The Spanish ironclad ''Numancia'' was an

armored frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

bought from France during the 1860s for service with the Royal

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, ...

(). The name was derived from the

Siege of Numantia The Celtiberian oppidum of Numantia was attacked more than once by Roman forces, but the Siege of Numantia refers to the culminating and pacifying action of the long-running Numantine War between the forces of the Roman Republic and those of th ...

, in which Roman expansion in the Iberian Peninsula was resisted. She was the first ironclad to

circumnavigate Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...

the Earth. She saw service in the

Chincha Islands War The Chincha Islands War, also known as Spanish–South American War ( es, Guerra hispano-sudamericana), was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia from 1865 to 1879. The ...

and

Cantonal Revolution The Cantonal rebellion was a cantonalism, cantonalist insurrection that took place during the First Spanish Republic between July 1873 and January 1874. Its protagonists were the "intransigent" federal Republicans, who wanted to establish immed ...

Design and description

''Numancia'' was long at the waterline, had a beam of and a

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

of .de Saint Humber, p. 23 She displaced and was fitted with a ram bow.Silverstone, p. 388 Her crew consisted of 561 officers and enlisted men. The ship was fitted with a pair of horizontal-return connecting-rod steam engines from her builder that drove one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

using steam provided by eight cylindrical boilers.de Saint Hubert, pp. 22–23 The engines were rated at a total of 1,000

nominal horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

or and gave ''Numancia'' a speed of 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 . The frigate's main battery initially consisted of forty

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without sign ...

guns mounted on the broadside, but her armament was changed around 1867 to with six and three 200 mm

Armstrong-Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and ...

guns, and eight

Trubia Trubia is a parish of the municipality of Oviedo, Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is a ...

guns, all of which were rifled muzzle-loading (RML) weapons. The 229 mm and 160 mm guns were situated on the gun deck while the 200 mm guns were positioned on the main deck. In 1883 ''Numancia'' was rearmed with eight

RML guns and seven 200 mm RMLs. When the ship was refitted in France in 1896–1898, her armament was changed to six Hontoria 160 mm and eight Canet (real caliber 138.6 mm) rifled breech-loading guns and a pair of torpedo tubes. According to other sources, main artillery was 6.5 inch guns (French caliber 164.7 mm) ''Numancia'' had a complete wrought iron waterline belt of armor plates. Above the belt, the guns were protected by a strake of armor that extended the length of the ship. The deck was unarmored.

Construction and career

In 1866 the ship was a core of Spanish escadre sent to Eastern Pacific participating in the

, and shelling

Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...

and

Callao Callao () is a Peruvian seaside city and region on the Pacific Ocean in the Lima metropolitan area. Callao is Peru's chief seaport and home to its main airport, Jorge Chávez International Airport. Callao municipality consists of the whole Cal ...

. On the way back she became the first ironclad to

the Earth. On 19 October 1873, during the

, ''Numancia'' collided with and sank the gunboat '' Fernando el Católico''. In November 1902 she was ordered to Ceuta to protect Spanish citizens in Morocco during unrest in that country. On August 5, 1911 a mutiny occurred while in Tangiers. The mutineers were overpowered and put in irons after which the ship steamed for Cadiz. Once there 26 mutineers were tried by court martial and condemned to death. At 9 am on 8 August 1911 they were given communion and immediately executed. While being towed to be scrapped in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

she ran aground near

Sesimbra Sesimbra () is a municipality of Portugal, in the Setúbal District, lying at the foothills of the ''Serra da Arrábida'', a mountain range between Setúbal and Sesimbra. Due to its particular position at the Setúbal Bay, near the mouth of the Sa ...

, Portugal, during a gale on 17 December 1916 en route from Cadiz.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Numancia 1863 ships Ironclad warships of the Spanish Navy Ships built in France Maritime incidents in 1873 Chincha Islands War