Spanish cruiser Infanta Isabel

Isabel II was a {{sclass|Velasco|cruiser|0}} iron-hulled unprotected cruiser designed for colonial service in the Spanish Empire.{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Gravina_(1882) |title=Gravina_(1882) |author= |date=8 April 2022 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=14 January 2025 |language=es}} She had an unarmored iron hull and was rigged as a barque, with three masts and a bowsprit. She had one rather tall funnel. The first metal-hulled cruiser built in Spain, she was one of six ships of her class built in Spain, which were armed differently from and slightly faster than the first two ships of the class, both of which were built in the United Kingdom.Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905, p. 383{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Velasco_(1882) |title=Velasco (1882) |author= |date=26 April 2023 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=15 January 2025 |language=es}}

Infanta Isabel displaced 1,190 tons. She was {{convert|64|m|ftin}} long and {{convert|9.70|m|ftin}} in beam, {{convert|5.33|m|ftin}} in height, and {{convert|3.86|m|ftin}} in draft. She had a double-pressure steam engine with four boilers that generated {{convert|1,500|hp|0|lk=on}}. She had a sail area of {{convert|1,132|m2|0}}, later reduced to {{convert|823|m2|0}}. She could reach a maximum speed of {{convert|14|kn|lk=in}}. She could carry up to 240 tons of coal and had a range of {{convert|2,000|nmi|sigfig=2}}. Her armament consisted of four {{convert|120|mm|1|adj=on}} Hontoria guns, two {{convert|70|mm|1|adj=on}} guns, four machine guns, and two torpedo tubes. She had a crew of 180 men. Her construction cost was 1,150,000 pesetas.

Infanta Isabel′s construction was authorized on 1 July 1882, and her keel was laid at the Arsenal de La Carraca in San Fernando, Spain, on 19 August 1883. She was launched on 24 June 1885 and completed and commissioned in 1887.

In 1887, Infanta Isabel received orders to proceed to the South American Station at the Río de la Plata (River Plate) and replace the screw corvette {{ship|Spanish corvette|Africa||2}} there. She arrived at Montevideo, Uruguay, on 17 June 1887. On 10 July 1887, she collaborated with local authorities at Buenos Aires, Argentina, during disastrous flooding and evacuated people from Recreo Island in the Riachuelo River, saving 27 lives. Grateful Argentinians held numerous celebrations in her honor and presented her with a commemorative plaque. She returned to Montevideo on 25 July 1887, but returned to Buenos Aires several times and steamed up the Uruguay River, providing various services.

Infanta Isabel′s commanding officer submitted a request on 21 June 1888 to be relieved of command due to illness and because he already had commanded her for two years. On 25 December 1888 Capitán de fragata (Frigate Captain) Ramón Auñón y Villalón, a future Minister of the Navy, reported aboard as her new commander. On 25 April 1890 the President of Uruguay, Julio Herrera y Obes, visited the ship.

The Revolution of the Park broke out in Argentina on 25 July 1890 and several rebel ships of the Argentine Navy bombarded the government palace and other public buildings. Infanta Isabel was the flagship of an international squadron which also included the British Royal Navy screw sloop {{HMS|Beagle|1889|6}} and gunboat {{HMS|Bramble|1889|6}}, the United States Navy armed sidewheel paddle steamer {{USS|Tallapoosa|1863|6}}, and the Uruguayan Navy gunboat {{ship|Uruguayan gunboat|General Rivera||2}} that anchored in the southern basin of the Río de la Plata and threatened to attack the rebel ships if they did not halt the bombardment.[http://vidamaritima.com/2009/12/d-joaquin-maria-lazaga-y-el-crucero-infanta-isabel/ Vida Marítima: Don Joaquín María Lazaga y el crucero Infanta Isabel] (in Spanish). Auñón then boarded the Argentine torpedo ram {{ship|ARA|Maipu||2}} to negotiate with rebel Lieutenant Eduardo O'Connor. The revolt was crushed by 29 July and the ringleaders imprisoned.

