx. 38.5 km / h) during test drives. However, this speed was no longer achieved in later use. Above all, the poor quality of the coal, the insufficient maintenance of the engine and the heavy vegetation on the hull due to the long lay time in the Caribbean waters reduced the maximum speed of the ship during the sea battle near Santiago de Cuba to a maximum of 16 knots.
Working time
Until its relatively early loss in the sea battle off Santiago de Cuba , the Vizcaya undertook only a few voyages and maneuvers. The guns were only fired once a year for training purposes. From commissioning to loss, the ship was under the command of Capitán de Navío Don Antonio Eulate .
As a token of goodwill, the Vizcaya was sent to New York in February 1898 for a state visit. This also happened against the background of the dispatch of the American liner Maine to Havana . However, after this had sunk there under uncertain circumstances after an explosion on February 15 and after the Spanish-American relations had deteriorated drastically as a result, the Vizcaya left New York on February 25 and set course for Havana. From there the ship was ordered to São Vicente , Portugal , to join the newly established Spanish 1st Squadron under Admiral Pascual Cervera . There the ship, which did not arrive until April 19, should also be overhauled.
Spanish-American War
However, because of the outbreak of the Spanish-American War at the end of April 1898 and the associated request from neutral Portugal to leave the port of São Vicente within 24 hours of the declaration of war , this project could not be realized. Ammunition and coal could only be replenished insufficiently or not at all. As a result, many of the grenades that had been on the ship since its commissioning and that had gradually rotted away over the years, were not replaced. So it happened that during the Spanish-American War, an estimated 60 percent of all projectiles no longer worked properly, either because the propellant charges were incomplete or because the detonators were defective and the grenades did not explode on impact but broke on the enemy armor protection.
In the following years, the Vizcaya and the other ships of the squadron of Admiral Cervera (the armored cruisers Infanta Maria Teresa , Cristóbal Colón and Almirante Oquendo and two torpedo boats) looked for a place to replenish coal. At the same time, the ships were supposed to move again across the Atlantic and to San Juan in Puerto Rico in order to better protect the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean . After a coal takeover in Fort-de-France ( Martinique ) was refused because of the neutrality of France , about 600 tons of coal could be bunkered from the Vizcaya only in Dutch-controlled Willemstad .
After Admiral Cervera learned of the United States Navy blockade of San Juan in May , he changed his plan to call at this port and instead had his squadron march to Santiago de Cuba , not knowing that the US blockade fleet was off San Juan consisted of only two cruisers that would not have been up to his association. On May 19, the Vizcaya and the other ships finally reached the port of Santiago de Cuba. As a result of the long approach, the hull of the Vizcaya was now in very poor condition and heavily overgrown and should have urgently needed an overhaul. This condition worsened in the coming weeks while the ships lay idle in Santiago de Cuba and were blocked there by the Americans from the end of May 1898. The strong US blockade squadron, seven ships, including the armored cruisers Brooklyn and New York and the ships of the line Texas , Massachusetts , Iowa and Oregon , were under the command of Commodore Winfield Scott Schley (from May 31, Rear Admiral William Thomas Sampson took over the command) .
In the following five weeks, the ships in the port and the US association only exchanged volleys sporadically, but the damage was only very minor. However, when American and Cuban troops threatened Santiago de Cuba from the land side from June 22nd, Admiral Cervera realized that he had to attempt an escape with his ships in order not to get stuck in a trap. As a result, the Spanish ships broke out of the port on the morning of July 3rd, albeit only partially ready for action.
The naval battle of Santiago de Cuba
One by one, the Spanish ships left the port. At the head was the Spanish flagship Infanta Maria Teresa with Admiral Cervera on board; the Vizcaya followed in third position, just behind the armored cruiser Almirante Oquendo (although some publications also state that the Vizcaya was second). In the first phase of the battle, the Infanta Maria Teresa and the Almirante Oquendo were quickly and severely shot together and had to sit on the bank on fire (so that at least the crews could partially save themselves).
The Vizcaya temporarily took over the leadership of the association and dueled with the American armored cruiser Brooklyn . Both ships drove side by side and shot at each other from a distance of 800 to 1,100 m. According to other information, the ship of the line Texas also took part in this duel, but this seems a bit questionable, since this ship fell behind the US unit at the beginning of the battle because of a collision with the cruiser Brooklyn that was only just avoided .
In the course of the battle it became apparent that the Vizcaya's heavy 28 cm guns were of little use. While the main artillery of the Brooklyn scored several hits, the crews of the heavy cannons of the Spanish ship did not succeed, which was also due to the fact that on the one hand the rate of fire of the 28 cm cannons was very low and on the other hand exercises on these cannons were rarely carried out had. In contrast, the gunners of the 14 cm medium artillery of the Vizcaya scored at least four hits on the Brooklyn . They destroyed the front battle mast of the US ship and a 12.7 cm gun on its starboard side , leaving one dead and two wounded. However, due to defects in the gun breeches, not all 14 cm cannons were ready for use and the ammunition on board the Vizcaya was in poor condition. Numerous Spanish grenades turned out to be duds .
In return, however, the Vizcaya was exposed to heavy fire from the Brooklyn , with the ship suffering around 20 to 25 hits. Although these hits most likely did not destroy any vital parts of the Spanish ship (→ retrospective ), they caused severe damage to the superstructure. Among other things, the commander, Capitán de Navío Don Antonio Eulate, was injured in the head by splinters from a 5.7 cm grenade and had to temporarily give up the order. After almost two hours of fighting, two 8-inch shells from the Brooklyn hit the Vizcaya's forecastle at around 11 a.m. and detonated a loaded torpedo tube there . The resulting damage was so severe that the captain gave the order to lower the flag and land the ship on the beach. While the Vizcaya was turning to starboard and thus towards the shore, the American gunboat Vixen , an armed yacht , approached and fired at the Spanish cruiser with its 5.7 cm cannons. The Vizcaya briefly returned fire and narrowly missed the yacht with a volley. At 11.06 a.m., however , the Vizcaya struck the flag and ran aground about 18 nautical miles west of Santiago de Cuba on the shore, whereupon the Americans stopped shelling.
