Spanish cruiser Almirante Cervera
Cruiser Almirante Cervera
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| History | |
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   Spain
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| Name: | Almirante Cervera |
| Namesake: | Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete |
| Laid down: | 14 April 1923 |
| Launched: | 16 October 1925 |
| Commissioned: | 15 September 1928 |
| Decommissioned: | 31 August 1965 |
| Nickname(s): | Chulo del Cantábrico |
| Fate: | Scrapped 1966 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Almirante Cervera-class cruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 579 ft (176 m) |
| Beam: | 54 ft (16 m) |
| Draught: | 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) |
| Installed power: | 8 Yarrow-type boilers, 80,000 hp (60,000 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 4 shafts, Parsons-type geared turbines |
| Speed: | 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph) |
| Complement: | 566 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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Almirante Cervera was a light cruiser and lead ship of the Almirante Cervera class of the Spanish Navy. She was named after the Spanish admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, commander of the Spanish naval forces in Cuba during the Spanish–American War. She was part of the Spanish Republican Navy between 1931 and 1936, year in which she became a key player of the Nationalist Fleet in the Spanish Civil War.
Her construction was authorized by the so-called Miranda law of 17 February 1915. The cruiser was launched in Ferrol in 1925 and scrapped in 1965. The ship was 172.62 metres (566 ft 4 in) in length, 16.61 metres (54 ft 6 in) in beam, and a draught of 5.03 metres (16 ft 6 in). Equipped with a main armament of eight guns of 152 mm (6 in), mounted in three twin turrets and two single mountings, and manned by a crew of 566 seamen, Almirante Cervera belonged to the same class of two other cruisers of the Spanish Navy of her time, Galicia (Libertad from 1931 to 1939) and Miguel de Cervantes.
Starting in October 1934, Almirante Cervera participated in the bombardment of coastal targets during the insurrection in Asturias, but it was at the time of the civil war where she took a leading role in naval operations. In the first months 1936 she took part of a gunnery exercise with live ammunition along with the battleship Jaime I and her sister cruisers Libertad and Miguel de Cervantes in which they sank the target ship, the old unarmored cruiser Conde del Venadito In July 1936 Almirante Cervera was docked at Ferrol, which prevented her from taking part in the first operations of the war. She fell into the hands of Franco's side when his troops seized the port. She was under the command of Captain Juan Sanchez-Sandalio Ferragut, who was captured by the rebels and executed by a firing squad. Once in service, she formed a task force with the battleship España and the World War I-era destroyer Velasco to blockade the ports of northern Spain. She was nicknamed El Chulo del Cantábrico, ("The dandy of Biscay"), because her almost unopposed activity both supporting Franco's army offensives in the north as well as intercepting Republican and international shipping. She was sent to Gijon with orders to help the rebel troops who were under siege there, inside the garrison of Simancas. The barracks were eventually stormed by government forces on 16 August. British historian Hugh Thomas claims that when the Republican troops broke into the compound, the defenders asked Cervera to fire right on them. On 9 August, while firing on government positions, she hit by mistake the British yacht Blue Shadow, whose master, a former RAF officer, was killed. According to Nationalist sources, the yacht was struck by the cruiser with the third broadside of her secondary 4-inch guns.Cervera apparently took the sailing vessel for a Government watercraft. The yacht was abandoned by her crew, who were rescued by the British destroyer Comet. In September the cruiser sailed for the Mediterranean to support the blockade of the Straits of Gibraltar, where she participated in the Battle of Cape Espartel. While the cruiser Canarias sank the Republican destroyer Almirante Ferrándiz in the Alboran Sea after a few salvoes, Cervera engaged the destroyer Gravina along the northwestern coast of Morocco. Cervera fired her main artillery up to 300 times, but managed to hit Gravina only twice. The poor marksmanship of the cruiser enabled Gravina to break action and fleeing for safety to Casablanca. However, this action was decisive, as it opened the Straits to the insurgent's traffic.
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