On 18 September 1890 Auñón received orders for Infanta Isabel to return to Spain. She began her homeward voyage when she departed Montevideo on 12 October 1890, setting course for Cádiz. Her sister ship {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Cristóbal Colón|1887|2}} arrived at Montevideo on 14 November 1890 to replace her.

On 12 October 1892, Infanta Isabel participated in a naval review held at New York City on the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus′s discovery of the Americas. As celebrations of the quadricentennial of the discovery continued, another major event at New York, the International Columbian Naval Rendezvous and Review, was scheduled for 1893. In February 1893, replicas of Christopher Columbus's three ships, the caravels Niña and Pinta and the carrack Santa Maria, left Huelva, Spain, bound for Havana in the Captaincy General of Cuba. They departed Havana on 15 April 1893 under the overall command of Infanta Isabel′s commanding officer bound for the United States, with Infanta Isabel towing the replica of Pinta, the protected cruiser {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Reina Regente|1887|2}} towing the replica of Santa María, and the gunboat {{ship|Spanish gunboat|Nueva España||2}} towing the replica of Niña. They arrived at dawn on 21 April at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where a U.S. Navy squadron and other foreign warships were waiting for them.{{cite magazine |last=Wicks |first=Daniel H. |date=June 1976 |title=The Old Navy: Past and Future Grandeur: The 1893 Naval Review |url=https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1976/june/old-navy-past-and-future-grandeur-1893-naval-review |magazine=Proceedings |location= |publisher= United States Naval Institute |volume=102/6/880 |access-date=28 January 2025}} Accompanied by the U.S. Navy squadron and the other foreign warships, they set out at dawn on 23 April for New York City, where they arrived that night and anchored in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor. They took part in the Columbian Naval Review on the Hudson River at New York on 27 April 1893.{{cite news |last1=Foster |first1=Al |title=Grand Naval Review |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=21485487 |accessdate=3 July 2018 |publisher=The Sun (New York, New York) |date=30 April 1893 |page=9 |format=Advert |quote=Grand Naval Review on Monday, May 1 Steamer Al Foster...}} Reina Regente remained behind at New York for drydock work, but Infanta Isabel and Nueva España got underway from New York on 2 May for Havana, which they reached on 8 May 1893.

File:'Infanta Ysabel,' Spanish flagship (14868320420).jpg

Meanwhile, on 19 April 1893, Princess Eulalia of Spain boarded the screw steamer {{SS|Reina Maria Cristina||2}} at Santander, Spain, for a visit to the Caribbean and the United States as Spain's representative to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.Wilson, pp. 252, 255. She stopped first at Puerto Rico on 5 May,"Cartas a Isabel II, 1893: Mi viaje a Cuba y Estados Unidos" by Eulalia de Borbón, Infanta de España, pgs. 30–33. then at Havana from {{nowrap|8 to 15 May}},"Court Circular", The Times ( 10 May 1893): 5. before arriving in New York Harbor on 18 May 1893.Wilson, p. 255.{{cite news |title=Eulalia is here |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/boston-daily-globe-may-19-1893-p-11/ |accessdate=3 July 2018 |issue=Friday Evening |date=19 May 1893 |page=1 |quote=Eulalia is here. Spanish Infanta arrives in New York}} There Eulalia and her entourage transferred from Reina Maria Cristina to Infanta Isabel, from which they made their official landing at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, where U.S. officials greeted them. Eulalia subsequently visited Washington, D.C., where President Grover Cleveland received her at the White House,The Times ( 22 May 1893): 7. before heading to Chicago for the exposition.

After her sister ship Cristóbal Colón sank off Cuba on 29 September 1895, Infanta Isabel, her sister ship {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Conde de Venadito||2}}, and the unprotected cruiser {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Reina Cristina||2}} engaged in salvage efforts at the scene of the wreck. They succeeded in recovering Cristóbal Colón′s safe and torpedo tubes and some of her guns.{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Colon_(1889) |title=Colon (1889) |author= |date=8 April 2022 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=15 January 2025 |language=es}}

