''Alfonso XII'', was an unprotected

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...

of the

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 ...

Technical description

''Alfonso XII'' was built by the naval shipyard at Ferrol; she and her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

were the first two steel-hulled cruisers built there. She 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 ...

in August 1881, but shortages of materials delayed her construction and she was not launched until 21 September 1887. She had two funnels. Her main armament was built by Gonzalez Hontoria and sponson-mounted. Her five

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 all were fixed; two were forward, one was on each beam, and one was aft. Although unprotected and therefore lacking armor, she had 12 watertight compartments built in a French-style cellular system to help her resist flooding. She was designed for colonial service, with an emphasis on speed and moderate armament, but in practice machinery problems made her a much slower steamer than her designers had hoped.

Operational history

''Alfonso XII'' commissioned in 1891. By 1897 she was anchored in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, serving as

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for Admiral Vincente Manterola, but she was unable to put to sea because her boilers required a major refit, and some of her guns had been put ashore to aid in the harbor's shore-based defenses. Also participated in the operations of the

First Melillan campaign The First Melillan Campaign, also called the Melilla War or the Margallo War (after Juan García y Margallo, the Spanish governor of Melilla whose defeat and death infuriated the Spanish public) in Spain, was a conflict between Spain and th ...

between

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

and

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

. Amid growing tensions between the

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and

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, the U.S.

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 ...

arrived in Havana harbor unexpectedly on 25 January

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

. Her commanding officer, Captain Charles Sigsbee, fearing Spanish

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, requested that ''Maine'' be allowed to anchor in the berth occupied by ''Alfonso XII'', where he presumed there could be no mines, but the cruiser's immobility forced him to accept an anchorage about away. ''Maine'' was still there when she exploded and sank on 15 February 1898. The crew of ''Alfonso XII'' was heavily involved in rescuing the battleship's survivors, treating them in the cruiser's sick bay, and guarding the battleship's wreck, and marched in the funeral cortege during services ashore in Havana for the men who had died aboard ''Maine''. With war approaching, ''Alfonso XII'' put more of her guns ashore to reinforce the coastal batteries of the Torreón de la Chorrera, and these guns did fire on American ships occasionally after the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

broke out in April 1898. But ''Alfonso XII'' herself, immobilized in a harbor that played little part in the war, could contribute nothing else to the Spanish war effort. After the war ended in August 1898, ''Alfonso XII'' returned to

, where she was decommissioned in 1900. She was sold in 1907.

Notes

References

*Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, Eds. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905.'' New York, New York: Mayflower Books Inc., 1979. . *Gray, Randal, Ed. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921.'' Annapolis, Maryland:Naval Institute Press, 1985. .

External links

The Spanish–American War Centennial Website: ''Alfonso XII''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso Xii Alfonso XII-class cruisers 1887 ships Spanish–American War cruisers of Spain Alfonso XII Ships built in Spain