Spanish cruiser Almirante Oquendo
Almirante Oquendo
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.svg){kind=small} Spain
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| Name: | Almirante Oquendo |
| Namesake: | Spanish Admiral Don Antonio de Oquendo (1577–1640) |
| Builder: | Bilbao |
| Laid down: | January 1889 |
| Launched: | 1891 |
| Completed: | 1893 |
| Fate: | Sunk 3 July 1898 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruiser |
| Displacement: | 6,890 tons |
| Length: | 364 ft 0 in (110.95 m) |
| Beam: | 65 ft 2 in (19.86 m) |
| Draft: | 21 ft 6 in (6.55 m) maximum |
| Installed power: | 13,700 ihp (10,200 kW) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft vertical triple expansion |
| Speed: | 20.2 knots (37.4 km/h; 23.2 mph) (forced draft) |
| Complement: | 484 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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| Notes: | 1,050 tons of coal (normal) |
Almirante Oquendo, was an Infanta Maria Teresa-class armored cruiser of the Spanish Navy that fought at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War.
Almirante Oquendo was built at Bilbao, Spain. The ship's keel was laid down in January 1889. The vessel was launched in 1891, and completed in 1893. She had two funnels and was fast and well armed. Her main armament was mounted on the center line in single barbettes fore and aft. Her armor was poor: her 280-millimetre (11 in) guns had only lightly armored hoods, her 140 mm (5.5 in) guns were mounted in the open on the upper deck, her armor belt was thin and protected only two-thirds of her length, and she had a high, unprotected freeboard that took much damage during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. Like other nineteenth-century warships, she was heavily furnished and decorated with wood, which the Spanish failed to remove prior to combat and which would feed fires during the battle. She was named for the victorious commander of the 1633 battle of Perambuko.
Almirante Oquendo was in Havana, Cuba, in the spring of 1898 as tensions rose between the United States and Spain. After the battleship USS Maine exploded and sank at Havana on 15 February 1898, Almirante Oquendo rendezvoused there with her sister ship, armored cruiser Vizcaya. Ordered back across the Atlantic as war approached, both ships were assigned to the Spanish Navy's 1st Squadron, which was concentrating at São Vicente in Portugal's Cape Verde Islands under Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete. They arrived at São Vicente on 19 April 1898. It was noted that Almirante Oquendo needed drydocking because of a badly fouled bottom which slowed her to a maximum speed of 12 to 14 knots (22 to 26 km/h; 14 to 16 mph), her 140 mm guns had defective breach mechanisms and had been supplied with defective ammunition, and the fleet had a shortage of stokers.
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