By 1897, Infanta Isabel was part of the Training Squadron. To represent Spain at ceremonies in the United States recognizing what would have been the 75th birthday of the late President Ulysses S. Grant and celebrating the opening of Grant's Tomb in New York City, Infanta Isabel got underway from Mahón on Menorca in the Balearic Islands on 3 April 1897 in company with the armored cruiser {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Infanta Maria Teresa||2}} and proceeded to New York, which the two ships reached on the day of the tomb's dedication, 27 April 1897.{{Cite web |url=https://todoavante.es/index.php?title=Infanta_Maria_Teresa_(1893) |title=Infanta Maria Teresa (1893) |author= |date=7 April 2022 |website=todoavante.es |publisher= |access-date=13 January 2025 |language=es}} After completing their participation in the planned events, the two cruisers departed New York on 11 May 1897. They arrived at Mahón at the end of June 1897 and rejoined their squadron.

The Spanish-American War broke out when the United States declared war on Spain on 25 April 1898, stipulating that the declaration was retroactive to 21 April. Infanta Isabel was at Havana when the war began. Her machinery required repairs, preventing her from putting to sea, and she remained inactive at Havana throughout the conflict. The war ended on 13 August 1898. After the war, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, which in its Article V stated that "[...] Flags and standards, warships not captured, portable weapons, cannons of all calibers will be the property of Spain..." Under this provision, Infanta Isabel returned to Spain in company with Conde de Venadito.

In accordance with a Ministry of the Navy decree of 18 May 1900, 25 Spanish Navy ships were decommissioned because of their lack of combat value.[https://www.boe.es/diario_gazeta/comun/pdf.php?p=1900/05/19/pdfs/GMD-1900-139.pdf] La Gaceta de Madrid, Número 139 Boletín Ordinario, publicado el sábado, 19 de mayo del 1900 (in Spanish) Regarding Infanta Isabel, however, the decree stated "The Infanta Isabel, also of no military value, is suitable for service in the Canary Islands, the Gold Coast, and the possessions of Guinea, and her conservation, as long as there is no other of military efficiency, seems unavoidable. [...] Art. 2. Of the remaining ships, the {{ship|Spanish ironclad|Numancia||2}}, the {{ship|Spanish ironclad|Vitoria||2}}, and the Infanta Isabel will be decommissioned when they require the replacement of their current boilers or other important repairs or careening." Unlike her two surviving sister ships, Conde de Venadito and {{ship|Spanish cruiser|Isabel II||2}}, which were decommissioned in 1900, Infanta Isabel had her torpedo tubes removed, was converted into a gunboat, and remained in service.

Infanta Isabel was in the Bay of La Concha off San Sebastián, Spain, when she suffered a boiler explosion on 3 August 1900. The explosion killed two men and injured 22 others.[https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/mardigitalrevistas/rhn/2021/150/N150Art2.pdf EL GRAVE ACCIDENTE DEL CRUCERO INFANTA ISABEL OCURRIDO EL DÍA 3 DE AGOSTO DE 1900, EN LA CONCHA DE SAN SEBASTIÁN] (Spanish) REVISTA DE HISTORIA NAVAL Número 150, pp. 33-48 ISSN: 012-467-X (edición en papel) ISSN: 2530-0873 (edición en línea)

In 1902, Infanta Isabel steamed to the Canary Islands to rendezvous with the torpedo boats {{ship|Spanish torpedo boat|Ariete||2}}, {{ship|Spanish torpedo boat|Azor||2}}, and {{ship|Spanish torpedo boat|Rayo||2}}, which had been stationed there since they were separated from Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Pascual Cervera y Topete's squadron in April 1898 when it deployed to the Caribbean during the Spanish-American War. She escorted the three torpedo boats back to Spain. In early January 1903, she was sent to Morocco to protect Spanish citizens and interests during unrest there.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Latest Intelligence - The Revolt in Morocco |date=1 January 1903 |page=3 |issue=36966}} On 15 September 1904, she arrived at Mahón with a crew of 188 on board. From {{nowrap|8 to 10 April}} 1907, she was part of a Spanish Navy squadron that assembled at Cartagena, Spain, on the occasion of the visit of the British King Edward VII.

