Armada Española de 1898

First up a big thank you to Colin Blaxter who has sent me scans of the Andy Callan rules I asked for just yesterday. The blogosphere is full of wonderful people!

The Spanish Navy had, up to 1898, a long and, mostly, illustrious history. The defeat by the Americans and the loss of the last portions of its overseas empire shook the Spanish national psyche to its very foundations. One of the best things to come out of the debacle was The Generation of '98. The defeat also reinforced the idea of The Two Spains which, after much political chaos, would lead to the Spanish Civil War. But all of that is another story.

I built the Spanish ships using the same resources as detailed here: ship stuff. The builds were a bit easier because I had the experiences (or mistakes) to draw on from the USN ships.My favourite bits on all the ships are the gigantic ventilation pipes. There's just something about them that says Turn Of The Century.

Anyways here are the ships:

First is Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus). A Heavy Armoured Cruiser of the Giuseppe Garibaldi class of ships. CC was the flagship of the fleet at the Battle of Santiago.

Cristóbal Colón 1

Cristóbal Colón 2

Cristóbal Colón 3

The Armoured Cruisers of the Infanta Maria Teresa class. There were three ships in this class.

Infanta Maria Teresa 1

Infanta Maria Teresa 2

Infanta Maria Teresa 3

Almirante Oquendo was an Armoured Cruiser of the Infanta Maria Teresa class of ships. 

Almirante Oquendo 

Vizcaya was the third ship in the Infanta Maria Teresa class of ships.

Vizcaya

Also present at the Battle of Santiago were these Torpedo Boat Destroyers: TBD Pluton & TBD Furor. 

Furor

Pluton 1

Pluton 2

Pluton 3

And finally. To try and even up the sides I built the Spanish battleship Pelayo. The Pelayo was en-route to Cuba but was recalled to Spain after the defeat of the Spanish Squadron at Santiago. An interesting what-if scenario would occur if Pelayo had arrived in time to participate. 

Pelayo was the only ship in her class and was given the nickname of 'Solitario' or 'Lonely'. The ship has the look of the iron-clad era especially its main guns being in open turrets and its masts and rigging. Needless to say this is a build for wargaming and not museum display!

Pelayo 1

Pelayo 2

Pelayo 3

As always comments are most welcome.

Hasta luego!