Shipbucket

I love these order of battle charts -- and as always, your AUs and drawings never disappoint!

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

More amazingly good designs and so well drawn with very nice colour schemes too. Great stuff!

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

I was wondering, is San Juan de Ulúa an enlarged Erzherzog Kronprinz Rudolf?

Hello again!

Time to wrap this AU.

One note to our US bucketers: Normally I try to avoid storylines where one side wins because of outrageous luck or because the other side makes stupid mistakes or both. But if both sides are mismatched so badly as they are here, any result other than a straight walkover requires a bit of both. No insult intended, it didn't work any other way.

C. Part III – The reign of Empress Isabel (1907 – 1916)

12. Madame Deficit
The interregnum after Maximilian’s death lasted for half a year; succession was postponed for the duration of the Venezuelan crisis. During that time, Admiral Beltran – claiming to act upon the dying wish of the Emperor – submitted a large fleet building program to Congress, providing for two dreadnought battleships, eight 600-ton destroyers, eight second class torpedo boats and six submarines. Although congress at that time was dominated by liberals, the bill was passed during the Venezuelan crisis; the aggressive US stance during that affair convinced the delegates that the Roosevelt administration was a lethal threat, and if dreadnoughts were what it took to defend the country against Gringo aggression, then by all means build them. Immediately after the resolution of the Venezuelan crisis, a coronation took place. Mexican law, modeled upon Austria’s pragmatic sanction, stipulated succession of the Emperor's oldest son. If no son was available, a daughter would do, even if there were male grandchildren. Empress Isabel was coronated on November 8th, 1907. Although she frequently was at odds with her unpopular husband, she believed such quarrels were no business of the public, which needed to be shown unity. In order to distract Prince Carlos Augusto from meddling with politics, which had very recently nearly caused a war with the USA, she acquiesced to his wish for some military command authority. Effective January 1st 1908, he was appointed head of a newly created paramilitary force, named Los Colorados for their gaudy uniforms, which was not subordinate to the war ministry, but reported directly to the Minister of the Imperial Household. With this move, Isabel wanted to make her husband her military subordinate and at the same time a rival of General Huerta, but her ploy backfired badly. Carlos Augusto was quite beyond being placated with morsels of power. He wanted it all, and to that end, Huerta was his logical ally. For the first couple of years however, things went ahead smoothly, if rather expensively. Carlos Augusto seemed content to play with his toy soldiers, fully realizing he had been deliberately sidelined, and plotting his comeback. Beltran shoved the Imperial Navy into the dreadnought age and happily spent away. As early as 1908, he got approval for a supplementary program covering larger graving docks at Tampico and Veracruz, a floating dock for the Pacific, and the purchase of four stock vessels offered for sale by the British: Two armored cruisers and two destroyers. After the 1910 elections yielded a narrow victory for conservative and reactionary parties (it was revealed in 1916 that the elections had been rigged by the Secret Service and the Colorados), who were all in favor of naval spending as a matter of principle, Beltran’s follow-on 1910 and 1913 proposals were even amended. For the Mexican Navy, these were years of abundance. Austria again became Mexico’s main supplier after the British had refused to supply the Mexicans with HMS Dreadnought’s plans for license-building; STT simply copied Dreadnought without a license. The ship designs accepted for the Imperial Navy fully incorporated Captain Souchon’s proposals, making them better fighting ships than the vessels Austria’s yards built for their own fleet: They had stronger underwater protection, improved horizontal and turret armor, better fire control, and better habitability and ventilation arrangements. The 1910 program included another two dreadnoughts, four scout cruisers, eight destroyers and six more submarines. A battleship, the last three light cruisers and the last four destroyers were to be built at domestic yards. The 1913 program called for two superdreadnoughts, four large light cruisers, sixteen destroyers, sixteen torpedo boats and eight submarines. All ships except the first battleship were to be built domestically. It was a continuous story of success, and as might have been expected, it already carried the seed of doom. Although the Navy was still popular and had no problem to attract enough enthusiastic and able volunteers to operate all new ships, the amount of money it swallowed made more and more people feel uneasy. The fleet consumed 30% of the entire national budget in 1908, and 35% in 1914. Although Beltran used his money altogether more effectively than most of his European colleagues, the country was bled white to pay his spending spree. Only Japan and the Ottoman Empire spent money on their fleets in a similarly outrageous fashion. Maximilian’s exemplary health-care and educational network was neglected to the point there was a significant increase in child mortality and a drop in life expectancy; what little immigration there had been dried up, and emigration to greener pastures in South America steadily increased. Mexico’s population growth curve visibly flattened to the point of stagnation by 1915. At that point, the Navy's symbolic value for Mexico as a power to be reckoned with internationally could no longer keep up with discontent about its cost. Although Mexico’s economy recovered after 1910 – in 1915, GDP amounted to $ 38.500.000 (measured in 1990 international dollars), at a population of 19.300.000 – national debt kept increasing, resulting in inflation and unemployment. The ensuing unrest was brutally suppressed by Huerta and the Colorados, further squandering popularity of the Imperial government. The beginning of the First World War in August 1914 additionally hurt Mexican economy by virtually eliminating trade with all developed nations except the USA, Japan/Koko and Thiaria. The results were more unemployment, unrest and communist agitation. As many native Americans flocked to the red flag these days, Mexico’s far right dominated Congress steadily curtailed native American rights, and openly discussed measures to make sure the next elections would not yield unwanted results.

12. Cutthroat Diplomacy
The Americans keenly watched these developments. Beltran’s naval buildup was justified to the Mexican people with the interventionist policies of the Roosevelt administration, so it was obviously directed against the USA. As both Anglo-Saxon powers have always equaled ‘security’ with ‘absolute unassailability’, even a relatively small concentration of maritime power in Central America was considered a lethal threat to legitimate US security interests. Under the Taft presidency, US policy towards Central America became less openly interventionist, preferring the use of indirect economical influence over military regime change, and Mexico’s continuing insistence that they needed to defend themselves against imminent US invasion was considered insulting. More importantly, the Empire’s efforts to secure economic independence from US companies angered some very powerful people who lost a lot of money and were out for revenge. Since the 1910 elections, parts of the US press started to attack Mexican monarchy in an aggressive campaign, openly calling for a liberal revolution and a third Mexican Republic. The Imperial government had no better answer than further accelerating the buildup of their army and navy; some of the ships of the 1913 program were laid down on credit in 1912. Mexico also strengthened connections with other American nations who had been or currently were at odds with the USA. For whatever that was worth (nothing, as it would turn out), Colombia and Venezuela were safely on the Empire’s side, and after the 1906 intervention, the Cubans were afraid they might be on America’s menu again. In 1913, they struck a secret deal with the Empire allowing Mexico to use the fortress of Guantanamo bay whenever the Mexicans chose, in direct violation of the Mexican-American treaty of 1898. The Mexicans almost immediately started to secretly stockpile coal, ammunition and supplies there, and the fortress garrison was provided with military advisors. On the Pacific side, Mexico strengthened diplomatic ties with Japan and Koko and started to insert agents and agitators into Hawaii and the Philippines to cause trouble for the Americans. In 1914, the strength of Mexico’s ground forces (including Colorados and Marines) reached 170.000, provoking the Wilson administration to initiate a ground force buildup of their own; target figure was 300.000 by late 1915. Simultaneously, the Americans made efforts to isolate Mexico from what was left of world trade, with some success. In order to complete their first superdreadnought on schedule, the Mexicans had to import armor plate from Japan, which was widely considered inferior and whose actual quality came as a surprise. Prince Carlos Augusto meanwhile openly flirted with the Central powers and repeatedly mentioned Mexico’s pre-1835 borders, provoking not only sharp verbal reactions of the State Department and the American press, but also American military preparations for a ground invasion of Mexico from Texas and California. In 1915, Mexico acquired a modern German cruiser which had become cut off from home in the Caribbean; the contract of purchase did not include secret amendments concerning her use, but the American press quickly spread rumors about this deal being part of a German-Mexican alliance. The ship was paid for by an amendment to the 1913 fleet bill, which also called for another eight destroyers, sixteen torpedo boats and twelve submarines, plus sixteen minesweeper/ASW sloops. Given the gross disparity between both nations (the US in 1915 had six times the population and thirteen times the economy of the Empire), the opposition in Mexico began to believe that appeasement and – if necessary – complete abjection was the only way to survive. When the 1915 congressional elections came up, there was a broad centre-left campaign to cut military expense, disband the Colorados and defuse tensions with the US at any cost. Carlos Augusto had rigged the last elections and felt confident he could rig these as well, but he was caught in the act, and a re-count of votes yielded a landslide victory for the left camp (Constitutionalists, Socialists and Communists). As Congress reconvened, the delegates made clear they would keep rejecting all budget requests as long as they contained any funds for recruiting, training, equipping and paying the Colorados, which effectively meant they were to be disbanded. Interestingly, the Americans issued not a single word in support of Congress; instead, they occupied Haiti on the pretense of the local government’s inability to protect US investments there. This was – correctly – interpreted as a not very veiled threat to do the same in Mexico. The left Congress majority issued a declaration offering immediate unilateral disarmament by disbanding the Colorados, cutting the Army to 100.000 and cancelling the 1913 fleet building program (of which the first ships were already in service) in its entirety. To Carlos Augusto, this move took that democratic nonsense one step too far; with the naval buildup in jeopardy, he for once had Beltran’s complete support. On November 25th, 1915, Carlos Augusto led a coup d'etat, aided by Huerta and most senior Army commanders. Due to widespread sympathies for communism among the navy’s ratings, the navy did not actively participate in the coup, but with the officer corps displaying unconditional loyalty to Beltran, it failed to intervene on behalf of Congress either. The majority leader Francisco Madero was imprisoned by the Colorados and died under dubious circumstances around Christmas, and Carlos Augusto was appointed Prime Minister with near-dictatorial powers, effective January 1st, 1916. That same day, Carlos Augusto started to lash out, and Colorados and regular Army units descended upon insurgent strongholds all over Mexico. But unlike the 1867/9 civil war that forged the Empire, the rebels refused to fight by the government’s rules and stayed dispersed. Carlos Augusto’s soldiers kept driving them out of infested areas, but they simply set up camp elsewhere and continued to wreak havoc. In February 1916, the US administration made contact with moderate Mexican resistance leaders and offered them clandestine assistance, mainly weapons and ammunition; maybe the rotten structure of Mexican monarchy could be kicked down from within. The most moderate of the rebel groups, the Constitutionalists under Venustiano Carranza, leapt to the opportunity, and before long, the others also queued, even the Anarcho-Syndicalists under Pancho Villa, whose rhetoric usually seethed with hatred of the Gringos. Fueled by US aid, the rebels gained several footholds in northern Mexico during the first months of 1916, but with these successes, Wilsons's support to them could not possibly stay covert. Like Sheridan’s support for the rebels of 1867, Wilson’s aid for the rebels of 1916 proved counter-productive as soon as it became publicly known. In the eyes of many Mexicans, the moderate rebels betrayed the purity of their cause by accepting assistance from the Gringos, and the Empire closed its ranks. In April 1916, Huerta took advantage of the restored morale of his forces and launched a well-executed offensive. Though Venustiano Carranza, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata remained at large, many other rebel leaders were captured and their forces dispersed. The rotten structure still stood. To kick it down, the USA would have to take up arms themselves. Just when they were preparing to do exactly that, they ran into major problems half a hemisphere away. On the Philippines, another revolt erupted in March 1916, in part provoked by Mexican intelligence operatives. Japan had not forgotten the humiliation it had suffered over the Philippine civil war and the US annexation of Hawaii. They sensed an opportunity to profit from American preoccupation along the Rio Grande and take another shot at the Philippines. Being an active belligerent against the Central Powers (without having much fighting to do) they believed they would get full backing by the other Entente powers and did not need to fear US repercussions. As the Japanese condemned US treatment of the Filipino uprising, the Americans dispatched 10.000 Army and Marines personnel to Hawaii for counterinsurgency refresher training in preparation for deployment to the Philippines. The Mexican secret service took the opportunity and poured oil into the fire. They simultaneously leaking fake information to the USA that a major revolt of Japanese and Kokoan settlers on Hawaii (over a third of the local population at that time) was imminent, and to the Japanese community on Hawaii that the 10.000 US military on the Archiple were there to pre-emptively crack down on them. Within weeks, Hawaii descended into chaos, both sides blaming the other to have started the fire. This escalation in turn outraged the Japanese and Kokoans, and powerful naval squadrons from both nations were mobilized to ‘show concern.’ On April 3rd, 1916, President Wilson unilaterally decided to postpone Philippine independence till 1920 and send reinforcements to fight the rebels; the rebels answered by launching a major offensive against US strongholds all across the Philippines. By mid-April, the major US possessions in the Pacific were ablaze.