Soon dinghies from American ships, especially the Iowa liner , came alongside and took in survivors, including the wounded Don Antonio Eulate. While this was being brought aboard the Iowa , he turned once more to his burning and stranded ship. Around noon, the Vizcaya's forecastle exploded in a huge column of smoke and flame, just as Don Antonio Eulate had given his ship a final greeting.
Victims under the occupation
About 300 survivors from the Vizcaya were rescued by boats of the liner Iowa alone . Around 120 other seafarers rescued themselves on the shore or were picked up by other US ships. The crew of the Vizcaya had a total of 76 deaths (out of 498 men), 68 of whom were killed immediately during the battle by enemy action. Eight other sailors died from their wounds in the next few days. After the battle, the Americans sent a landing team to the coast to search for and protect stranded Spanish sailors and to prevent them from being lynched by Cuban insurgents.
Review
During the battle, the Vizcaya was hit by (at least) six 20.3 cm and ten 12.7 cm shells. In addition, the ship suffered around 13 to 15 hits from lighter 5.7 cm and 3.7 cm cannons. It is interesting here that the ship did not have to accept any hits from the heavy 30.5 cm and 33 cm guns of the American ships of the line, which would support the thesis that the ship did not enter the battle directly with them. It can also be observed that only two of the 8 "hits have been shown to cause serious damage. These, fired from the US armored cruiser Brooklyn , hit the forecastle of the Vizcaya around 11 a.m. and detonated a loaded 35.6 cm torpedo tube there. This violent subsequent explosion caused the crew to finally set the cruiser aground on the bank and to lower the flag. The Spanish commander also ordered this in order not to unnecessarily risk the lives of his crew (and in fact the US ships then also stopped firing and took in survivors).
In addition, the Spanish captain had realized that his ship would no longer be able to escape the enemy fleet due to the insufficient speed. It should be noted, however, that the Vizcaya could no longer have escaped because of hits in the machinery and a resulting loss of speed, but because of the generally poor condition of the hull and machinery and the poor quality of the coal. In this respect, the very thick armored belt had served its purpose of protecting the machinery. In the course of almost two hours of continuous fire and around 25 to 30 hits, no shell had penetrated the engine rooms.
Nevertheless, the bombardment by the US ships above the armored belt caused considerable damage. The superstructures, which were only weakly or not at all armored, were largely completely perforated. Another extremely negative effect for the Spaniards was that they had not removed the extensive wooden decorations on their ships, including the Vizcaya , before the war, as the Americans had done. This meant that the Spanish ships caught fire very quickly after only a few hits. These fires made many areas on the upper deck hardly accessible after two hours of fighting and could no longer be contained.
The severe explosion that shook the Vizcaya after it was stranded and that took place in the forecastle was probably caused by these fires. It can be assumed that the previous explosion of the torpedo tube destroyed parts of the protective devices of an ammunition chamber. While the ship ran aground and the crew disembarked, the flames reached the no longer protected rooms with the ammunition, which ultimately caused this second explosion with a time delay. A look at the stranded wreck also shows that the bow area on the port side (i.e. where the US grenades struck) is largely intact, whereas on the starboard side of the hull there are significant bulges and severe damage. This suggests that the blast wave made its way to that side. However, this devastation only reached as far as the front approach of the side armor. This shows that the foreship, which is poorly protected, was badly affected by this explosion, but that the main armor protection itself largely survived it and thus fulfilled its purpose here as well.
Whereabouts of the wreck
The burnt-out wreck of the Vizcaya was inspected by the Americans after the battle. However, since the damage was viewed as too severe, no rescue was carried out. The remains of the ship are still lying off the Cuban coast, about 18 nautical miles west of Santiago de Cuba (position 19 ° 58 ′ N , 76 ° 8 ′ W ). Although the partly crumbled hull is now about four meters below the surface of the water, the wreck can be clearly seen. One of the heavy 28 cm guns protrudes out of the water at a steep angle because the once supporting deck has collapsed as a result of corrosion and displaced the barette, and can be clearly seen from the bank.
literature
- Chesneau, Roger / Kolesnik, Eugene M. (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860 - 1905 . New York 1979.
- Miller, Nathan: The US Navy. A history . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1997.
- 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
- Pictures, history and technical details about the Vizcaya and the Infanta Maria Teresa class (Spanish).
- Pictures of the ship, the armament and the burned-out wreck .
- The Vizcaya and its use in the Spanish-American War (English).
- Photo showing the destroyed starboard side of the forecastle .
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/wiki/Palmers_Shipbuilding_and_Iron_Company_by_Malcolm_Dillon
- ↑ http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNSpain_11-35_m1883.htm
- ↑ a b http://www.spanamwar.com/vizcaya.htm
- ^ Trask, David F .: The war with Spain in 1898 . New York / London 1981, p. 66.
- ↑ Miller, Nathan: The US Navy. A history . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1997, p. 164.
- ^ Tucker, Spencer C. (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and the Philippine-American Wars. A political, social and military history . 3. Edition. Santa Barbara 2009, p. 475.
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/texas.htm
- ↑ Chesneau, Roger / Kolesnik, Eugene M. (Eds.): Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . New York 1979, p. 382.
- ↑ http://www.spanamwar.com/Vizcayadamview.htm