Spanish Ironclad Vitoria

The Spanish ironclad ''Vitoria'' was an iron-hulled armored frigate purchased from England during the 1860s. The ship participated on both sides during the Cantonal rebellion of 1873–1874, first on the rebel side and then after her crew surrendered to neutral warships, on the government side. She played a major role in the Battle off Cartagena for the government. ''Vitoria'' bombarded rebel towns from 1874 to 1876 during the Third Carlist War. The ship was reconstructed in the late 1890s and reclassified as a coast-defense ship, although she served as a training ship until she was scrapped in 1912.

Design and description

''Vitoria'' was long at the waterline, had a beam of and a draft of .de Saint Hubert, p. 23 She displaced .Silverstone, p. 388 Her crew consisted of 561 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was fitted with a John Penn and Sons trunk steam engine that drove the single propeller shaft using steam provided by eight boilers. The engines were rated at a total of 1,000 nominal horsepower or , and gave ''Vitoria'' a speed of de Saint Hubert, pp. 22–23 The ironclad carried a maximum of of coalLyon, p. 380 that gave her a range of at . She was fitted with a three-masted ship rig with a sail area of around .

The frigate's main battery was originally intended to consist of thirty 68-pounder gun smoothbore guns mounted on the broadside, but she was fitted with four Armstrong and three Armstrong rifled muzzle-loading guns, and fourteen Trubia smoothbore guns. The nine-inch and 160-millimeter guns were situated on the gun deck while the eight-inch guns were positioned on the main deck, one on each broadside, and another in the forecastle as the forward chase gun. By 1883, the Trubia guns had been replaced by four more nine-inch guns. When ''Vitoria'' was refitted in France in 1896–1898, her armament was changed to six Hontoria 160 mm and eight Canet rifled breech-loading guns and a pair of torpedo tubes.

''Vitoria'' had a complete wrought iron waterline belt of 140 mm armor plates. Above the belt, the guns, except for the chase gun, were protected by of armor. The ends of the ship and the deck were unarmored.

Construction and career

Named after the 1813 victory at the Battle of Vitoria during the Napoleonic Wars,Silverstone, p. 395 ''Vitoria'' was ordered from the Thames Iron Works in December 1862 and was laid down at their shipyard in Blackwall, London, the following month. The ship was launched on 4 November 1865, completed in May 1867 and commissioned in February 1868.

''Vitoria'' participated in the Cantonal rebellion, initially on the side of the rebels. Shortly after the Cantonists seized Cartagena and all the Spanish Navy's ships there, ''Vitoria'' and the armed steamer ''Vigilante'' sailed to Alicante and persuaded the city government to join the rebels. That lasted only until their departure later that same day. The uprising prompted an intervention by Britain and Germany, both of which contributed to an international squadron. ''Vitoria'' and the frigate attempted to extort the port of Almería; the German commander, Reinhold von Werner, learned of the incident and sent his flagship, the armored frigate and the British ironclad to intervene. The two ironclads attacked ''Vitoria'' and ''Almansa'', overwhelming them in a brief engagement and forcing their surrender. Werner then turned over the two Spanish ships to Vice Admiral Hastings Yelverton, who in turn sent them to the British port at Gibraltar. Both vessels were then returned to the Spanish government, which put them back into service. ''Vitoria'' became the flagship of the Spanish commander, Admiral Lobo.

''Vitoria'' took part in the Battle off Cartagena against rebel vessels on 11 October. She was at that time enforcing a blockade of Cartagena, and several rebel vessels sortied in an attempt to break the blockade. ''Vitoria'' engaged the rebel flagship, the ironclad , at close range before the latter turned and fled to port. ''Vitoria'' then turned her attention to the casemate ship , which also turned to flee. ''Vitoria''s pursuit was blocked by the arrival of the French ironclad . ''Vitoria'' then engaged the third rebel ironclad, , exchanging broadsides at close range, though neither vessel was seriously damaged in the encounter. The rebel attempt to break through the blockade ended in failure. Two days later, they again put to sea, but Lobo declined to engage and instead took ''Vitoria'' off to the east.

On 1 January 1874, ''Vitoria'' fired at the British steamship ''Ellen Constance'' as she was leaving Cartagena. Although ''Ellen Constance'' hove to, she was rammed and sunk by ''Vitoria'' with the loss of three of her crew. The collision was blamed on poor seamanship by the Spanish sailors and not thought to be a deliberate act.

As Cartagena was in the process of surrendering, ''Numanica'' evaded the blockading force on the night of 12 January and sought refuge in the port of Oran, in French North Africa the following day. Pursued by ''Vitoria'' and a wooden steamer, the French turned over control of the rebel ship to Rear Admiral Nicolas Chicarro, commander of the government ships, on 18 January. ''Vitoria'' and the monitor bombarded various rebel-controlled towns during the later stages of the Third Carlist War of 1872–1876.Greene & Massignani, p. 281

During ''Vitoria''s reconstruction as a central-battery ironclad by Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée at its La Seyne-sur-Mer shipyard in 1896–1898, her sailing rig was replaced by a pair of pole masts. She was reclassified as a coast-defense ship in 1899 and served as a training ship until she was broken up in 1912.

Footnotes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitoria
1865 ships
Ironclad warships of the Spanish Navy
Ships built in Leamouth
Cantonalism in Spain