13. The Spark
As the 1916 US electoral campaign fired up, the Republicans accused Wilson of having entirely lost control of the situation. There was unrest on Hawaii, open war on the Philippines and chaos in Mexico. Their rhetoric was openly warlike; Japan and Koko were to face the guns of the USN, the Philippine insurgents were to be rooted out, and the viper’s nest calling itself the Mexican Empire was to be conquered, occupied and partitioned. All at the same time, of course. This sabre-rattling had some appeal even to many democrats. Nearly everyone despised monarchy as a matter of principle, and the call to put the Japanese into their place and throw the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns out of Mexico was attractive for the electorate all across the political spectrum. President Wilson faced a dilemma. He had been willing enough to revive Roosevelt’s policy of active regime-change in Central America as long as no one shot back, but he knew the Mexicans would shoot back, with all kinds of heavy weapons. He had not worked so hard to keep the USA out of the European war just to be entangled in a multi-front war all across the Pacific and along the entire length of his southern border, which even in case of the Empire’s total collapse might easily degenerate into years of insurgence with no clear conclusion; memories of the last war on the Philippines were not encouraging. Also, any extended conflict with Mexico’s Austrian Empress and German ruler might drag the USA into the European war anyway. With Thiaria in the war on the Central powers side since April, significant assets of the RN were needed in the South Atlantic, and the USN would certainly have to send reinforcements to the Grand Fleet and face the German Navy at the height of its strength, while at the same time having to deal with the Mexican Navy. This in turn would leave insufficient assets to defend Hawaii and the Philippines against the greedy Japanese, who had already captured every German possession in the Far East and had nothing to gain from keeping their hands off US possessions. To avoid this conundrum, Wilson decided to deal with one threat at a time. He resisted anti-Mexican pressure and proceeded to show his teeth to the Japanese and Kokoans, while continuing to build up the US Army. By July 1st, 1916, a total of 300.000 soldiers were active in the US Army and Marines, more than at any previous time since the civil war. Half of them were arrayed along the Mexican border, but told to remain defensive for the time being. Another 20.000 Army and Marines personnel were dispatched to the Philippines to prepare for operations on the Philippines, backed up by a powerful fleet. To counter Japan’s four big, modern battlecruisers, at least the same number of dreadnoughts would be needed. On May 3rd, 1916, Rear Admiral Caperton hoisted his flag on USS Nevada, in service for a mere week, and led USS Arkansas, USS Wyoming and USS North Dakota, accompanied by the battlecruisers USS Enterprise and USS Independence, plus two armored cruisers and two scout cruisers, to Hawaii. America’s eight newest pre-dreadnoughts and another two armored cruisers of Admiral Winslow’s Pacific Fleet were already en route to the Philippines. The Pacific fleet’s submarine force was increased to 18 boats, leaving only 21 in the Atlantic, of which the seven newest ones were decommissioned to receive new engines. While the USN faced off the Japanese and Kokoans, the Marines hunted Philippine insurgents – to the lasting horror of the British, who were preparing to attack at the Somme, had just lost eight large cruisers at Jutland and direly needed the USA by their side, rather than at the throat of their Japanese allies. Meanwhile Huerta continued his offensive against the remaining insurgents. Zapata’s communists took the brunt of the fighting, and despite skillful resistance, he was reduced to a few hundred active followers by late May, mostly in the south of the country, where they were of no use to the Americans. Zapata himself went undercover somewhere in Yucatan. Villa was considered little more than a brigand and repeatedly took bribes to switch sides, but remained elusive. Carranza's Constitutionalists were thoroughly discredited by their accepting US support and received no help from the rural population; by June, they were for all practical purposes crushed. Huerta stood at the brink of total victory, but blew his chance by wreaking bloody revenge upon villages and towns which had been under rebel control. His atrocities were matched bullet for bullet by Carlos Augusto's Colorados, who would not let the army outdo them. Huerta’s and Carlos Augusto’s combined bloody-mindedness revived popular support for the rebels. In the middle of this orgy of violence, thousands of American citizens in Mexico were trying to do business; a serious incident therefore was only a matter of time. Just when US-Japanese tensions reached a new peak when the USN captured a civilian Japanese freighter off Mindanao with hidden ammunition boxes on June 16th, the Colorados rounded up suspected anarchists in Monterrey; about 60 of them escaped on the grounds of the local US consulate. The Colorados demanded their release, and amid a heated discussion a shot was fired into the head of a Colorado officer by one of the refugees. Five minutes and a few hundred additional shots later, 44 Mexican civilians and three US Marine guards lay dead on the grounds of the US consulate. Four consulate employees and the eleven year old daughter of the US consul were hit by stray bullets while watching the massacre from windows of the Consulate building. Images of her dead body were on the front pages of every US newspaper on June 19th. Three days later, President Wilson, with loathing, ordered a 'punitive expedition'.

14. Orders of Battle
The US Army had about half its effective strength – 150.000 troops in total – in the vicinity of the Mexican border; most of the rest was deployed in the Far East, engaged in training or otherwise unavailable for immediate deployment. The GIs were superior to Huerta's army in training, morale, leadership, motorization and logistics. Equipment-wise however, they were not much better furnished than the Mexicans, whose forces numbered 140.000 regulars, 25.000 Colorados and 10.000 Marines; about a third of the regulars and virtually all Colorados were tied down in counterinsurgency warfare. The Mexicans had the same machineguns as the Americans, but more of them, and less numerous, but more powerful artillery, much of it factory-new, home-made under Skoda license, with ample ammunition supply. If the Mexicans could maintain morale and discipline, the US Army would have to advance over hostile territory with poor lines of communication and try to bring an enemy to battle who had plenty of room to evade and not much interest in protecting the civilian population. What passed for allies was apt to turn upon the Americans at any moment; Carranza was an opportunist, and Zapata and Villa were known as violently anti-American. The US C-in-C General Pershing had orders to bring the Mexican Empire to its knees before the US elections, by whatever means necessary; at worst, this would require him to destroy the Mexican army and take Mexico City within four months. As he was a moderate Republican himself and strongly in favor of US intervention in the First World War, proceeding recklessly to save Wilson's presidency was not in his interest, so he prepared his invasion thoroughly and advanced cautiously. And that was the good news. While the US Army was at least prepared to fight, the USN did not even pass that bar. After three years of being administrated by SecNav Josephus Daniels, who invested a lot of energy into rooting out whoring and drinking among American naval personnel, the USN was at a surprisingly low state of readiness. Its ship strength was impressive, and its officer corps was well trained and highly professional, but personnel expenditures had been so low under the Wilson presidency that early in 1916 only 10% of US ships were fully manned. The gap between existing and required personnel was a staggering 43%. Few personnel reserves could be tapped, as rapid build-up of the tiny peacetime army had been treated with priority. On the other side, the Mexican Navy of 1916 was in its best-ever condition, both materially and in terms of training, doctrine and leadership. Even more dangerous was the fact that the Americans did not know this. Morale among Mexican sailors was considered low by US naval intelligence, because many of them sympathized with the communists. But while it was true they despised Carlos Augusto’s regime, that sentiment was dwarfed by their hatred of the USA. They might not be terribly well motivated by what they were fighting for, but very much by what they were fighting against. As long as there were Gringos on the other side, they would fight like devils. While some of the best US naval forces were tied down in the Far East, Admiral Benson’s Atlantic Fleet still had nine dreadnoughts (two of them factory new), six pre-dreadnoughts, eight armored cruisers and four protected cruisers. Another six pre-dreadnoughts, four monitors, two armored cruisers and ten protected cruisers made up the Atlantic Fleet’s mothball squadron; their timely activation was extremely unlikely. While vastly superior in battleships and large cruisers, US light forces were dangerously scarce. Of the active protected cruisers, only two were fast fleet scouts; the other two were with Admiral Caperton’s Pacific reinforcement squadron. There also were 32 destroyers in the Pacific, leaving only thirty (plus eight large torpedo boats) for the Atlantic fleet. Of America’s 41 submarines, only 14 were operational in the Atlantic fleet; another eighteen were in the Pacific, and seven were under refit. Despite these shortcomings, the power of the US Atlantic fleet should still be plenty enough for Mexico’s fleet of five dreadnoughts (one factory-new), six pre-dreadnoughts (three active, one in reserve, two in mothballs) and four armored cruisers. The long suit of the Mexicans was their scouting force, boasting eight light cruisers including the former Karlsruhe, 32 active-duty destroyers (although only the sixteen newest ones matched US craft in terms of size and firepower) and 32 torpedo boats (12 mothballed). Mexico also had eight older protected cruisers (two mothballed). Of the Mexican fleet, two pre-dreadnoughts, two armored cruisers, two protected cruisers, eight old destroyers and eight small torpedo boats were in Tolopobampo on the west coast, thus isolated from the main force. Of Mexico’s fourteen submarines, the four oldest ones were considered unfit for battle, and the two newest ones suffered from incapacitating teething troubles. Summing up, the USN was crushingly superior on paper – apart from light cruisers – but the desperate personnel situation hampered their efficiency and made it impossible to activate mothballed units at short notice. Worse, their false impression of Mexican fighting spirit exerted a fatal influence on their rather optimistic operational planning.

15. Invasion
While the US Atlantic Fleet assembled at Key West and struggled to get operational, the opening shots of the American-Mexican war of 1916 were fired by the respective armies. Pershing's troops crossed the border simultaneously in Texas and California on July 2nd. Mexicali and Tijuana were captured within two days, and Monterrey within two weeks. The Mexican Army offered no resistance at all in the west and traded space for time in the east; only the small garrison of Ciudad Maximilian stayed put to divert US forces into a siege, which was however quickly over when the Americans managed to torch the garrison’s food supply. Huerta and his corps commanders Blanquet and Mondragon concentrated their forces in Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosi and all but evacuated Coahuila and Chihuahua, which fell to various rebel groups in their entirety. As Huerta had predicted, they immediately started fighting each other. Within a week, Villa's men raided across the American border in retaliation of an incident where Pershing's forces caused a dozen collateral civilian deaths while bombarding a Mexican railway station with artillery. They took advantage of the assignment of all mobile US forces to Pershing's army and killed over 100 inhabitants of Columbus/New Mexico while pillaging the town. This made Villa popular, but of course helped Huerta by forcing Pershing to detach many of his best cavalry units to hunt him down, slowing his pace of advance. While Communists and Anarchists proved more of a hindrance to the Americans than to Carlos Augusto's regime by attacking Americans at the most inopportune moments, Venustiano Carranza , striving to reinforce his status as President Wilson's favorite rebel, met with Pershing on July 14th and proposed an invasion at the other end of Mexico, in Chiapas and Yucatan, to divert imperial attention and forces south. This would give his own southern rebel forces respite and opportunities to expand their territory, and hopefully result in the destruction Zapata’s main power base in the south (the local Native American warlord Genovevo de la O was an ally of Zapata). To the Americans, the proposal appeared attractive. Mexico's south was suffering worst from the oppressive policies towards Native Americans since 1910, and with any luck, a successful local invasion and neutralization of the imperial stronghold at Chetumal would lead to a major rebellion or even secession of large parts of Southern Mexico, which could then be turned into US satellites. Pershing was all in favor of a plan that got as much as possible of the useless navy out of his way and endorsed Carranza's proposal to Wilson. The president wanted to deliver a knockout strike before the elections, and hitting the Mexicans at both ends of their country seemed a good recipe to collapse their war effort with a single bold strike. Always the diplomat, he first made a final attempt to obtain a negotiated settlement. In a speech held on July 17th, a day after the conquest of Ciudad Maximilian, Wilson encouraged all Mexican democrats to join him on his crusade to end Habsburg Tyranny; as soon as the Empress and Carlos Augusto were in exile (Wilson did not say dead, but would not have cared), the USA was open for a generous negotiated settlement. This was half of what the moderate Monarchists wanted to hear. They would have loved to get rid of the Americans and Carlos Augusto in a single stroke, but of course Monarchy would have to endure, although stripped of the Monarch's executive powers. The Empress herself was so stressed of her reign that becoming a mere figurehead was a perfectly attractive option for her, and Admiral Beltran was keen to replace Carlos Antonio not only in the imperial boudoir, but also as de-facto head of state. He secretly drafted a proposal for a settlement on the basis of turning Mexico into a parliamentary Monarchy, to be delivered at an opportune moment. He was realistic enough that the Americans would not acquiesce for anything less than abolition of Monarchy if they believed they could enforce this goal themselves. Beltran could only approach the Americans if Mexico's armed forces delayed the US onslaught in a way that made Wilson fear he could not finish the war before the elections. Meanwhile Carlos Augusto's official response to Wilson's offer was a stream of furious insults. Two days after his speech, Wilson ordered Admiral Benson to include the conquest of Chetumal and the raising of a southern rebellion into his plan of operations. Benson had no objections; he had enough ships for a multi-axis attack, but needed to assemble suitable transports for the necessary Marine expeditionary force, which created delays. Like Pershing, Benson did not consider saving Wilson's job his prime objective (with Wilson out of office, he would be rid of SecNav Daniels, and what a great day that would be), so a little delay was perfectly acceptable for him.

16. Plans and Counter-plans
During the second half of July, US Army units bypassed the Baja California and advanced southward into Sonora. The Mexican Pacific fleet – such as it was – gave Huerta’s outnumbered Army units fire support wherever possible; there were no US naval forces available to seriously contest Rear Admiral Blanco’s control of the Gulf of California. Constant bombardments and commando raids harassed the Americans and slowed them down, but their numerical superiority was such that they could not be stopped cold. As the US Army’s main body struggled to prevent their supposed Mexican Rebel Allies from plundering their supply camps, the Mexican main fleet at Veracruz started to make a nuisance of itself. The superdreadnought Imperio was hastily commissioned on June 28th without any serious trials; over 300 yard personnel remained aboard on its first operational cruise, in case of trouble with the ship’s untried equipment. Half of them were German and Austrian citizens. The fleet was commanded by Vice Admiral Adrian Vasco Maximiliano Sarasarte y Boldiszar, son of a Hungarian noblewoman who had come to Mexico with Emperor Maximilian’s retinue in 1862, and a low-born Mexican army officer. Like all Mexican Admirals, Sarasarte was hand-picked by Beltran, and not only cunning and courageous, but also loyal to a fault. To Beltran. On July 12th, the superdreadnought Imperio, flying Sarasarte’s flag, covered two armored cruisers bombarding Corpus Christi. They did little material damage, but created much outrage and calls for immediate action of the USN. On July 20th, three Mexican pre-dreadnoughts and two older cruisers bombarded US positions around Brownsville and Matamoros, then landed a force of 1.000 Marines, put large quantities of US supplies to the torch and evacuated without significant losses, thereby completely knocking over Pershing's timetable for the conquest of Ciudad Victoria. On August 7th, two Mexican armored cruisers and a pre-dreadnought bombarded Galveston, this time causing significant losses among the civilian population. At the same time, two false-flagged transports carrying the breechblocks of the mothballed Spanish fortress guns and ammunition for them, plus two minelayers and a freighter with 600 mines, were dispatched to Guantanamo, where they arrived on August 5th. Two colliers and three oilers were already there, and an ammunition transport with three thousand 305mm shells followed on August 9th. Almost 2.000 Mexican army personnel under Colonel Trevino augmented a thousand Marines to garrison Guantanamo. Within a week, the mothballed fortress guns of Guantanamo were made ready, and the minelayers went to work every night from August 9th. Additional Mexican personnel arrived on August 11th to man the fortress batteries. The Cuban authorities turned a blind eye. They considered Mexican presence in Guantanamo, which did not involve any political or economic tampering with Cuban affairs, preferable to liberation by the USA, which certainly would involve both. Apart from political considerations, they had been bribed. Meanwhile, the USN was completing their preparations. To attain full combat-readiness, all fittings which could impair their armament were removed; unfortunately, this included aircraft launch platforms, which had been mounted on several cruisers. On July 28th, Admiral Benson officially issued his operations plan, with President Wilson's stamp of approval on it. Admiral Fletcher asked for another delay of two more weeks, as several of his ships still did not have their full complements on board. The scope of Benson's plan was grandiose. The dreadnoughts Michigan and South Carolina, three Maine-class pre-dreadnoughts and three armored cruisers under Admiral Knight were dispatched to Tampico, covering a fleet of transports carrying 4.000 Marines and three Monitors for close fire support. They were to invade Tampico in a pincer movement with Pershing’s army units. As Tampico was home to Mexico’s largest naval shipyard, the only Mexican steel plant, significant oil fields and the Naval Academy, this attack would draw out the Mexican main fleet from Veracruz, which would then be intercepted by the battle squadron of VAdm Mayo: five dreadnoughts headed by the huge, brand-new USS Pennsylvania, largest warship afloat worldwide at that time, supported by four armored cruisers and two scout cruisers under RAdm Rodgers. Meanwhile, the super-dreadnought USS Oklahoma and three Virginia-class pre-dreadnoughts under RAdm Grant would proceed to Yucatan, covering four small cruisers, four gunboats and several transports with another 3.000 Marines, to disembark at Chetumal and spark a general rebellion against the Empire in all its southern provinces. It was a bold attempt to achieve everything at the same time and knock the Mexicans out by mid-September. Unfortunately, the plan squandered a potentially overwhelming superiority by dispersing it all over the Gulf of Mexico. While the Atlantic fleet was waiting for the go, the Mexican Pacific Fleet paid a surprise visit to Panama on August 1st. They bombarded US fortifications at the channel locks, sank five merchant ships and a submarine, landed a team of Marines who blew up one of the lock gates, then retreated unmolested. Although the damage was repairable, the attack prompted the Americans to deploy their powerful submarine squadron at Panama to the Pacific, in an effort to prevent a repetition, removing it from the equation in the Caribbean. Meanwhile at the land front, General Pershing launched the attack against Ciudad Victoria on August 10th, for the first time against determined Mexican resistance. The Mexican army units were steady enough, and the battle raged for a full week. Then a regiment of Colorados came under heavy attack, broke and ran in the most dishonorable way, demoralizing the neighboring army units and drawing them into the flight. On August 17th, Ciudad Victoria fell to Pershing, who completely routed the retreating Mexicans, taking over 5.000 prisoners, most of them Colorados. His forces reached the Rio Panuco at Tamuin within ten days, and a diversionary attack by General Liggett captured the city of San Luis Potosi on August 20th virtually without resistance. The way to Tampico was free; within another week, Pershing would be deployed to attack, with his flanks secured against his supposed rebel allies. The Navy would open that battle, but Pershing would be the one to end it. Although the local garrison of 2.000 Marines under RAdm Azueta had been augmented with 6.000 reinforcements and substantial artillery, this would not be enough against a pincer attack from land and sea.

