Comenzare hoy por la flota española del almirante Pascual Cervera;

I-Infanta Maria Teresa.

Infanta Maria Teresa (Armored Cruiser, 1890-1898)

Infanta Maria Teresa, a 6890-ton armored cruiser, was launched at Bilbao, Spain, in August 1890. During the Spanish-American War she was flagship of Admiral Cervera's squadron, and was beached and burned in the Battle of Santiago, Cuba, on 3 July 1898. Though the U.S. Navy salvaged her, the Infanta Maria Teresa went aground in the Bahamas while under tow to the United States and became a total loss.








INFANTA MARIA TERESA led the sortie out of Santiago Bay on July 3rd, 1898. As the flagship she drew the bulk of the American fire in the early stages of the battle. Soon she was seriously damaged and on fire. After apparently making an attempt to ram Commodore Schley's flagship, USS Brooklyn, Cervera ran the TERESA ashore just a few miles west of the entrance to Santiago Bay and allowed his crew to save themselves. Despite being ravaged by fire and magazine explosions, the US Navy found the cruiser salvagable and she was patched up, refloated and taken to Guantanamo Bay for preliminary repaies. While being towed to the Norfolk, Virginia for rebuilding by the repair ship VULCAN she was caught in a tropical storm. The repair ship MERRITT took off the helpless cruiser's crew, the tow line was cut, and the TERESA was lost at sea. She eventually came to rest between two reefs off Cat Island and, with her back broken, was declared a total loss.
ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES:

The INFANTA MARIA TERESA was a modern and speedy first class Cruiser. However, the level of training and maintenance in the Spanish fleet was not what it should have been, and the TERESA, like all of Cervara's ships, went to war at less than full efficiency. She was in need of drydocking and short of ammunition. Even some of her guns were not operatable. Also, like all warships of the era, she was heavily decorated and furnished with wood. The US Navy stripped this flammable material off its vessels at the beginning of the conflict, but the Spanish failed to do so, making the TERESA and her fleet-mates seriously susceptible to fire.


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A gun from the INFANTA MARIA TERESA in Lowell, Massachusetts


General:

The following images are of a gun which, according to the plaque on the gun, was taken from the wreckage of the Spanish Cruiser VIZCAYA. More in-depth research by Richard Sweeney and Al Sumrall has indicated that the gun actually came from the Spanish Flagship at the Battle of Santiago, the INFANTA MARIA TERESA. The weapon was manufactured by Nordenfelt. The gun appears to be a 37 mm gun, one of eight carried by the vessel.Today, the gun rests outside of the Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell, Massachusetts. The gun is on the side of the building that faces Merrimack Street. The gun still shows damage received in the Battle of Santiago.




In the upper right, damage can be seen on the gun's shield from the fire of the American guns. The shot came from behind, so we can assume that this gun may have been on the ship's starboard side, the side that faced away from the American squadron. The damage appears to be from a shell approximately the size of a 5 inch projectile.

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El socialismo, es la Filosofía del Fracaso
El credo a la ignorancia,
Y la predica a la envidia.
Su virtud inherente, es la distribución
Igualitaria de la miseria.

Winston Churchill

And by the way, I don't believe in a Man Made Global Warming.