Infanta Isabel was modernized between 1910 and 1911, during which her flanking redoubts were removed and her armament was altered to a single {{convert|70|mm||1|adj=on}} Skoda gun on her forecastle and ten {{convert|57|mm|in|adj=on|1}} guns on her broadsides, with five on each side. During the following years, Infanta Isabel served along the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea, Spanish Sahara, and Morocco. By 1921 her armament had become one {{convert|66|mm|in|adj=on|1}} and ten {{convert|57|mm|in|adj=on|1}} guns and her complement had risen to 194. She finally was decommissioned in 1926 after 39 years of service, by far the longest-lived ship of her class. She was stricken and scrapped in 1927.

• {{cite magazine |last= |date=1 May 1897 |title=No title stated |url= |magazine=El Mundo Naval Ilustrado |volume=1 |number=1 |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
• {{cite magazine |last= |date=15 May 1897 |title=No title stated |url= |magazine=El Mundo Naval Ilustrado |volume=1 |number=2 |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
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• {{cite magazine |last= |date=1 June 1898 |title=No title stated |url= |magazine=El Mundo Naval Ilustrado |volume=1 |number=27 |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
• {{cite magazine |last= |date=8 August 1885 |title=No title stated |url= |magazine=La Ilustración Española y Americana |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
• {{cite magazine |last= |date=30 April 1890 |title=No title stated |url= |magazine=La Ilustración Española y Americana |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
• {{cite magazine |last= |date=July 1893 |title=Partes de campaña referentes a la división naval del Norte de América |url= |magazine=Revista General de Marina |volume=XXXIII |location=Madrid |publisher= |access-date= | language = es }}
• {{cite book |last1=Aguilera |first1=Alfredo |last2=Elías |first2=Vicente |date=1980 |title=Buques de guerra españoles, 1885-1971 |url= |location=Madrid |publisher=Editorial San Martín |page= |isbn= |language=es}}
• {{cite book |last=Blanco Núñez |first=José María |date=2011 |title=La construcción naval en Ferrol, 1726-2011 |url= |location= |publisher=Navantia S.A. |isbn= |language=es}}
• {{cite book |last=Bordejé y Morencos |first=Fernando de |date=1995 |title=Crónica de la Marina española en el siglo XIX, 1868-1898 | volume=II |url= |location=Madrid | publisher=Ministry of Defence |page= |isbn= |language=es}}
• Chesneau, Roger, and Eugene M. Kolesnik, Eds. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. New York, New York: Mayflower Books Inc., 1979. {{ISBN|0-8317-0302-4}}.
• Gray, Randal, Ed. Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. {{ISBN|0-87021-907-3}}.
• {{cite book | last = Lledó Calabuig | first = José |title = Buques de vapor de la armada española, del vapor de ruedas a la fragata acorazada, 1834-1885 | year = 1998 | publisher = Agualarga Editores| language=es |isbn = 8495088754}}
• {{Cite book |author=VV.AA |title=El Buque en la Armada española |publisher=Editorial Sílex |location=Madrid |year=1999 |language=es}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Robert E. |date=Autumn 1966 |title=The Infanta at the Fair |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40190218?searchText=The+Infanta+at+the+Fair+Robert+E+Wilson&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DThe%2BInfanta%2Bat%2Bthe%2BFair%2BRobert%2BE%2BWilson%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Ab55652fc7eb8bf6c81a2ead03d35196d&seq=1 |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=59 |issue=3 |publisher=Illinois State Historical Society |page=255 |access-date=28 January 2025}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/19990417152225/http://history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/spain/spsh-hl/i-isabel.htm Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: Spanish Navy Ships: Infanta Isabel (Cruiser, 1885–1926)]
• [https://armada.defensa.gob.es/archivo/rgm/2012/08/cap01.pdf Construcción naval y fuerza a flote en los primeros años del siglo XX] Revista de la Armada Española (in Spanish)

{{Velasco class cruiser}}

{{1900 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Infanta Isabel}}

Category:Velasco-class cruisers

Category:Ships built in Spain

Category:1885 ships

Category:Spanish–American War cruisers of Spain

Category:Maritime incidents in 1900