Shipbucket

Since I've been doing some of the smaller and more obscure dreadboughts, here's another one.

Spain wanted to hitch a ride on the whole dreadnought thing. Why not? Everybody else did. Differense is, Spain could afford it. The Spanish government ordered three battleships from Britain; the España, the Alfonso XIII, and the Jaime I. At 140 meters, they were only 3 meters longer than the South Carolina class, and a couple of thousand tons lighter, making them the smallest dreadnought-type battleship ever built. The three ships were armed with 8x12 inch guns in four twin turrets, two amidships en-echelon. They also featured a slew of 76mm casemated secondaries. They were also among the slowest, hardly a knot faster than the South Carolina class. Because they were so small, and light, chances of modernisation and improvements were none-existant.

España was lost when she ran aground in 1923. Severe storms broke the wreck before any salvage operations could be carried.
Alfonso hit a mine in 1937 and sank.
Jaime was wrecked when an explosion happened in 1937. The ship was written off in 1939.

España as she appeared in 1913:


España as she appeared in 1923:


Jaime I as she appeared in 1937:


España (Alfonso XII) as she appeared in 1937:

Very nice work, Karle, as always! One question: should the propellers be that small, though?

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

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All the sources I've found suggests so. I guess that is why she has four instead of two propellers.

Nicely done.

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nice drawing.


The only one I could find with slightly larger propeller.




I think the reason the propeller look small on those drawings, might coming from that the propeller might be a 3 bladder. in some situation a 3 bladder can look smaller then what it is

Seeing as they only ever show two blades, a three bladed propeller is likely.

Surely this must be one of the smallest-superstructure steel warships ever built. By volume ratio, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Whiskey missile submarine conversions had larger sails!

This is not a ship with guns, but guns with a ship.

Wonderful work, some of your best yet.

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Interwar RN Capital Ships
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Yeah Its a nice drawing indeed. I can check if there is better linedrawing in one of the spanish books I have on the class after I get back home from work.

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