Spanish cruiser Velasco

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An unidentified Velasco-class (here called "Infanta Isabel-class") cruiser in U.S. waters during the 1880s or 1890s, showing the appearance of Velasco
Career
Name: Velasco
Namesake: Velasco
Builder: Thames Ironworks & Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.
Launched: 1881
Fate: Sunk 1 May 1898
General characteristics
Class & type: Velasco-class
Type: unprotected cruiser
Displacement: 1,152 tons
Length: 210 ft 0 in (64.01 m)
Beam: 32 ft 0 in (9.75 m)
Draft: 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m) maximum
Installed power: 1,500 ihp
Propulsion: 1-shaft, horizontal compound, 4-cylinder boilers
Sail plan: barque-rigged
Speed: 13 knots
Complement: 173 officers and enlisted
Armament: 4 x 6 in (152 mm) guns
2 × 3 in (76.2 mm) guns
2 x machine guns
2 × 14 inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor: none
Notes: 200 to 220 tons of coal (normal)

Velasco was a Velasco-class unprotected cruiser of the Spanish Navy which fought in the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.

Technical Characteristics

Velasco was built by the Thames Ironworks & Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. at Leamouth, London in the United Kingdom, as the lead ship of a new class of eight Spanish unprotected cruisers. Her keel was laid in 1881. She had one rather tall funnel. She had an iron hull and was rigged as a barque. She and the second ship of the class, Gravina, also built in the United Kingdom, were differently armed from and slightly faster than the final six ships of the class, all of which were built in Spain.

Operational history

The wreck of Velasco.
When the Spanish-American War began in April 1898, Velasco was anchored in Manila Bay off the Cavite Peninsula as part of Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasaron's Pacific Squadron. In the Battle of Manila Bay, she was still anchored there when the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron attacked Montojo's squadron on 1 May 1898. She was sunk in the battle.
The view looking forward from the poop deck aboard the wreck of Velasco.

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. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
  • Nofi, Albert A. The Spanish-American War, 1898. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania:Combined Books, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-938289-57-8.

External links

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