17. A Blaze of Glory
In Mexico City, Prince Carlos Augusto thought the war was being conducted in a much too passive way. As early as August 18th, he lost his nerve and ordered Admiral Beltran to personally lead every available ship to an attack on Key West, to surprise and totally destroy the USN in its base. Beltran and Sarasarte had expected nothing less stupid and had no intention to comply. They agreed that monarchy could only be saved if the Americans feared a continuation of the war till after their elections. If Mexican morale held together, the land campaign could easily drag on that long; but if Carlos Augusto had his way, the navy would certainly be crushed, and the nation's morale right with it. It never occurred to Beltran and Sarasarte that the Americans were about to divide their fleet into manageable portions; they always assumed they would concentrate it, so any open battle would necessarily be suicide. To achieve the delay needed to make the Americans accept a compromise, the Mexican fleet needed to open up a new front and divert US resources away from the land campaign, towards an objective the Americans could not afford to ignore. Sarasarte's plan was to deploy the main fleet to Guantanamo to draw the USN out of the Gulf of Mexico and, hopefully, into a Gallipoli-style naval siege. The experience of the havoc wreaked upon the Allied fleets by the Turks the year before was still fresh, and if the Americans wanted to get Sarasarte, they’d have to repeat it – and hopefully take enough casualties to turn US public opinion against this war. This plan, though somewhat optimistically assuming the Mexican army could continue to deliver a flexible defense, was obviously much more sensible than Carlos Augusto's idea of a glorious death ride. As soon as he had his orders, Beltran contacted the Empress herself, who overruled Carlos Augusto and gave the Admiral complete freedom of action. On August 19th, the Mexican fleet – five dreadnoughts, a pre-dreadnought, two armored cruisers and substantial light forces – left Veracruz for Guantanamo, twenty-four hours before the scheduled departure of the USN from Key West. They passed Cancun at 1600 hours on August 21st, ten hours before the American armada reached the tip of Yucatan, where Grant's squadron split from the main fleet and proceeded south to Chetumal. Both fleets observed strict radio silence and missed each other. During the late afternoon of August 22nd, Grant reached Chetumal and started to bombard the Mexican fortress, planning to disembark troops in the morning. Chetumal dispatched an uncoded radio distress call at 1650 hours reporting an attack by four enemy battleships, one with a single funnel and three with three funnels, which Sarasarte picked up. He could not believe his luck. An American squadron made up of one of their huge super-superdreadnoughts and three useless pre-dreadnoughts had placed itself on a silver tablet before him. If Sarasarte could destroy them before retreating to Guantanamo, Beltran and the Empress could offer a negotiated settlement from a position of strength right then. Sarasarte turned his fleet around and headed for Chetumal, which took the best part of a day to reach. By that time, the US invasion was well underway. The garrison of Chetumal - 300 Marines and 1.500 army soldiers - had managed to repulse the initial amphibious assault, because their fortress was located close to a town full of potential insurgents, so the Americans had refrained from bombarding it with 305mm HE shells, restricting fire support to smaller guns which were more accurate, but not destructive enough forn the Mexican fortress. After this failure, Grant’s pre-dreadnoughts went closer to the coast to renew the bombardment with all available guns, while Oklahoma guarded the sea flank.. At 1800 hours on August 23rd, the Mexican fleet bore down on Chetumal from a north-easterly direction. USS Oklahoma faced the whole Mexican fleet. Grant relied on intelligence reports about poor Mexican fighting spirit and engaged; the second-most powerful battleship of the USN would surely be able to quickly sink both enemy flagships, and then the others would take heels, probably even surrender. And even if they did not, Grant hardly had another choice. Again, Sarasarte could hardly believe what he saw. The Americans did not even try to evade; instead, USS Oklahoma divided her fire, attacking both Mexican division flagships with her fore and aft turrets, respectively. Like most naval battles in US history, the engagement of Chetumal was a totally one-sided affair, but this time with the USN at the receiving end. USS Oklahoma put nine 356mm shells into Imperio and three into Emperador Maximiliano, while five Mexican battleships blanketed her with over forty 350mm and 305mm hits in as many minutes. By the time the US pre-dreadnoughts had closed to gunnery range, Oklahoma was ablaze, her guns silenced. Driven by desperation, they valiantly charged the enemy, but were understaffed and outgunned, and picked off one after another. After three hours, the US fleet was all but annihilated; Oklahoma was actually the last US ship to go down after most of her crew had abandoned her. The Mexicans suffered no total losses at all. Of the Mexican dreadnoughts, the flagship was moderately damaged, two others lightly, and two not at all. Personnel losses were 400 Mexican dead versus 1.900 US dead and 1.600 captured. Some 2.700 US Marines were marooned on the shore, many of them wounded; in the face of the Mexican armada, they dispersed inland and tried to link up with local insurgents. Two protected cruisers and three gunboats, the only survivors of the US fleet, escaped into the darkness as night fell; they headed for Belize and suffered the humiliation of being interned by the British. By morning, Sarasarte departed for Guantanamo.

18. Decisions
When the first distress call of Chetumal was received on August 22nd – with no Mexican fleet units he knew of anywhere near – Prince Carlos Augusto believed he had an excuse to tear a long-time festering sting from his flesh. He ordered the local Colorado detachment at Veracruz to arrest Beltran on charges of insubordination and cowardice, and they duly plucked him from his villa in the evening of August 23rd. Being the personal favorite of the Empress, Beltran had considered himself bulletproof and not put up any guards. While ransacking the villa, the Colorados found a draft of Beltran's proposal: Parliamentary monarchy with no executive powers for the Monarch, disestablishment of the Colorados, privileged access for US enterprises to Mexican markets - and extradition of Carlos Augusto and Huerta to be prosecuted as war criminals. When this document was presented to Carlos Augusto the following day, he added high treason to the list of Beltran's offenses and had him brought to Mexico City for torture. When the Empress was informed of his imprisonment, she threw such a fit that Carlos Augusto had her confined to an asylum and sedated. That day marked the beginning of his brief absolute dictatorship. A day later, word of Sarasarte's triumph at Chetumal spread worldwide. President Wilson was dumbstruck. The electoral campaign was running full steam, and the Republicans had already capitalized on the slowness of the Army’s advance and the apparent inactivity of the Navy. How could the USA join the European war when even the Mexicans, of all people, could stop them? And now the same Mexicans had dealt the USN her worst-ever defeat. The fact that Admiral Fletcher had been warning of the poor state of readiness of the older ships for weeks made it even worse; Wilson now looked like he had knowingly sent three and a half thousand Americans to their doom. He needed a day to recover, then he ordered the squadrons of Admirals Mayo and Rodgers turned around to hunt down the Mexican fleet. Knight proceeded to Tampico to assist Pershing taking it. On August 24th, President Wilson informed the British government that he expected them to exert diplomatic pressure upon the Japanese to stop any activities aimed at Hawaii and the Philippines; otherwise the USA might be too preoccupied to render further aid to the Entente in the European war. The British were flabberghasted. They had problems of their own in abundance and were in no mood to alienate an active ally in order to help a neutral who had repeatedly declared unwillingness to become an active ally, now or ever. Whitehall decided the only thing that would help was a Republican in the White House, and did nothing. As the battle of Chetumal had obviously shifted priorities, Admiral Benson ordered RAdm Caperton to release his battlecruisers, armored cruisers and scout cruisers, plus a squadron of destroyers, on August 25th. These were ordered to sail to San Diego, resupply, annihilate Mexico’s Pacific squadron, pass the Panama channel and join forces with the main fleet, if possible within the next thirty minutes. One Captain Sims was promoted Rear Admiral and placed in command. Vice Admiral Mayo meanwhile pondered where to look for the Mexicans, now that they were loose in the Caribbean. They had no bases west of Chetumal (or so the Americans believed) and no way to resupply their ammunition stocks, of which about half would have been used up in the battle. They could however coal and resupply at Cuba or Honduras, or proceed to Colombia, whose government still had not forgiven the Americans the Panaman secession. They would certainly allow them to coal and make repairs, and might even join forces with the Mexicans and try to retake Panama. The submarine squadron at Panama, currently looking for Mexicans in the Pacific, was recalled to the Caribbean, and airship patrols all across the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico were intensified. US warships had landed their experimental aviation facilities upon mobilization, because they interfered with gunnery arcs; now five old cruisers were hastily fitted with take-off platforms and made ready to join the fleet as additional scouts. While these preparations were underway, the Mexican submarine Esturion sank the large armored cruiser USS Memphis and radioed the position of Admiral Mayo’s main force to every interested party. In Mexico City, Carlos Alberto promoted Sarasarte to full admiral on August 27th. He ordered him to return to Veracruz immediately and get rid of those trifling enemy battleships on his way. The order, which was relayed through the commandant of Veracruz Naval base, reached Sarasarte two hours after he had dropped anchor in Guantanamo Bay. The Admiral asked for confirmation from Beltran; Carlos Augusto simply repeated his order. Suspecting something was badly wrong, Sarasarte claimed heavy battle damage and requested two weeks for repairs, without mentioning where he actually was. The Americans intercepted the transmissions; assuming someone who had just been promoted to full Admiral would not lie to his C-in-C, Fletcher expected the Mexican fleet on its way home for repairs, badly battered. Admiral Mayo doubted that, but nevertheless concentrated scouting activities west of Yucatan in order to make sure the Mexicans wouldn’t slip past him a second time. Unsurprisingly, he came up blank.

