''Destructor'' was a 19th-century Spanish

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is used for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the navy branch of the armed forces of a nation, though they have also been operated by individuals, cooperatives and corporations. As well as b ...

. She was a fast ocean-going

torpedo gunboat In the late 19th century, torpedo gunboats were a form of gunboat armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. By the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were superseded by their more successful contemporaries, ...

and was one of the most important precursors of the

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

type of naval vessels. ''Destructor'' was the first warship formally classified as a "destroyer" at the time of her commissioning.Smith, Charles Edgar: ''A short history of naval and marine engineering.'' Babcock & Wilcox, ltd. at the University Press, 1937, page 263 Her designer was a

Spanish Navy The Spanish Navy, officially the Armada, is the Navy, 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 ...

officer,

Fernando Villaamil Fernando Villaamil Fernández-Cueto (November 23, 1845 – July 3, 1898) was a Spanish Navy officer best known being the inventor of the destroyer and for his death in action during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War. ...

, commissioned by the Minister of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Manuel Pezuela.

Genesis

During the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s the rapidly improving, fast and cheap

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

s were presenting an escalating threat to major

s. Escort vessels were already in use to provide protection for

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

s but it was decided that what was needed was a new type of enlarged and fast torpedo boat, capable of escorting larger ships on long voyages and also able to attack enemy battleships with torpedoes as part of a fleet action. The Spanish Navy asked several British shipyards to submit proposals capable of fulfilling these specifications. In 1885 it chose the design submitted by the shipyard of James and George Thomson of

Clydebank Clydebank () is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Milton beyond) to the w ...

, near the

Yarrow ''Achillea millefolium'', commonly known as yarrow () or common yarrow, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Growing to tall, it is characterized by small whitish flowers, a tall stem of fernlike leaves, and a pungent odor. The plan ...

shipyards. The vessel was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

at the end of the year, launched in 1886, and commissioned in early 1887.

Characteristics

''Destructor'' displaced , and was equipped with

triple-expansion engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) Cylinder (engine), cylinder, then ha ...

s generating , for a maximum speed of ,''Contratorpedero Destructor''
which made her one of the faster ships in the world by 1888. She was armed with one 90mm (3.5 in) Spanish-designed Hontoria

breech-loading A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader, in which the user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ...

gun,Fitzsimmons, Bernard: ''The Illustrated encyclopedia of 20th century weapons and warfare.'' Columbia House, 1978, v. 8, page 835 four (6 pdr) Nordenfeldt guns, two

Hotchkiss revolving cannon The Hotchkiss gun can refer to different types of the Hotchkiss arms company starting in the late 19th century. It usually refers to the 1.65-inch (42 mm) light mountain gun. There were also navy (47 mm) and 3-inch (76 mm) ...

s and two

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s. The ship carried three Schwartzkopff torpedoes per tube. She was manned by a crew of 60. On her maiden voyage, ''Destructor'' established a record after steaming from Falmouth to Ferrol in 24 hours. In terms of gunnery, speed and dimensions, the specialised design to chase torpedo boats and her high seas capabilities, ''Destructor'' is widely considered the first torpedo-boat destroyer ever built, and was described as such by British naval engineer Sir William Henry White. ''Destructor'' is thought to have influenced the design and concept of later destroyers developed by the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. Further developments followed the pattern of the , built in 1893. The aim of the new destroyer design was not only to neutralize the torpedo boat as an effective weapon, but also to replace it as a faster and more reliable torpedo-carrying warship.Dolby, James: ''The Steel Navy: A History in Silhouette, 1860–1963.'' Macdonald, 1965, page 71. OCLC 2336286

Notes

References

* Chesneau, R & Kolesnik, E (Eds). ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905'', Conway Maritime Press, 1979. * Lyon, David. ''The First Destroyers'', Chatham Shipshape Series, London, 1997.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Destructor (1886) Destroyers of the Spanish Navy Ships built on the River Clyde Science and technology in Spain 1886 ships