Júpiter class minelayer
Minelayer Júpiter
|
|
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Builders: | SECN |
| Operators: |
 Spanish Navy
|
| In commission: | 1935–1977 |
| Completed: | 4 |
| Retired: | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Minelayer |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 100 m (328 ft 1 in) |
| Beam: | 12.36 m (40 ft 7 in) |
| Draught: | 3.6 m (11 ft 10 in) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Range: | 3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement: | 180 |
| Armament: |
|
Júpiter-class minelayers was a group of four vessels of the Spanish Republican Navy built during the Spanish Republic. Three of them came into service during the Civil War after joining the rebel side.
The minelayers were commissioned by the Government of the Republic to SECN shipyards at Ferrol in 1935, a year before the start of the Spanish Civil War. The construction had been approved by the Cortes on 27 March 1934, after a proposal from the minister of the navy Juan José Rocha García. The warships of the class were designed to protect the Balearic islands in the event of a war between France and Italy.
The first three ships of the class were seized by the insurgents and served in the rebel fleet at the very beginning of the war. Their first deployment was the blockade of Bilbao. Due to the lack of destroyers in the Franco’s fleet, and the potential of their armament, the main mission of these vessels was not minelaying, but to face Government units in open combat, despite their slow speed.
Along with Vulcano, Júpiter was one of the main players in the blockade of international shipping in the ports of Biscay, where she took part in the capture of several merchantmen, especially the British Candleston Castle, Dover Abbey and Yorkbrook, the French Cens and a number of Basque Auxiliary Navy trawlers during the second half of 1937. She also laid four minefields off Santander and Gijon, from April to July 1937. The rebel battleship España was lost on 30 April after hitting by accident one of her mines at Santander. There were only four casualties among España's crew.
...
Wikipedia