19. Circles
Knight’s squadron reached Tampico late on August 26th, a day behind schedule, and went to bombardment positions. During the night, a mass attack of Mexican destroyers and torpedo boats sank the armored cruiser Milwaukee and damaged the battleship USS Missouri, but at great cost to the attackers. Before Pershing had brought his assault force in position, Tampico’s sea front was fully engaged; the battle continued on the following day. Mexican 240mm and 305mm coastal batteries, and several older warships moored in Tampico harbor, engaged in a grim gunnery duel with the USN, and during the following night, another torpedo boat sortie destroyed the monitor Tallahassee, which took three 450mm torpedo hits and sank in shallow water on an even keel. Pershing launched his assault on August 29th, confident his numerical superiority of 4:1 would be enough to carry the day despite the Navy was unable to close in enough to provide effective covering fire. But the Mexican garrison, making good use of their semi-automatic rifles in house-to-house combat, repulsed the attack. After 48 hours, the Americans had suffered 5.000 casualties, against half that number on the Mexican side, and Pershing called it a day. Of the Mexican ships in the harbor, most had been sunk in shallow water by US gunnery, but Admiral Knight’s squadron was little better off. During the last night of the battle, a strong Mexican destroyer and torpedo boat force from Veracruz, led by an old cruiser, steamed up and involved the Americans into a confused night battle; losses were considerable on both sides, and by morning, three of Knight’s five battleships had torpedo damage to patch. The first battle of Tampico ended with a humiliating retreat of the US bombardment squadron, and during retreat, USS Missouri was sunk by the new Mexican submarine Otario. Mayo’s dreadnought squadron meanwhile reached the tip of Yucatan without picking up any sign of Sarasarte’s fleet. He dispatched Rodgers to Chetumal, where the Mexican fortress had again come under attack by the surviving US Marines, assisted by Mexican rebels under Genovevo de la O. With their land flank under attack, the Mexicans could go nowhere and were blasted by Rodgers’ cruisers, resulting in Chetumal’s surrender on August 30th. Prisoner interrogations revealed that Admiral Sarasarte had told the commandant of the fortress he was headed for Panama. He had been lying, obviously, but these reports dovetailed with Mayo's worst fears. US airships had not sighted Sarasarte in the Caribbean, but they had not sighted him anywhere else, too, after all. Mayo made up his mind. The Mexicans must know they were doomed; Sarasarte’s goal could only be to wreak as much damage as possible before – inevitably – morale of his crews failed, and where better to achieve that than at the Panama Channel? On September 1st, Mayo informed his boss Fletcher that Sarasarte had tricked them with his transmission to Carlos Augusto and most probably sailed for Panama with his entire fleet. Fletcher concurred and ordered him to give chase, and the USN steamed south into the Caribbean, where they promptly were hit by a tropical storm that caused minor damage to most of the ships. Halfway to Panama, Mayo was informed that an US airship had detected the Mexicans in Guantanamo harbor on September 3rd. Mayo knocked his head against the next bulkhead; when it rained, it really poured. Then he turned his fleet around. Guantanamo was a week away at economical speed, which needed to be observed because fueling at sea would take even longer. Admiral Benson dispatched two ancient battleships from Key West, where they were serving as guardships, to block the port entrance, and ordered Knight’s squadron to head for Habana and force the Cuban government to expel the Mexicans from Guantanamo, straight into Mayo’s fangs. The Cuban army was tiny, but the Mexicans could not possibly have moved any significant garrison to Guantanamo without anyone noticing. Either the Mexicans complied and were crushed by Mayo’s battleships, or they stayed and were trapped by the blockships. While the Americans re-deployed and Pershing prepared to renew his attack on Tampico, the Mexican Army, which had been on continuous retreat and was as demoralized as the Americans thought the Mexican Navy was, went on the offensive. Huerta knew the Army would soon be useless without at least a small victory, and ordered General Blanquet to drive a wedge through the Americans besieging Tampico, in an attempt to cut off and capture one of Pershing’s corps. Unfortunately, Blanquet was plucky and ruthless, but not overly imaginative. His preparations were hard to miss, and his focal point obvious. From September 7th, the Mexicans attacked the US Army in a seven-day battle. Pershing repulsed wave after wave with contemptuous ease, inflicting 12.000 losses against 1.500 of his own. All he lost was time, and for Pershing, time was in ample supply. Meanwhile in the Pacific, Rear Admiral Sims’ battlecruiser squadron reached the Mexican coast on September 8th, after having made the run across the Pacific and resupplying at San Diego at record speed; they were reinforced with two additional cruisers there. An US airship had spotted the Mexican Pacific squadron in the Bay of Banderas; Sims was directed to them by radio and engaged on September 10th. Although both fleets were evenly matched, with an edge in light forces for the Mexicans, USS Enterprise blew up the Mexican flagship with one of her first salvoes, and the other battleship – with obsolete fire control and crewed by reservists – proved unable to effectively return fire. After her guns were silenced also, the remaining Mexicans fled, and about half were hunted down by the Americans. Several smaller units escaped into the Gulf of California. Sims ignored them and proceeded to Panama. He enthusiastically radioed that he would reach the tip of Yucatan by September 20th. During these events, the Mexican main fleet had repaired what could be repaired at Guantanamo and topped off their bunkers and magazines. Carlos Augusto by that time had Beltran broken and made him use his personal code to convince Sarasarte that he was still in command; Beltran issued repeated orders to Sarasarte to engage and destroy the Americans. As soon as Huerta had broken the siege of Tampico and Sarasarte had routed the USN, Beltran would issue his communique offering a negotiated peace, promise. Although all that sounded a bit fishy, the code was right, and Sarasarte was compelled to move. He knew Mayo’s squadron had fallen for his ruse and headed for Panama, but he had also seen the US airship flying across Guantanamo Bay on September 3rd. Sarasarte estimated Mayo would turn up off Guantanamo between September 9th and September 11th, and as vague as his orders were, just bottling up at Guantanamo – as he and Beltran had planned – would be disobeying them. He needed to sortie. But he still was in a position to interpret his orders to his advantage, because there was another US squadron at large, inferior in numbers and quality and thoroughly demoralized. Reports of American threats to the Cuban government and a sighting report of smoke from multiple ships passing the Mexican surveillance post on the island of Bermeja made it easy to guess where Knight was heading. Destroying his squadron and escaping back to Mexico, while the US Army kept failing to take Tampico, would surely demoralize President Wilson into ending the war without eliminating Mexican monarchy. At midnight on September 10th, Sarasarte weighed anchor and headed east with five dreadnoughts, two armored cruisers and whatever light forces he could muster. The pre-dreadnought Victoria, unable to sustain 20 knots like the other Mexican capital ships, remained at Guantanamo. Upon dawn, Sarasarte sailed through the windward passage, and by noon, US aerial reconnaissance reported only one large Mexican ship in Guantanamo. Admiral Mayo was informed that the best part of the Mexican fleet was gone. They could not have gone south, because Mayo would have sighted them already; to the east, there was nothing of interest to the Mexicans, so the only logical route was west. Mayo duly went on a westerly course and gave chase. In the early morning of September 11th, Knight’s squadron arrived off Habana and delivered their message to the Cubans. The Cuban government responded that under the secret 1913 treaty, Guantanamo was considered Mexican territory and they unfortunately were in no position to intervene; then they fled into their bunker. The Americans needed a day for a decision on the highest political level; then Congress unilaterally declared that treaty null and void because it violated the US-Mexican treaty of 1898 concerning Cuba's neutrality. President Wilson gave the Cubans another day to comply, otherwise the USA would invade and all Cubans who got killed along the way were the Cuban government's fault. Knight was ordered to bombard Habana into submission if the ultimatum lapsed. By September 12th, Mayo had found no trace of the Mexican fleet south of Cuba, not even with six airships deployed in a tight search pattern. Which meant the Mexicans were not there. Which in turn meant they must have headed east – and from there, as they were not spotted anywhere near Haiti or Puerto Rico, north. Either towards Florida on some suicidal charge, or towards Habana, to assist the Cuban government against Knight’s squadron, which, coincidentally, was comfortably outgunned by the Mexicans. Without consulting his superiors, Mayo divided his fleet. USS Delaware, Florida and Utah under Rear Admiral Hood were to round the western tip of Cuba, head for Habana and join forces with Knight, whom Mayo ordered to leave Habana and head west at best speed. Mayo himself took the remaining battleships – USS Pennsylvania, New York and Texas – and headed east, accompanied by Rodgers’ armored cruisers, to block Sarasarte’s only other escape route. The Imperial fleet was trapped between a numerically superior force and a force of superior quality. Sarasarte’s fleet arrived off Habana at dawn on September 14th. The US squadron was gone. The Mexicans had picked up coded w/t signals from the US fleet, but could not decipher them; Sarasarte had to guess what happened and assumed Knight was acting as bait in order to lure the Mexican fleet to Mayo, who would join him from the west. With his plan blown, Sarasarte radioed Beltran another time, boasting to have put the USN to flight, lifting the blockade of Habana. Sarasarte openly urged Beltran to make peace immediately; his victories had taken a toll on his ships, and he could not go on like this forever. Beltran, with a gun to his head, answered by ordering Sarasarte to destroy the US fleet he had driven away from Habana, then return to Tampico and fight to the last grenade, defending the city against Pershing. There was no mention of any settlement, but the ominous hint that the Empress would die rather than accept anything short of total victory. Obviously, she and Beltran had changed their minds. Or lost them. Or Carlos Augusto was lying. Sarasarte signed off and turned his fleet around, heading back east. If Carlos Augusto wanted to squander the Imperial fleet, Sarasarte could just as well return to Guantanamo and wait for the Americans there, behind his coastal batteries and minefields. On the return leg, Sarasarte’s fleet by chance ran into the blockships USS Kentucky and USS California on September 17th, manned by skeleton crews and without ammunition aboard. Both were quickly sunk by Mexican gunfire, but not before transmitting an uncoded distress call. Mayo and Rodgers triangulated, and concluded the Mexican fleet was only a day away; if they went straight for them at best speed, they would meet just off Guantanamo harbor. The naval part of the war was about to end.

19. Escape from Guantanamo
At Tampico, General Huerta’s ill-advised offensive faltered on September 14th. Simultaneously, US forces had steadily gained ground in the west; on September 15th, General Dickman was the master of Sonora. With Blanquet’s forces broken, Pershing was free to take Tampico. He attacked at dawn on September 17th, against defenders who were weakened to the breaking point after trying to support Blanquet’s offensive. The battle raged for five days, but at nightfall on September 21st, the remaining Mexicans surrendered. RAdm Azueta had to leave the city in a submarine, and all remaining Mexican ships still afloat in Tampico were scuttled to avoid capture. Pershing’s army suffered 3.500 dead and wounded; the Mexicans lost their entire garrison of 6.000, half of them as prisoners. Prince Carlos Augusto threw a fit and slapped Huerta in the face when he received the news. He had believed Sarasarte's victories had sapped US morale and Blanquet’s offensive would break it; when he realized that Pershing’s troops were not shaken by the fate of the USN and Huerta's victory reports were blatant lies, his mood became distinctly Wagnerian. If these stinking lice-ridden Mexicans, he literally told Huerta, were too stupid to give him victory, a glorious death was the best they deserved, and this was exactly what they would get. He ordered another full-scale offensive to throw Pershing back all the way to Texas, victory or death, to be personally led by Huerta, who faced execution if he failed to retake Tampico. Huerta, who had always known that his mentor was mental and would issue suicidal orders sooner or later, told him he’d need two weeks to prepare and urgently fled the palace. He did prepare all right – not for an offensive, but to consolidate a power base for himself and launch a coup. While the Mexican Army was weakened, confused and more or less leaderless, the only factor that prevented Pershing from finishing them off was Pancho Villa, whose guerrilla indiscriminately lashed out against Americans, Imperials and other rebels, constantly endangering American supply lines. Lavishly equipped by the Americans, Carranza’s resurgent Constitutionalists tried to secure the countryside, but still were too weak to get to grips with Villa’s small gangs of highly mobile rebels. All of northern Mexico descended into chaos and anarchy. At Chetumal meanwhile, American and Zapatist forces had finally managed to rouse a major rebellion against imperial rule, and calls of local commands for reinforcements always received the same reply from Mexico City: Fight to the last or face torture and death. Naturally, this attitude weakened Imperial resistance rather than stiffening it, and the rebellion spread. All of south-eastern Mexico descended into chaos and anarchy, too. At sea, Vice Admiral Mayo’s fleet sighted Sarasarte’s ships at dusk on September 18th and gave chase. Visibility was similar as during the battle of Chetumal, with the US fleet silhouetted against the setting sun, but unlike Grant, Mayo knew what was coming for him and was able to use his advantage in gunnery range to engage the Mexicans from outside their own effective range. He went on a parallel course to the south in order to keep the Mexicans at distance; whenever Sarasarte tried to close in, Mayo opened range, leisurely firing all the while. Range and visibility ensured poor accuracy, but Sarasarte knew that the Americans would start hitting sooner or later. He ordered his light forces to charge, in what was to become a classic, even legendary engagement. Five light cruisers and twenty destroyers attacked Mayo’s screen of two scout cruisers and sixteen destroyers; although the US destroyers were individually more powerful than their Mexican counterparts, the Mexican cruisers fired with deadly accuracy and cut swathes through the American destroyer screen. To Mayo’s horror, the Mexicans broke through and headed straight for his heavies; the Americans lost both scout cruisers and seven destroyers, against only two Mexican destroyers lost. Rodgers’ armored cruisers closed in and engaged the Mexican light cruisers, promptly sinking one, but getting into effective range of the three Mexican lead ships (Imperio, Natividad and Guadelupe) which engaged and sank two of the US armored cruisers, just as Pennsylvania had bracketed Imperio. Sarasarte’s destroyers meanwhile continued their charge and loosed 48 torpedoes into the US battle line. Pennsylvania was hit twice and Texas thrice, and another US destroyer was also hit and blown up. The damage to Pennsylvania was not serious, but Texas suffered loss of power to the port shaft, resulting in an involuntary turn into the Mexican line. The Mexican battleships Soberano and Monarca engaged at extreme range, and with the last rays of sunlight, scored enough hits to stop USS Texas cold. But their own flagship now was in dire straits; she hit Pennsylvania as often as Pennsylvania hit back, but the huge US battleship shrugged the damage off, while Imperio, her damage from the battle against USS Oklahoma only provisionally patched up, suffered heavy flooding and soon listed too badly to continue firing. Shortly after sunset, a 356mm grenade from USS New York blew up the Mexican dreadnought Emperador Maximiliano, killing Sarasarte’s second in command Adamiral Bayala. Soon after, without issuing any signals on how to proceed, Imperio capsized after having sustained 28 356mm hits. She had been hard to sink, and of her crew of over 1.000, more than half successfully evacuated, and Admiral Sarasarte was taken aboard the destroyer Greifenstein. Wet, cold and wounded, the Admiral decided he had enough; he ordered the fleet to disengage, head south and seek internment in Colombia or Venezuela. Then he passed out. His cruisers laid smoke, their destroyers loosed all remaining torpedoes in the general direction of the Americans, and their remaining capital ships went to flank speed, heading south into the night. One Mexican 533mm torpedo of the second volley struck home on the unfortunate USS Texas, causing a secondary explosion in the aft Magazines, sinking her. Mayo, down to two battleships and two armored cruisers, was undeterred and gave chase. In a confused night action, USS Pennsylvania damaged the trailing Mexican battleship Imperatriz Carlota, causing her to lose speed and bearing; as USS New York passed her at close range, she finished her off with 15 356mm hits. Mayo’s remaining destroyers exhausted their torpedoes against Mexican light craft trying to keep the Americans away from the crippled battleship, sinking four of them, but losing another two of their number. By the time Carlota was gone, it was pitch dark, and as both fleets passed through the fringes of a tropical storm, visibility dropped to 3.000 meters. During the night, the Mexicans veered left and headed for Venezuela; as USS New York could not sustain Pennsylvania’s speed and Mayo did not want to follow the Mexicans all alone, they managed to open distance beyond effective range by sunrise. But Mayo had a final ace to play: Sims’ battlecruisers, approaching from the south-west at flank speed. Provided with precise bearings to the Mexican fleet, Sims maneuvered to block their path. The Mexicans, now by default commanded by Rear Admiral Millenkovich on the armored cruiser Santa Maria de Guadelupe, knew they had to continue on a straight course to Venezuela if they did not want Mayo to catch up; they deliberately allowed Sims to cross the T over them and hoped for the best. Their cruisers and destroyers once more attacked Sims’ destroyer screen; although the Mexicans were out of torpedoes, they used their guns to good effect, and both sides lost three destroyers. In addition, a third US scout cruiser was sunk by two of his Mexican pendants, leaving only a single ship of that type in all of the USN. But the engagement of the heavies went less well; USS Enterprise blanketed Guadelupe with very precise fire, setting her ablaze and causing her to lose speed. Millenkovich barely managed to avoid a collision with the trailing Natividad. At that point, Sims had overtaken the Mexicans and executed a battle turn to cross their line again; this briefly exposed his ships to Natividad’s broadside. Due to the battle turn, Independence now led the US line, and a lucky 240mm hit into turret B started a devastating fire, requiring the flooding of Independence’s forward magazines. Now USS Enterprise had to maneuver to avoid collision; she managed, but lost her fire control solution and risked to come in range of Soberano’s guns. Now it was Sims who had to evade, trading salvoes with Natividad and carefully keeping her between herself and the Mexican dreadnoughts. Sims had decimated them, but failed to throw them off course. Nobody involved could know, but this was the last naval engagement of the war. Mayo and Sims failed to catch up with the Mexicans again, and the remnants of the proud imperial fleet made port in La Guaira on September 26th.

