Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruiser

Infanta Maria Teresa, probably in 1895 while attending opening ceremonies for the Kiel Canal in Germany
Class overview
Name:	Infanta Maria Teresa class
Builders:	Naval shipyard Bilbao, Spain
Built:	1889–1893
In commission:	1893–1898
Planned:	3
Completed:	3
Lost:	3
General characteristics
Type:	Armored cruiser
Displacement:	6,890 tons
Length:	364 ft (111 m)
Beam:	65 ft 2 in (19.86 m)
Draft:	21 ft 6 in (6.55 m) maximum
Speed:	20.2 knots (37.4 km/h)
Complement:	484
Armament:	2 × 28 cm (11 in) guns 10 × 14 cm (5.5 in) guns 10 × 12-pounder guns 10 × 3-pounder Hotchkiss revolvers 8 × Nordenfeld machine guns 2 × Maxim machine guns 8 × torpedo tubes (2 submerged)
Armor:	Belt 12–10 in (30.5–25.4 cm) Barbettes 9 in (22.9 cm) Conning tower 12 in (30.5 cm) Deck 2–3 in (5.1–7.6 cm)
Notes:	1,050 tons of coal (normal)

The Infanta Maria Teresa class of three armored cruisers were built for the Spanish Navy between 1889 and 1893. All three were sunk in action against the United States Navy during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898.

The naval shipyard at Bilbao, Spain, built all three units of the Infanta Maria Teresa class. Originally, the Spanish Navy had planned to build sister ships of the battleship Pelayo, but a crisis with the German Empire in the Caroline Islands in 1890 caused Spain to divert money budgeted for the battleships to the Infanta Maria Teresa class instead. The armored cruisers were considered more desirable than additional battleships at the time because their greater speed and steaming range made them better suited for responses to colonial crises.

The two-funnelled Infanta Maria Teresa class was fast and well-armed, with 11-inch (279 mm) (Hontoria) guns mounted in barbettes on the center line fore and aft and a large secondary battery of 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns. However, their protection was poor. The armor belt was narrow and stretched for only two-thirds of the length of the hulls, the main guns had only lightly armored hoods, the 5.5-inch guns were mounted in the open on the upper deck, and the ships had a high, unprotected freeboard. Their upper decks were planked-over beams without steel plating. The ships also were heavily decorated and furnished with wood, which the Spanish failed to remove before combat and which would feed fires after enemy shell hits.

The Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruisers were active units, serving both in European and American waters. After the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, all three were assigned to the 1st Squadron, commanded by Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, in which all three were sunk at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.