The ''Pizzaro'' class was a class of eight escort vessels built for the

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy or officially, the Armada, is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces and one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Spanish Navy was responsible for a number of major historic achievements in navigation, ...

in the 1940s. Built at Ferrol, they were completed in 1946–1950 rated as

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-ste ...

s, and were redesignated as frigates in 1959. They started to be withdrawn from use in 1968, with the last of the class, ''Vincente Yañez Pinzon'', stricken in 1982.

Design

The ''Pizarro'' class were based on the s, two of which were built for the Spanish Navy, launched in 1939–40 and completed in 1942–43. While the ''Eolo'' class were designed to combine the role of minelaying and escort, the ''Pizarro''s were more specialist escort vessels, with a heavy gun armament. The ships were

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a beam of and a draught of .

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and Physics * Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was standard and full load. Two

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler design is characteristic ...

s fed steam to two sets of Parsons geared steam turbines. The machinery was rated at , giving a speed of . A maximum of 402 tons of oil fuel could be carried, giving a range of at . The ships' main gun armament consisted of six guns in three twin mounts, with one forward and two aft. Eight and six guns comprised the close-in anti-aircraft armament. Some of the class (including ''Pizarro'', ''Vasco Núñez de Balboa'' and ''Vicente Yáñez Pinzón'') were originally armed with two anti-aircraft guns instead of the 120 mm guns before being rearmed with the intended armament. Anti-submarine armament consisted of four depth charge throwers, and up to 30

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...

s could be carried. The ships had a crew of 250. ''Legazpi'' and ''Vicente Yáñez Pinzón'' were modernised in 1960 as part of a major programme of modernising ships of the Spanish Navy. The two ships were completely re-armed, with a gun armament of two American 38

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

dual purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships an ...

s in two single mounts, with a close-in anti-aircraft armament of four Bofors L/70 guns. Anti-submarine armament consisted of two racks for anti-submarine

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es (eight torpedoes were carried), two

Hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introductio ...

anti-submarine mortar batteries, eight depth-charge throwers and two depth-charge racks.

Service

The eight ships were all launched at the

Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval From 1909 until the Spanish Civil War, naval construction in Spain was monopolized by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval – (SECN) also Spanish Society for Naval Construction (SECN). During this time the majority of its shares were owne ...

(SECN) shipyard at Ferrol dockyard in August 1944. Financial problems in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

delayed construction of the ships, which were completed from 1947 to 1951. They were initially rated as ''Cañoneros'' (gunboats) and were re-rated as ''Fragatas'' (frigates) in 1958. Two ships were discarded in 1968, with most of the rest of the class stricken in the next few years. By 1978, only ''Vicente Yáñez Pinzón'' remained in service. She remained in service until 1982.

Ships

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * *{{cite book, editor-last=Moore, editor-first=John , title=Jane's Fighting Ships 1979–80, year=1979, publisher=Jane's Yearbooks, location=London, isbn=0-354-00587-1 Gunboats of the Spanish Navy