20. Final Curtain, unglorious
When news of Sarasarte’s de-facto desertion reached Mexico City, Carlos Augusto had another nervous breakdown; he ordered Huerta to launch his offensive right now, prepared or not. He never received an answer. Instead, Pershing began to advance inland on September 25th after consolidating his hold on Tampico, meeting little resistance. By that time nearly half of Mexico’s territory was controlled by US forces and their allies, and Villa’s rebels showed first signs of depletion, their raids becoming less frequent and less effective. The Mexican army was much worse off, and with it, the whole nation. Whatever Mexican forces were still in the field were now more likely to fight each other as to try and stem Pershing’s advance on Mexico City. Many local commanders were as unwilling as Sarasarte to sacrifice their life for Carlos Augusto's honor, while many others considered it more important to shoot at 'traitors' than at the Americans. Pershing reached the outskirts of Mexico City on October 9th, and by October 11th, Carranza's forces conquered Aguas Calientes. Huerta’s successor General Blanquet took draconic measures to re-install discipline into the Imperial Army, which only worsened the situation. Carlos Augusto, entrenched in Mexico City with 12.000 Colorados, blamed Admiral Beltran, who had been reduced to a whimpering wreck by pointless brutal torture after he was no longer needed to keep contact with Sarasarte, for the loss of the fleet and had him publicly executed. During the short show trial that preceded the execution, Beltran was accused of having been the lover of the Empress since twenty years and the father of all her children. If Carlos Augusto had thought this eccentric move would unite the monarchists under his banner, he was predictably mistaken. Beltran's show trial ripped the last shreds of legitimacy off Mexican monarchy, and thus by extension off Carlos Augusto’s own power. What loyal army units were left simply dissolved, and by the end of October, the Americans, the Constitutionalists and the oppositional conservatives under General Mondragon, who turned his coat just in time and personally shot his superior Blanquet, took Mexico City against no organized resistance. The Colorados lived up to their reputation as cowards and bullies and deserted en masse, and forces loyal to Mondragon captured Carlos Augusto, who tried to escape disguised as a nun, near Queretaro on October 20th, 1916. In this garment, he was summarily shot by firing squad the day after (reports that he was gang-raped before have neither been confirmed nor denied). When Carranza's men entered the Imperial palace that day, they found the imperial princes dead, hanging upside down from hooks in the cellar; about thirty US officers who had been captured by the Mexicans during the fighting around Tampico and brought to Mexico City for questioning were in a similar state. The Empress was found heavily drugged in confinement; the overdose failed to kill her, but rendered her permanently catatonic. News of the Empire’s complete military, political and moral collapse were greedily exploited by American media and saved President Wilson’s re-election on November 7th, 1916. The Republicans had accused him of not focusing on the more pressing threat and squandering resources to face off the Japanese; now their tactic backfired. The Americans learned that the Hawaiian unrest had been staged by Mexican intelligence agents when Carranza handed over the archives of the Imperial secret service to Pershing, and with that information, the crisis in the Pacific could be de-fused diplomatically. Now Wilson appeared to have stood fast and faced down all opposition at once. A month after Wilson was re-elected, Carranza proclaimed himself president of the newly established Mexican Republic and signed a cease-fire with the US government. Huerta, Villa, Zapata and a dozen other warlords went on to fight the new government's forces, the Americans and each other, without any defined objective. Although the Americans considered the war won at this point, the Mexicans had other plans. The various leaders of the various rebel forces kept eliminating each other. First, Huerta was dispatched by Zapata, who was in turn betrayed and killed by forces loyal to Carranza, who then was murdered by forces loyal to Mondragon and in league with Alvaro Obregon, who eventually became President of the Mexican Republic in 1920 and had Mondragon exiled. Large scale fighting ebbed down after Huerta's death in July 1917, but the Americans had to keep substantial forces in Mexico to protect their interests there until March 1918 – troops which could have ended the First World War by year's end 1917 (and thus probably prevented the Russian civil war). For Mexico, her days as a recognized naval power were over. Whatever ships were still in Mexico were surrendered to the Americans by the Carranza administration. Of the ships still on stocks, those in Tampico had already been completely destroyed, and the rest had to be dismantled under the terms of Carranza’s armistice with the USA. The Americans considered total annihilation of the Mexican navy one of their primary war goals and told Carranza so in no uncertain terms. As the fleet was lost anyway, Carranza had no compunctions turning what was left of it into money. During the spring of 1917, Mexico entered secret negotiations with the Venezuelans about the future of the ships interned there. Venezuelan President Gomez jumped at the opportunity to purchase the fleet, turning his nations into a respectable naval power virtually overnight; almost 2.500 Mexican officers and sailors signed up with the Venezuelan fleet as mercenaries. As this still was not enough trained personnel to operate the battleships and the armored cruiser, the Venezuelans sold Natividad to Spain in 1925 and de-commissioned Monarca to serve as spares donator to keep at least Soberano running. Sarasarte returned to Mexico in 1917 and was made Minister of the Navy in exchange for his assistance in turning its ships into money; he did not know it yet, but he would be the last Mexican Minister of the Navy before the War and Army ministries were merged in 1919. The peace treaty between Mexico - still represented by Carranza - and the USA was signed on March 10th, 1918. To permanently eliminate the navy as a potential rival in the internal power struggles to come, Carranza did not dispute the American maximum demand: a permanent ban on Mexican possession of any warships above 2.000 tons displacement, 20 knots speed and 102mm main armament caliber; submarines and naval aviation were banned entirely. Few if any Mexicans shed tears for their glorious fleet; in the anarchic times of civil war and its aftermath, they had more pressing troubles. Naval nostalgia again began to sprout in the 1930s, when the political situation had stabilized, and in 1935, President Cardenas began a modest rebuilding of the Mexican fleet with Thiarian assistance.

A. Battleships

11. Emperador Maximiliano-Class
The Dreadnought-era had hardly begun when Admiral Beltran decided to join the game with the 1907 fleet modernization programme. Consequently, few foreign designs were available to lean on. The Germans had not yet introduced Turbine propulsion and would not do so before 1909, and the Austrians were still laying down new pre-dreadnoughts even after HMS Dreadnought was completed. Beltran thus asked Vickers and Armstrong for a Dreadnought-clone, complete with plans to build a second ship in Mexico; HM government however vetoed the deal in late spring 1907, because at that time there was still hope the new battleship type would not proliferate and people would accept they had been technologically left behind by Britain for good and forever. Although this attitude proved short-lived – Britain would lay down the first two export dreadnoughts late in 1907 for Brazil – Admiral Beltran felt piqued and asked his fledgling design department to produce plans for a dreadnought-clone of their own, one ship to be built at STT and the other one at Tampico. Given docking restrictions in Mexico, a maximum length of 150 meters was stipulated (slightly exceeded on the finished product), resulting in a very stubby hull form; on the other hand, a raised forecastle allowed for good seakeeping. Armament was the same as on Dreadnought, 10 305/45 pieces, although the Skoda guns used, with their 435kg shells, were considerably more powerful than their British pendants. Turrets were a specific Mexican development of the Austrian ones used on the contemporary KuK Radetzky-class; they sported superior internal protective, sighting and ventilation arrangements. Fire control however was on the primitive side. Secondary armament was limited to 10 100mm guns of a new type, which was at that time still under development, and four submerged torpedo tubes. Turret arrangement was to mirror Dreadnought, but due to the length limit, this was not possible; the initial design had an unacceptably short forecastle, resulting in inferior seakeeping ability and a marked tendency to trim forward. The remedy was re-arrangement of the aft turrets, which were made superfiring, which also allowed for a less complicated internal arrangement without magazines between the aft boiler rooms and the engine compartments. Armor protection resembled Dreadnought’s, more or less by chance, with relatively thin decks and a torpedo bulkhead of limited length. Accommodation was below RN standards, but liked well enough by the Mexicans. Despite rather powerful engines of the newest design, speed was only 20kts, owing to the unfortunate hull shape (length-width-ratio was only 5,78). The lead ship was contracted to STT, to be built to Imperial Navy plans, in May 1908 and laid down in December. Construction proceeded quickly, and the hull was launched in June 1910. She was christened Emperador Maximiliano by Princess Elisabeth Maria of Austria, granddaughter of Kaiser Franz Joseph. Fitting out took slightly longer, but by August 1912, the battleship was officially presented to the Mexican Imperial Navy. The old Mexican Battleship San Juan de Ulua brought a skeleton crew to Trieste, which attended a pompous commissioning ceremony and then sailed Emperador Maximiliano to Mexico, where she was officially commissioned on October 3rd, 1912, in another pompous ceremony. She had been completed without w/t, but was retrofitted before the year was over.


The second ship was laid down to the same plans at the Tampico Naval Yard on September 25th, 1908 – actually more than two months before the lead ship. Construction however took considerably longer. She was launched in March 1911 and christened Imperatriz Carlota by the Empress herself. Fitting out was complete on October 14th, 1913, and after acceptance trials she was officially commissioned on December 15th. She looked identical to Emperador Maximiliano from a distance, but differed in sundry detail: funnel tops and steampipes, wireless and searchlight arrangement. The most visible difference was the lack of the upper charthouse and the parade deck aft, as only the lead ship was equipped as fleet flagships. Internally, Imperatriz Carlota was fitted with twin-shaft AEG-Curtis turbines and Schulz-Thornycroft boilers, the former imported, the latter built in Mexico under German license, while Emperador Maximiliano had four-shaft Parsons turbines and Yarrow boilers made in Austria under British license.


Both ships proved mechanically reliable, and with their long raised forecastles, they were habitable and quite seaworthy, too. Their short hulls made for a very tight turning circle, but they accelerated slowly, lost two thirds of their speed during hard turns and tended to pitch badly even in moderate waves. During 1914, exercises showed poor long-range accuracy of the main guns, especially compared with the Natividad-class armored cruisers, which had director fire control. Due to the war breaking out in 1914, both battleships were kept at peak readiness, but by mid-1915, when both of the 1910 dreadnoughts were available, Imperatriz Carlota was fitted with director fire control and a new, much more powerful w/t system. Two 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA guns were also added.


Emperador Maximiliano was scheduled to get the same refit, but when the Empire slid towards war early in 1916, the refit was postponed and eventually never effected. Together with the pre-dreadnought Victoria, both ships formed the second Battleship division of Vice Admiral Sarasarte’s Imperial battlefleet when the US-Mexican war erupted; Emperador Maximiliano flew the flag of Rear Admiral Tiberio Mariano Bayala de Tovar. At Chetumal, Emperador Maximiliano hit USS Oklahoma four times and USS Nebraska nine times; Imperatriz Carlota, with her director fire control, scored nine hits on Oklahoma and thirteen on Nebraska. Only Maximiliano was hit, three times by Oklahoma. During the subsequent battle of Guantanamo, both battleships were lost to gunfire from USS New York within three hours from each other. Emperador Maximiliano blew up due to a turret hit creating a flashback into a magazine, and Imperatriz Carlota capsized after fifteen hits which caused uncontrollable flooding. Protection of this class was nowhere near US standards, but they at least proved more resilient than contemporary Austrian battleships. For a first effort, they were adequate, which was probably all one could reasonably expect.

Displacement:
18.730 ts mean, 21.360 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 153,30 m, Beam 26,50 m, Draught 8,00 m mean, 8,85 m full load
Machinery:
Maximiliano: 4-shaft Parsons Turbines, 20 Yarrow watertube boilers, 24.000 shp; Carlota: 2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, 16 Thornycroft watertube boilers, 24.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 20 kts maximum, range 4.200 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 280mm; Ship ends 100mm forward, 150mm aft; barbettes 280mm; Turrets 280mm shields, 150mm sides, 60 mm crowns; deck 50mm maximum; CT 280mm; Torpedo bulkhead 40mm (engine and boiler rooms only)
Armament:
5x2 305mm/45 Skoda BL, 10x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 4 – 450mm TT (forward, aft, both beams, submerged)
Crew
975

12. Monarca-Class
Both Emperador-Maximiliano-class vessels were still under construction – neither, in fact, had been launched – when a follow-on class of another two dreadnoughts was approved under the 1910 fleet expansion program. Design work was carried out by the imperial design bureau, and to no one’s surprise, the type was an evolutionary development of the Emperador-Maximiliano-Class, appropriately upscaled to match contemporary foreign developments in battleship construction. By 1910, the Mexicans had acquired a 175m floating dock with a maximum capacity of 24.000 tons, and built a graving dock of the same length at Veracruz, so hull length no longer needed to be tightly constrained. The new ships were ten meters longer and nearly 4.000 tons heavier than their predecessors, and a sixth 305mm turret was added on position B, superfiring turret A; the vessel’s turret configuration thus resembled the Brazilian Minas Gerais and the French Courbet, with the flank turrets on forecastle deck level. An unusual feature was the very large forward arc of the aft turrets, achieved by omitting all superstructure behind the aft funnel. The guns themselves were the same as on Emperador Maximiliano, as were torpedo tube caliber and arrangement. In addition, this class had a full-fledged secondary battery of twelve 150mm guns. Twelve 66mm anti-torpedo boat guns completed the armament. Although the ship was designed for director fire control, no such device could be obtained during her construction, and when Mexican-made directors were finally available in 1915, Monarca was the last ship of the retrofit list, so she never received her director. Protection closely resembled Emperador Maximiliano as well, but the torpedo bulkhead was extended to cover the magazines as well, and internal compartmentation was better. Length-width ratio was still not great at 5,89, and despite a very considerable increase in designed hp, speed was only marginally higher; seakeeping and maneuvering characteristics were similar, as was their tendency to pitch heavily. The most prominent shortcoming of these vessels was their high, ponderous superstructure with two tripod masts and a bulky flying bridge for boat stowage, making them easy to spot and hit. The class ship Monarca (Monarch) was laid down at Trieste on January 25th, 1911 and launched on September 9th, 1912; she was christened by Princess Josephine Caroline of Belgium, wife of Carlos Augusto’s older brother Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The ship was ready for delivery in May 1914; a crew reached Trieste on the Mexican ocean liner Moctezuma on June 12th. They were still acquainting themselves with the vessel when Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28th, and the ship’s captain Esteban Indalecio Ferrer decided not to wait for the formal hand-over ceremony and haul ass immediately, before the ship was seized. When she left Trieste, Monarca’s bunkers were only half full for a speed trial run, and needed to coal at sea off the Greek coast in order to make it to Portugal, where she coaled again for the Atlantic crossing. By the time the battleship reached Veracruz, the First World War was already underway.


The other ship, named Soberano, was laid down at Tampico on August 1st, 1911. Although the new class was considerably larger than Mexico’s first dreadnought type, construction went ahead more quickly as the yard became more experienced. The ship was launched on July 20th, 1913, and completed on September 6th, 1915. Both ships differed in various details: Soberano had a simplified bow shape below the waterline, and her AEG-Curtis turbine plant had only two shafts; unlike her sister, Soberano had balanced rudders. Funnel tops, ventilators and w/t rig also differed. Soberano was the first Mexican battleship to complete with director fire control. She was fitted as division flagship; none of her class carried fleet flag facilities.


Together with the fleet flagship Imperio, the Monarca-class comprised the third battleship division of the Imperial Navy when the war started. Both were instrumental in sinking USS Oklahoma off Chetumal; Monarca scored eight hits and Soberano fourteen. Then they shifted their fire to USS Virginia, which was hit seven times by Monarca and twenty times by Soberano. On the return leg from the raid on Habana, Soberano sank the blockship USS Kentucky with ten hits. When the Mexicans encountered Admiral Mayo’s fleet off Guantanamo, Soberano hit USS Texas seventeen times, and Monarca scored seven hits; Texas was later finished off by a Mexican destroyer torpedo. Texas’ return fire was divided between both Mexican ships; the Americans assumed (with some justification) that the older Mexican ships could not withstand much 356mm fire, so few hits would presumably be needed to sink them. Unfortunately, Texas’ fire control solution was lost when she lost steerage due to a torpedo hit, and only Monarca took five hits, one of which silenced turret S. Her machinery however was unimpaired, and together, both ships escaped to Venezuela. The Venezuelans commissioned Soberano under the new name Libertad; they needed till 1925 to train sufficient personnel to operate her, and even then, they had to rely on over 300 Mexicans of her former crew, who had jointed the Venezuelan Navy as mercenaries after the fall of the Empire. Soberano operated with very few modifications till the mid-thirties, then went to Thiaria for an austere refit. Monarca was scrapped by 1933, after she had been gradually stripped of anything that could be used as spares to keep Soberano running. During the Second World War, Venezuela joined the Allies, and Soberano was employed as escort flagship for Atlantic convoys; she also was employed in the Mediterranen, providing fire support for ground forces, for some months in 1944. She went in reserve soon after the war, was hulked in 1954 and finally scrapped in 1963.
Monarca and Soberano were handsome in a pompous way, but were rated less satisfactory ships than the first pair of Mexican dreadnoughts because of their huge silhouette, high topweight and unpleasant pitch and roll characteristics. They were however obviously lucky ships, who sailed through all engagements of the war with hardly a casualty; Soberano at least lasted very well and was considered a habitable and reliable vessel.

Displacement:
22.520 ts mean, 25.870 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 163,65 m, Beam 27,80 m, Draught 8,10 m mean, 9,15 m full load
Machinery:
Monarca: 4-shaft Parsons Turbines, 24 Yarrow watertube boilers, 30.000 shp; Carlota: 2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, 20 Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 30.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 20,5 kts maximum, range 4.700 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 280mm, upper Belt 180mm; Ship ends 100mm forward, 150mm aft; barbettes 310mm; Turrets 310mm shields, 180mm sides, 60 mm crowns; casemates 150mm; deck 70mm maximum, CT 310mm; Torpedo bulkhead 40mm (whole citadel)
Armament:
6x2 305mm/45 Skoda BL, 12x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF, 12x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF, 4 – 450mm TT (forward, aft, both beams, submerged)
Crew
1060

13. Mexico-Class
When the third series of Mexican dreadnoughts was drawn up in 1912 for the 1913 fleet expansion program, none of the first two classes was in commission. As there was no service experience to draw on, the Mexican designers decided to follow the lead of the most advanced foreign power and created a downscaled pendant of Great Britain’s 1912-vintage Queen-Elizabeth-class. In terms of size and speed, they closely resembled the Recherchean Fearless-class, itself a downscaled Queen-Elizabeth-clone, and mirrored their closely spaced superfiring turret arrangement fore and aft. Main gun caliber was set to 350mm, then the most powerful gun Skoda could offer; the 45-caliber Mod.1913 gun was in fact specifically developed for the Mexican Navy and not adopted by the KuK fleet before 1914. Secondary armament was identical to the Monarca-class, but eight of the 66mm guns were placed on HA mounts. Despite improved turret protection, four 350mm twins were lighter than six 305mm twins; this and the added 1.000 tons of displacement allowed for better horizontal and vertical protection and enough engine power for a design speed of 23 knots. Architecture resembled the previous class, but the lack of wing turrets and flying boat bridges allowed for a generally less conspicuous profile; they shared the prominent gap in their superstructure over the engine rooms, allowing for unusually large forward arcs for the aft turrets. While the design was finalized, events in Europe clearly indicated impending war, and Mexico’s internal situation also started to deteriorate. Admiral Beltran was particularly afraid of the 1915 elections, which were likely to yield a left majority; Mexico’s left openly campaigned for cutting naval expense in half and terminating all capital ship projects. To ensure all payments necessary to get the ships afloat were approved before the election, Beltran decided to order both hulls on credit before the program was even submitted to congress. The move was blatantly illegal, but such was Beltran’s sway over the Empress that she agreed to cover the expense from the imperial household’s budget. The class ship, to be named Mexico, was laid down at Trieste on February 4th, 1913; the second vessel, to be named Imperio (Empire) was laid down at Tampico, on the same open slipway where Soberano was approaching launch readiness, three weeks later on February 26th. Construction of Imperio went ahead at unpreceded haste, and initial service experience with Emperador Maximiliano prompted changing the bow to a raked form (Soberano was too far advanced for a similar modification). Skoda meanwhile started to ship the guns to Mexico from March 1914, three at a time at two-month intervals. The last shipment reached Veracruz shortly after Prince Franz Ferdinand’s assassination. But when the war subsequently severed Mexico’s trade routes to Austria and Germany, only about half the ordered amount of German heavy armor plate had been delivered, just enough for horizontal and underwater protection; there was no material at all for the belt. Since Mexico was unable to produce KC plate herself, Thiarian industry was already working at capacity and the Navy did not want to risk placing an order in the USA, only Japan was left, and late in 1914, the deal was struck. The ship was launched on September 17th, 1914, and fitted out in record time; the Japanese armor plates arrived in Acapulco from March 1915 and were transported overland to Tampico. After Carlos Alberto’s coup, the timetable for the ship’s completion was cut in half, and the naval yard actually managed to complete her for trials on May 31st, 1916, after a total building time of 39 months, a very respectable performance for any contemporary yard outside the UK.


After a cut-down trials regime – and before all teething troubles were really ironed out - Imperio became fleet flagship on July 20th, 1916, and led the Imperial battle fleet into the battle of Guantanamo with over 200 yard specialists still on board busy fixing bugs. Compared with the fully worked-up Soberano and Imperatriz Carlota, which also had directors, her gunnery was disappointing (seven hits on USS Oklahoma and nine on USS Georgia); she however scored better than the ships without director fire control. In return, she was hit nine times by Oklahoma, causing 180 casualties and 1.500 tons of flooding forward, knocking out turret B, bending the mainmast and holing the aft funnel. None of the hits, however, was critical, and after she reached Guantanamo, she was successfully patched and made fully serviceable again, although any serious structural concussion was liable to tear up her wounds. During the initial long-range phase of the battle of Guantanamo, she was the only Mexican battleship able to return fire; she hit USS Pennsylvania eight times without causing significant damage, but Pennsylvania’s answer – 15 hits in as many minutes – devastated her. The patches came loose, and after prolonged death throngs, she capsized with a third of her complement.

The other ship in the class was also built very rapidly. With Gibraltar and Suez closed to Austrian shipping, there was no way the vessel could reach Mexico for the duration of the war, so the Austrian government entered negotiations for her purchase. With the Ersatz-Monarch-project stillborn, Mexico was the only option for the KuK fleet to lay hands on a super-dreadnought. The Mexicans agreed that the ship would be of no use to them rotting in Trieste, but insisted on acquiring her at no further cost as soon as the war was over. When the ship was launched on April 7th, 1915, she was named Kaiser Maximilian, officially for the 15th/16th century Habsburg Emperor, but of course also to honor his late Mexican namesake. After launch, the hull was immediately towed to Pola Naval Yard for fitting out. This decision proved wise, because Trieste was less than 20 kilometers from the frontline and could be shelled by railway guns. To speed up the ship’s completion, the Austrians opted for a simplified mast and w/t rig, with only the foremast and without director fire control. She also differed from her Mexican sister in less visible areas, such as funnel tops and ventilators. Like all STT-built ships for Mexico, she had four-shaft Parsons turbines, but unlike Emperador Maximiliano and Monarca, she used the same Schulz-Thornycroft boilers as the Mexican ships. Wartime priorities led to delays in the delivery of her artillery and armor plate, but despite all problems, she was formally handed over to the KuK Navy on March 8th, 1917.


Her battle debut came barely two months later in the battle of Otranto Straits. An attempt of Austrian cruisers and destroyers under RAdm Horthy to draw the Italians guarding the Otranto barrage into battle met with overwhelming success, and the Austrian light forces were heavily engaged with superior allied forces from four nations. Both sides subsequently fed reinforcements into the fray until it became the largest engagement in the Adriatic since Guepratte’s raid on Pola back in 1914. Flying the flag of Adm Njegovan, Kaiser Maximilian severely damaged the British cruiser HMS Bristol from extreme range. The arrival of Njegovan’s squadron of two dreadnoughts, an armored cruiser and eight older destroyers convinced the Italian commander RAdm Acton to withdraw and call for additional reinforcements, while Horthy, covered by the Austrian dreadnoughts, proceeded to sink several drifters of the barrage fleet. The Italians had three Conte-di-Cavour-class dreadnoughts under VAdm d’Aste available at Taranto, which happened to be already at sea, and were immediately dispatched; a French squadron of two battlecruisers, two armored cruisers and covering forces also reacted to the call, steaming up at 24 knots from Korfu. Unfortunately, the Italians reached the battle first; had both squadrons been combined, the cautious Njegovan would surely have retreated. Facing only the Italians, he engaged. The Italian lead ship Leonardo da Vinci had only recently been salvaged, repaired and recommissioned after having been sunk on an even keel by Austrian saboteurs the year before; the repair job was hastily and shabbily done, and after merely three hits from Kaiser Maximilian, she started to leak and list badly. The Italians now concentrated their fire on Kaiser Maximilian, but as they kept closing in (if only to shield the crippled Leonardo da Vinci), the other Austrian dreadnought Szent Istvan also came into range and damaged the Conte di Cavour as well. Kaiser Maximilian took eleven hits, but none of them was critical; Leonardo da Vinci was hit another six times and quickly capsized with 800 of her crew including Admiral d’Aste. Kaiser Maximilian then turned on Giulio Cesare, and the Italians retreated. Without consulting his superior, Horthy ordered a torpedo charge, but when the French squadron was sighted, Njegovan called it a day and ordered a general retreat. The battle –Italy lost a new battleship, an old armored cruiser, and three destroyers – was a major blow to Italian morale, and the Regia Marina would not again sortie in force for the rest of the war. The Otranto barrage itself was however re-established only days later; strategically, the Austrian success was worthless. Horthy was promoted for his dashing conduct and relieved Njegovan as fleet commander early in 1918; he decided to repeat the action on a grander scale, leading virtually the whole Austrian fleet (five dreadnoughts, five pre-dreadnoughts and one armored cruiser) against the barrage on February 18th, 1918. Timing was opportune; the Brits were fully engaged in the North Sea and the South Atlantic, and the French fleet was concentrated in the Aegean following the battle of Imbros in late January. This time, the allied drifters and their destroyer escorts ran for the hills as soon as the Austrians turned up; Austrian light forces destroyed twenty-five drifters and sank three allied destroyers and the old British cruiser HMS Topaze. But no allied heavy units turned up, and Horthy was smart enough not to press forward into the Mediterranean and risk being cut off by the Italian fleet in Taranto. Another full-sized sortie was launched in June 1918, which was intercepted by Italian MAS boats, which sank the dreadnought Szent Istvan. Undeterred, Horthy pressed on and attacked the barrage, whose vessels – as had become the usual response – dispersed and fled. This time however, a powerful French fleet was nearby with seven battleships, two battlecruisers, five armored cruisers and strong light forces. Both fleets came to blows in the Battle of Gagliano; Kaiser Maximilian scored a dozen hits on Guepratte’s flagship Bretagne from outside the effective range of the French (the low elevation of their main guns limited their range to 14.000 meters), but the French battlecruisers Beveziers and Agosta rounded the rear end of the Austrian line and shot up the armored cruiser Sankt Georg and the pre-dreadnought Erzherzog Friedrich, crippling the former and sinking the latter. To prevent his line from being rolled up from behind, Horthy turned his fleet around. Kaiser Maximilian’s surprisingly precise long-range fire managed to chase the French battlecruisers off, but the French main fleet kept pounding the Austrians, whose retreat degenerated into a rout; only the timely sighting of Austrian submarines deterred the French from hunting them down in a Trafalgar-like wipeout. In the end, Horthy had lost three large warships without having to show anything in return; for the KuK navy, this was the final blow to their morale. Kaiser Maximilian, being the only Austrian capital ship which would make an useful addition to the Austrian and Italian fleets, was vigorously claimed by Great Britain as a prize when the war ended, and ungloriously scrapped in Greece in 1920.

Displacement:
23.450 ts mean, 26.900 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 170,05 m, Beam 28,00 m, Draught 8,10 m mean, 9,20 m full load
Machinery:
Mexico: 4-shaft Parsons Turbines, 24 Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 40.000 shp; Imperio: 2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, same boilers, 40.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 23 kts maximum, range 5.500 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 310mm, upper Belt 180mm; Ship ends 100mm forward, 180mm aft; barbettes 310mm; Turrets 350mm shields, 220mm sides, 80 mm crowns; casemates 180mm; deck 80mm maximum, CT 350mm; Torpedo bulkhead 40mm (whole citadel)
Armament:
4x2 350mm/45 Skoda BL; 12x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF; 4x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF; 8x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA; 4 – 450mm (Mexico: 533mm) TT (forward, aft, both beams, submerged)
Crew
1050

More to come

B. Cruisers

1. Santa Maria de Guadelupe-Class
Part of the Imperial Russian Navy’s reconstruction effort after the disaster of 1905, these two big armored cruisers were ordered from Armstrong in 1906, as improved Ruriks with single-caliber main armament and turbine drive for a speed of 24 knots. They turned out to be powerful ships, just about the best armored cruisers ever built, but they were no battlecruisers. Lacking Rurik’s prominent ram, they were not much longer despite their finer hull lines; amidships, they were nearly a meter wider, and over a thousand tons heavier. Given the German naval buildup, their power seemed no longer enough to the Russians in 1908, and they advertised both ships for sale, planning to acquire two real battlecruisers instead under the upcoming 1909 program. Admiral Beltran didn’t think twice and purchased them; Armstrong was told to change the design to incorporate a main armament of 12 240mm guns, which was not hard, because they were smaller and lighter than the 254mm pieces originally envisioned. When both were completed in 1910, they bore little resemblance to Rurik, looking more like early Royal Navy dreadnought battleships. Among themselves, they were identical in every respect. The class ship was named for Mexico’s patron saint; the other received the name of the first Spanish ship captured by central American insurgents in 1807, led by a Mexican-born native American named Don Julian de Alvarado (he was hunted down and killed by the RN after Spain became a British ally against Napoleon; British propaganda defamed him as a mad homicidal maniac, which he probably was).


They arrived in Mexico early in 1911 and formed the reconnaissance squadron of the main battle fleet. They were both retrofitted with director fire control in 1914/5 and received two 66mm/50 Skoda HA guns.


They accompanied the main fleet during the entire war of 1916; during the initial phase of the war, they repeatedly shelled Texan coastal towns. Off Guantanamo, Natividad sank USS Huron, and her sister ship assisted the flagship Imperio in sinking USS Pueblo. When Admiral Sims later engaged the Mexicans, Guadelupe was sunk by USS Enterprise, but Natividad managed to cripple USS Independence and helped drive Sims’ squadron off. Natividad safely reached La Guaira and was purchased by the Venezuelan government, which however lacked trained personnel to man her and sold the ship to Spain in 1923. She was renamed Cristobal Colon and saw active service during the civil war on the Republican side, without having been significantly modernized. She went into internment at Bizerte in 1939, where she was requisitioned by the French in 1940 and brought to Toulon the year after. There she was scuttled late in 1942 together with most of the rest of France’s Mediterranean fleet.

Displacement:
16.400 ts mean, 18.720 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 161,55 m, Beam 23,50 m, Draught 7,75 m mean, 8,70 m full load
Machinery:
4-shaft Parsons Turbines, 24 Thornycroft watertube boilers, 36.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 24 kts maximum, range 4.500 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 178mm; Ship ends 76mm forward, 102mm aft; barbettes 178mm; Turrets 210mm shields, 120mm sides, 80 mm crowns; casemates 76mm; deck 38mm maximum, CT 203mm
Armament:
6x2 240mm/45 Skoda BL, 12x1 120mm/45 Skoda QF; 4x1 47mm/44 Skoda QF, 2 – 450mm TT (beam, submerged)
Crew
940

2.Teotihuacan-Class
The scout cruisers of the 1910 programme were closely patterned upon the Austrian Admiral Spaun. Due to Spaun’s complicated and not very reliable turbine plant, the Mexican ships were fitted with simpler and sturdier twin-shaft AEG-Curtis turbines, which in turn served as prototypes for the machinery of later Austrian scout cruisers. The lead ship Teotihuacan was laid down in 1910 at Trieste; the second unit Tehuantepec at the same time at Veracruz. Two further units were laid down in 1912: Azcapotzalco at Tampico and Texcoco at Veracruz. CNT delivered Teotihuacan in 1913; Tehuantepec followed in 1914 and the other two in 1915. Since these cruisers used Schulz-Thornycroft boilers instead of the more compact Yarrow boilers installed in the KuK ships, they needed somewhat wider hulls amidships. To retain the length-width ratio, they were also four meters longer; draught remained the same. These changes resulted in over 400 tons more displacement. Propulsion power being the same, they were one knot slower. On the plus side, the larger hulls allowed for better horizontal protection and more powerful armament. The first three were completed with ten 100mm guns and four 450mm torpedo tubes.


The Mexican-built ships differed in several details, most prominently the shape of ventilators, the provision of splinter protection to the bridge, improved fire control, and one 66mm HA gun aft upon completion. Among the second group, only Azcapotzalco had the new 533mm torpedo tubes, instead of 450mm ones.


Texcoco on the other hand was experimentally fitted with two 150mm guns instead of the forward and aft pairs of 100mm pieces; the other six 100mm guns remained.


After successful gunnery trials, Tehuantepec was taken in hand late in 1915 for similar rearmament. Admiral Sarasarte proposed an all-150mm armament; weight reserves would allow five barrels, which were arranged to give a four-gun broadside. Due to the amount of deck space freed, two more 533mm twin torpedo sets were installed, and the number of 66mm HA guns was increased to two.


The refit was considered successful, and the class ship was taken in hand early in 1916 for similar rearmament. Teotihuacan was laid up disarmed at Tampico when the war started; she was brought to Veracruz when the US Army closed in, but never received her guns. She was surrendered to the USA when the Empire collapsed, and scrapped in 1920. The other three cruisers were assigned to the battle fleet in 1916 and took part in every major engagement of the war. Azcapotzalco and Texcoco destroyed USS Tacoma and Chattanooga, respectively, at Chetumal (where Tehuantepec sank two US torpedo boats as well). Azcapotzalco and Tehuantepec were jointly credited with sinking the scout cruiser USS Dallas off Guantanamo, and Azcapotzalco also sank an US destroyer and helped sink another scout cruiser during Admiral Sims’ attack on the Mexican fleet. Texcoco, which was credited with sinking another US destroyer off Guantanamo, was lost in action during the battle of Guantanamo; the other two reached Venezuela and were acquired by the Venezuelan government, receiving the new names Constitucion and Republica. Both were modernized in the mid-1930s in Thiaria and saw active service when Venezuela joined the Allies in 1943. They were scrapped in the mid-1950s.

Displacement:
3.920 ts mean, 4.650 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 134,70 m, Beam 13,30m, Draught 4,80 m mean, 5,65 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis turbines, 16 Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 26.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 26 kts maximum, range 3.800 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 60mm; Ship ends unprotected; Gun Shields 40mm (150mm shields 50mm); deck 25mm maximum, CT 50mm
Armament:
Teotihuacan: 10x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 2x2 450mm torpedo tubes (beam, trainable on deck)
Tehuantepec: 5x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF, 2x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA, 4x2 533mm torpedo tubes (2 on each beam, trainable on deck)
Azcapotzalco: 10x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 1x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA, 2x2 533mm torpedo tubes (beam, trainable on deck)
Texcoco: 2x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF, 6x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 1x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA, 2x2 450mm torpedo tubes (beam, trainable on deck)
Crew
335

3. Principe Carlos Augusto
The German light cruiser Karlsruhe found herself cut off from the Fatherland in the Caribbean when the war started in 1914. Under standing orders, she was to raid till she ran out of ammunition, then transfer her armament to a liner which was supposed to operate as a raider (since 1912, all German passenger ships earmarked for auxiliary cruiser service secretly carried a quantity of 105mm shells for that contingency), then seek internment in a country unlikely to join the Entente, for which Mexico qualified best in Central America. After sinking 17 enemy merchants and surviving a skirmish with British forces, Karlsruhe’s skipper did just that and brought his disarmed ship to Veracruz; upon inspection, an unexploded shell was found dangerously close to a hot steam pipe, which might potentially have caused a fatal internal explosion. As tensions between Mexico and the USA increased early in 1915, the Mexican government entered negotiations about the ship’s purchase, and since there was little chance of Karlsruhe reaching Germany for the duration of hostilities, the Germans sold her at a discount price. To honor Mexico’s prince consort, who had brokered the deal with the German naval attache, she was renamed Principe Carlos Augusto. She was taken in hand at Veracruz late in 1915 for re-armament; she was large enough for eight 150mm guns, and her refit was prioritized and completed in May 1916, therefore delaying the simultaneous conversion of Mexico’s own cruiser Teotihuacan.


Principe Carlos Augusto was attached to the Mexican battle fleet when hostilities with the USA erupted. Being fitted as a destroyer leader, she served as flagship of the battle fleet’s destroyer squadrons and sank a US gunboat off Chetumal and a destroyer during the attack if Sims’ battlecruisers. She was severely damaged during that action, but managed to reach Venezuela nevertheless. She was considered beyond economic repair and acquired by the Venezuelans at scrap value; she was towed to Thiaria in 1922 and broken up.

Displacement:
4.800 ts mean, 6.080 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 142,20 m, Beam 13,70 m, Draught 4,85 m mean, 5,80m full load
Machinery:
2-Shaft Navy (Parsons) Turbines, 14 Navy (Schulz-Thornycroft) watertube boilers, 30.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 27kts maximum, range 6.400 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 60mm; Ship ends 20mm forward and aft; Gun Shields 50mm; deck 60mm maximum, CT 100mm
Armament:
8x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF, 2 – 500mm torpedo tubes (beam, submerged)
Crew
380

4. Anahuac-Class
To maintain the early lead against the USN – who had only four modern fast scout cruisers in 1913, and poorly armed ones to boot – the 1913 building program contained another four ‘scout’ cruisers. These were to be built to plans prepared by the Imperial Design Bureau; they were a straight upscale of the Admiral-Spaun-inspired scout cruisers to full-fledged light cruisers with a heavy armament of nine 150mm guns, director fire control, excellent protection and a substantial torpedo battery. Anahuac and Nezahuacoyotl were laid down in Tampico in 1913 and 1915, respectively; Moctezuma and Quetzalcoatl were laid down in Veracruz in 1914 and 1916. On paper, they compared well even with contemporary British, German and Thiarian vessels; they were another symptom for the changeover that happened around 1910, when Mexico stopped adapting Austrian designs and started to produce own ones which were then adapted by the Austrians. The Anahuac-class actually was the basis for the heavy cruiser laid down for the Chinese at Trieste in 1915. Only Anahuac was completed in time to participate in the war of 1916.


She took the position of Teotihuacan in the Mexican cruiser flotilla and within a few short weeks, she became Mexico’s most successful cruiser ever. She shot up the cruiser USS Galveston off Chetumal, who managed to escape to Belize, then delivered the coup de grace to the crippled USS Nebraska with two torpedoes. The scout cruiser USS Salem and an US destroyer fell victim to her guns during the Battle of Guantanamo, and during the engagement with Admiral Sims’ squadron, she took part in sinking the cruiser USS Chester as well. Being the fastest ship in the Mexican fleet, she took the lead in the dead run for Venezuela and reached La Guaira without having taken any serious damage during the entire campaign. Under her new name Simon Bolivar, she served the Venezuelan Navy for a quarter century; she was slated for modernization in Thiaria in 1940, but the new war prevented that, and she was scrapped in 1948 after two and a half years of Atlantic escort and patrol duty in 1943 through 1946. Moctezuma was fitting out at Veracruz when the Empire fell; she was used up by the USN as a target. Nezahuacoyotl was destroyed on her slipway during the siege of Tampico, and Quetzalcoatl was broken up on stocks, after very little work done on her.

Displacement:
5.100 ts mean, 6.270 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 139,45 m, Beam 14,70 m, Draught 4,90 m mean, 5,75 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, 14 Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 36.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 27 kts maximum, range 4.200 nm at 10 knots
Armour:
Belt 100 mm maximum; Ship ends unprotected; Gun Shields 50 mm; deck 60 mm maximum, CT 100 mm
Armament:
9x1 150mm/45 Skoda QF, 1x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA, 4x2 533mm TT (2 on each beam, trainable on deck)
Crew
445

C. Gunboats

1. Queretaro-Class
After the First World War had broken out in Europe, the Imperial navy keenly watched the proceedings. They quickly became painfully aware to have totally neglected mine warfare. Admiral Beltran quickly decided he’d need a new type of gunboat for minelaying, minesweeping and antisubmarine escort duty, in order to free the destroyer and torpedo boat force from these tasks. The craft needed to be of simple construction, able to be built quickly and in quantity. The private SAAG yard in Acapulco produced its first in-house design, a vessel of 700 tons on a slim, destroyer-like hull, whose stern could be alternately fitted with mine or ASW sweeps and which could carry 60 mines. They had respectable gunnery including four 66mm pieces on air defense mountings, and at 20 knots, were also quite fast. Being simpler and cheaper than the Imperial Design Bureau’s proposal, SAAG won the order in late 1915. A first batch of eight ships was to be built within twelve months. The first three keels were laid before 1915 was over, the next five early in 1916; although the yard built quickly, none of the class, who were named for provinces of Mexico, were complete for the war against the USA. Despite production running behind schedule, a second batch of eight vessels was ordered in May 1916, and a third batch of eight was approved after the war had begun. None of the last two batches were ever laid down. By using material for two later boats, SAAG managed to complete Queretaro and Nayarit in August, 1916.


Neither vessel was worked up before the war was over, and both remained available for the modest navy of the Mexican republic. Remarkably, the shipyard remained in business and completed two further units – Colima and Sinaloa – in 1918 and 1919. This quartet of gunboats were the most modern Mexican surface fighting ships till the 1930s. All remained in active service throughout the Second World War and were discarded in1953 through 1958.

Displacement:
720 ts mean, 845 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 72,50 m, Beam 8,15 m, Draught 3,30 m mean, 3,90 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft Vertical Triple Expansion, 2 Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 4,800 ihp
Performance:
Speed 20 ts maximum, range 4.000 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
2x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF; 4x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA; up to 60 mines
Crew
70

Even more to come

D. Torpedo craft

1. No.21-class
A class of eight 110ts second class torpedo boats, all built at Veracruz under the 1907 program. Nos.21 through 28 were delivered between 1908 and 1909 and selected as the basis for the Austrian Tb.I coastal torpedo boat. This was the first instance the Austrians adopted a Mexican design rather than the other way around.


All received w/t before the war.


The whole class formed the harbor defense squadron for the Veracruz naval base. During the battle of Tampico, they raided the US fleet, and No.26 and 27 torpedoed and nearly sunk the battleship USS Missouri, which was later finished off by a submarine. During that sortie, No.21, 23 and 28 were sunk by US light forces. The remainder surrendered to the US after the fall of the Empire. As they were still rather new, the Americans sold them to the Dominican Republic, where four of them they remained in service till 1946 (the fifth one was cannibalized).

Displacement:
115 ts mean, 140 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 44,20 m, Beam 4,40 m, Draught 1,45 m mean, 1,70 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft Vertical Triple Expansion, 2 Thornycroft boilers
Performance:
Speed 28 kts maximum, range 1.500 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
2x1 47mm/44 Skoda QF, 2x1 450mm torpedo tubes (deck, centerline, trainable)
Crew
20

2. Holzinger-Class
A 600ts destroyer design by Danubius, specially commissioned for the Imperial Mexican navy. Their appearance betrayed their roots in the Yarrow 30-knotter adopted by the Austrian navy, but already hinted at the later Tatra-class as well. Being intended for license.production in Mexico under the 1907 program, they eschewed turbine propulsion in favour of a TE plant, for simplicity. Consequently, their design speed of 30 knots was rather theoretical in nature; actual figures revolved around the 26-knot mark. With a 120mm gun, five 66mm guns and three 450mm torpedo tubes (one centerline aft, two abreast forward of the bridge), they were very heavily armed for their size. The first two – Holzinger (HZ) and Ortiz Monasterio (OM) - were built in Fiume from 1907 to 1909 as prototypes and transferred to Mexico late in 1909 under their own power.


The second pair – Jilek (JK) and Blas Godinez (BG) – was built locally, differing in the number of funnels because they used four small Thornycroft watertube boilers instead of three larger Yarrow-boilers; they also had different ventilators. They were laid down at Veracruz simultaneously with the first pair, but needed a year longer to complete.


The third pair – Juan de la Barrera (JB) and Vilarraca (VR) – were laid down early in 1909 at Veracruz and resembled the second pair; they were however slightly longer, resulting in more bunker space and longer range They were also armed with modern 100mm main guns instead of 120mm ones, who had superior ballistic properties and more than twice the ROF, being able to put more metal into the air during any given period of time than the heavier piece. They also had their torpedo broadsides doubled by giving them paired torpedo tubes. They were completed in 1911.


Also in 1909, a final pair – Gomez Farias (GF) and Elpidio Entenza (EE) – were laid down at Veracruz. They were externally identical to the third pair, but differed internally by having a three-shaft Parsons turbine plant. Being the first Mexican-built turbine ships, they were completed in 1911, but needed prolonged trials before they were considered sufficiently reliable to join the fleet in 1912.


There were few modifications. The first two had their low funnels heightened and were retrofitted with w/t in 1913.


The funnels of the others were considered high enough. Blas Godinez was experimentally fitted with an enclosed bridge in 1914.


This arrangement proved successful and was adopted for most other Imperial destroyers.


Jilek and Blas Godinez joined the Pacific Squadron in 1915 and escorted the heavies on several raids, the most famous one being the one against Panama. Blas Godinez became the only Mexican destroyer to sink an US submarine: She rammed and cut in half USS C-5 during the retreat after the Panama raid. She was docked at Tolopobampo when the rest of the Pacific squadron was attacked and overwhelmed by US battlecruisers. Jilek was sunk during this engagement. Blas Godinez was later surrendered to the USA. The other six formed the first destroyer squadron of the main battle fleet, together with two older turbine 30-knotters. They accompanied the armored cruisers during some early raids, while the newer destroyers remained with the dreadnoughts. Ortiz Monasterio was mined and lost during the last of these raids. The other three VTE-propelled ships remained at Tampico afterwards; all three were lost during the siege. The Turbine ships accompanied the battle fleet on Admiral Sarasarte’s cruise. They were at Chetumal, but did not engage. Off Chetumal, they charged with the rest of the destroyers, and Elpidio Entenza scored a 450mm hit on USS Oklahoma. During the battle of Guantanamo, Elpidio Entenza was sunk by US light forces; Gomez Farias made it to Venezuela. She was not accepted into Venezuelan service and scrapped in Brazil in 1925.

Displacement:
630 ts mean, 750 ts full load (last four: 650/770 ts)
Dimensions:
Length 71,90 m (last four 72,80 m), Beam 7,45 m, Draught 2,75 m mean, 3,20 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft Vertical Triple Expansion (last two: 3-shaft Parsons Turbines), four Thornycroft watertube boilers (first two: three Yarrow watertube boilers), 10.000 ihp (first two: 9.000 ihp, last two: 10.000 shp)
Performance:
Speed 30 kts maximum, range 3.000 nm at 10 knots (last two: 2.250 nm at 10 knots)
Armament:
1x1 120mm/45 Skoda QF (last four: 1x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF), 5x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF, 3x1 (last four: 2x2) 450mm torpedo tubes
Crew 85

3. Perez-Valence-Class
The first four of these destroyers were very similar to the contemporary Austrian Tatra-class. They were two meters longer and slightly heavier to allow for the less advanced technical abilities of the Mexican state yard, which could not (yet) build to tight European margins. On the plus side, they had somewhat longer range. All other particulars were the same including their six Yarrow boilers, which the Mexicans did not like because they had not been able to secure a production license for them and were dependent on foreign spare parts. The first two – Perez Valence (PV) and Romako (RK) – were built at Fiume between 1911 and 1913 and transferred to Mexico under their own power late in 1913, crossing the Atlantic in appalling weather conditions.


The second pair – Miramon (MM) and Guadelupe Victoria (GV) – was built in Veracruz between 1911 and 1913/4. Miramon was fitted with 120mm main guns instead of 100mm pieces for comparative tests; as they needed separate propellant charges (whilst the 100mm used single-piece cartridge ammunition), their ROF, which was considered critical for close range engagements, was less than half of the 100mm competition, so no other Mexican destroyers were equipped with this caliber. Miramon kept her original configuration throughout her career.


Apart from being fitted with a pair of 8mm machineguns, Perez Valence was not significantly modified.


Guadelupe Victoria also received two machineguns, and she was modified with an enclosed bridge in 1915/6; the same refit was scheduled for the other units of her class, but not executed due to the cataclysmic events of 1916.


All four were with the second destroyer squadron of the battle fleet in 1916 and took part in all major engagements of the war. Guadelupe Victoria sank an US gunboat at Chetumal and a destroyer during the battle against Admiral Sims’ squadron. Miramon was one of the three Mexican destroyers to score a torpedo hit on USS Texas at Guantanamo. Perez Valence was lost during that engagement. The others all made it to Venezuela and were commissioned by the Venezuelan Navy. They were modernized in Thiaria in 1928 through 1930, and again refitted to destroyer escorts in 1941/2. All saw active service during World War II, and Ex-Romako was torpedoed and sunk by U219 in 1944. The survivors were scrapped in 1955.

Displacement:
865 ts mean, 1.000 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 85,60 m, Beam 7,80 m, Draught 3,00 m mean, 3,70 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, six Yarrow watertube boilers, 20.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 32 kts maximum, range 2.400 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
2x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF (Miramon 2x1 120mm/45 Skoda QF), 6x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF, 2x2 450mm torpedo tubes
Crew
105

4. Temerario-class
Under the 1913 program, the Imperial Navy ordered eight copies of the Austrian 74T sea-going torpedo boat. They were identical to the Austrian original except for their Thornycroft boilers, and the first class of fast torpedo craft built entirely in Mexico without an imported prototype. Six – Temerario (TM), Obstinado (ON), Tenaz (TZ), Resoluto (RU), Corajudo (CJ) and Vengativo (VG) – were built at Veracruz, two at the privately owned SAAG yard at Acapulco. All were fitted with w/t from the start.


The last two had two masts of equal height.


The Acapulco-built ships Osado (OD) and Rencoroso (RC) were somewhat longer, had a lower bridge, different ventilators and a slightly smaller funnel. They also had the two-mast arrangement.


Temerario and Obstinado were completed in 1914, the others in 1915. Osado and Rencoroso crossed the Panama-Channel in November 1915 to join the First Torpedo Squadron at Veracruz. Of the Veracruz-built ships, Corajudo was fitted with an enclosed bridge.


The new bridge was slated to be retrofitted to all units of the class, but only Temerario, Vengativo…


…and Osado actually received it. The last two were still under refit when the war started, but completed within three weeks.


All eight were stationed at Tampico in 1916. They were used against Admiral Knight’s squadron; four of them (Temerario, Corajudo, Tenaz and Vengativo) were involved in the attack that sank the US Monitor Tallahassee, scoring three torpedo hits. During the raid that sunk the armored cruiser USS Milwaukee, Corajudo scored another torpedo hit, but US forces destroyed Obstinado and Rencoroso during this sortie. Tenaz was lost on a friendly mine during another abortive raid. The other five boats survived the war and were surrendered to the USA. Being still new, they were sold to the Brazilian Navy, which employed them in the Second World War, only to lose three of them to airstrikes and one to torpedoes from Thiarian FACs during an epic surface engagement in 1944. Only the former Vengativo survived and was scrapped in 1957.

Displacement:
265 ts mean, 300 ts full load (Acapulco-built ships: 275 ts mean, 310 ts full load)
Dimensions:
Length 57,60 m (Acapulco-built ships: 58,50m), Beam 5,80 m, Draught 1,85 m mean, 2,30 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, two Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 5.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 28 kts maximum, range 1.200 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
2x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF, 2x2 450mm torpedo tubes
Crew
45

5. Quintana Roo-Class
The Imperial Navy considered the Tatra-class a successful design, but with room for improvement. For the 1912 batch, a longer hull with enough space between the second and third funnel to mount a third 100mm gun was implemented; engine power was increased by 20% for a speed of 33,5 knots. The simplified armament allowed for a slight reduction in complement. As with the 1913 torpedo boats, destroyer production was divided equally between the Veracruz Navy Yard and the private SAAG yard at Acapulco at an annual rate of four units.

5.1. Batch 1
The 1912 Veracruz units were named Quintana Roo (QR) and Berriozabal (BZ). By that time, Veracruz was able to deliver a destroyer within 16 months; both were delivered late in 1913 and commissioned early in 1914.


The 1913 Acapulco boats received the names Pottier (PT) and Virgilio Uribe (VU). They differed in funnel shape (circular rather than oblong) and ventilator shape; they had only four boilers, albeit larger ones, also of Thornycroft pattern, and even more power, although they were not significantly faster. Pottier was completed in mid-1914 and transferred to Veracruz via the newly opened Panama channel, but needed to be taken in hand at Veracruz for ironing out various teething problems till mid-1915. Uribe was delivered early in 1915 and reached Veracruz in April. All 1912 units were completed with open bridges.


They were scheduled to get enclosed ones late in 1916, but only Quintana Roo was so modified; for all others, this plan was overtaken by events. The only wartime modification was the addition of four to six AAMGs in 1915/6.


Together with the Perez-Valence-class, the Batch 1 units formed the second destroyer squadron of the Imperial battle fleet. Quintana Roo, Berriozabal and Uribe between them sank four US torpedo boats and a gunboat in the battle of Chetumal. At Guantanamo, Quintana Roo was successful again and sank an US destroyer. During that battle, Pottier and Uribe were sunk by US destroyers; Quintana Roo claimed her third enemy destroyer during the attack of Admiral Sims’ squadron, making her Mexico’s most successful destroyer of them all. She and Berriozabal reached Venezuela with the rest of the fleet and were taken over by the Venezuelan navy. They were modernized along the same lines as the Perez-Valence-class in the mid-1930s and served in the Second World War. Both were broken up in 1955/7.

5.2. Batch 2
The 1913 batch were named Navarrete (NV) and Montes de Oca (MO) (Veracruz), completed late in 1914 and early in 1915, respectively…


… and Greifenstein (GS) and Pacheco (PC) (Acapulco), both completed mid-1915 to significantly improved standard than the first two. They were among the last Mexican warships to pass through the Panama channel early in 1916 before relations with the US detoriated to the point of closure of the channel for Mexican shipping.


They could be told from the 1912 batch by their 533mm torpedo tubes instead of 450mm ones, and all four were completed with enclosed bridges. All were completed with at least two 8mm AAMGs, and all but Pacheco had new, more efficient w/t equipment of Thiarian origin. By 1916, they were all fitted with two 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA guns and six 8mm AAMGs.


The 1914 boats were identical repeats and were considered batch 2 units by the Imperial Navy. Cordona (CD) and Castrillon (CL) were built in Veracruz and completed late in 1915 and early in 1916, respectively.


The Acapulco boats were named Quesado (QS) and Sasturain (ST). Given the deteriorating relations to the US, they were brought to Veracruz to complete their fitting out and run their trials, as soon as their engines were declared able to do half-power. They accompanied Greifenstein and Pacheco through the Panama Channel in February 1916. Both were still running acceptance trials when the war started, and were rushed into service just in time to leave with the battle fleet.


The batch 2 vessels formed the third destroyer squadron of the Imperial battle fleet. Quesado broke down en route from Chetumal to Guantanamo and had to be towed in; she could not be repaired and was scuttled at Guantanamo. Greifenstein, the most successful of the second batch, was one of the destroyers who torpedoed USS Texas off Guantanamo, providing the decisive 533mm hit that detonated Texas’ aft magazines. She also sank an US destroyer during that battle, together with Castrillon. Pacheco claimed another one during that engagement, and Sasturain sank one of Sims’ destroyers. Montes de Oca was sunk by USS Texas with her secondaries during the battle of Guantanamo. All six survivors were integrated into the Venezuelan Navy; Sasturain was soon decommissioned due to recurring engineering troubles and cannibalized, and the former Navarrete sank in a collision with a British ocean liner in 1926. The other four served in the Second World War, without having been modernized, and were decommissioned and broken up in 1953 through 1956, to be replaced by brand-new British-built Battle-class ships.

5.3. Batch 3
In 1915, with war immediately at the doorstep, the Imperial Mexican Navy stepped up destroyer production. The Empire was broke anyway, so the additional cost didn’t really matter. The third batch therefore consisted of 16 vessels, four per year from each involved shipyard. Compared with the second batch, they were slightly lengthened and had more range, all three main guns were shielded, the mainmast was shortened to a stub and the bow was given some flare to improve seakeeping. Only Reyes was completed in September 1916, but did not run trials before the war was over. She was surrendered to the USA, used for tests and sunk as a target in 1922.


All others were broken up in their shipyards after the Fall of the Empire.

Apart from Reyes (RY), the 1915 units of the Veracruz Naval Yard were named Manuel Lozada (ML), Magruder (MG) and Joaquin de Herrera (JH). 1916, the yard laid down Drakolic (DK) and Ardeira Vidal (AV); two further units – Almonte (AM) and Bustamante (BM) – were never begun. The Acapulco-built 1915 units were named Ferrera Martins (FM), Urbair (UR), Javier Huarte Cruz (JC) and Lupuis (LU). The 1916 batch, of which none were laid down, was assigned the names Vidaurri (VA), Salas (SL), Moya (MY) and De la Vega (DV).


Displacement:
Batch 1: 890 ts mean, 1.030 ts full load
Batch 2: 900 ts mean, 1.040 ts full load
Batch 3: 920 ts mean, 1.070 ts full load
Dimensions:
Batch 1: Length 86,60 m, Beam 7,90 m, Draught 3,00 m mean, 3,70 m full load
Batch 2: Length 86,60 m, Beam 7,90 m, Draught 3,05 m mean, 3,75 m full load
Batch 3: Length 87,20 m, Beam 7,90 m, Draught 3,05 m mean, 3,75 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, six (Acapulco-built ships: four) Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 24.000 shp
Performance:
Batch 1 and 2: Speed 33,5 kts maximum, range 2.700 nm at 10 knots
Batch 3: Speed 33,5 kts maximum, range 3.000 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
Batch 1: 3x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 2x2 450mm torpedo tubes
Batch 2: 3x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 2x2 533mm torpedo tubes
Batch 1: 3x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF, 2x1 66mm/50 Skoda QF HA, 2x2 533mm torpedo tubes
Crew
Batch 1 and 2: 95
Batch 3: 100

6. Soberbio-class
The CNT-designed torpedo boats were as successful in Mexico as the Austrian originals, and like the destroyers, they were approved for large-scale series production in 1914; sixteen were to be built in the next two years. Like the destroyers, half were assigned to the Navy Yard at Veracruz, the other half to the SAAG yard in Acapulco. They differed from the first series by 533mm torpedo tubes instead of 450mm ones, requiring somewhat larger size; as re-designed, they were larger than Mexico’s first destroyer class (the Palmer 27-knotters). Engine power needed to be increased to retain design speed; speed and range remained the same. All were fitted with enclosed bridges and masts of equal height. With an average building time of a year, Veracruz was able to deliver all four 1915 units in time for the war: Soberbio (SB), Ponderoso (PD), Fulminante (FU) and Valiente (VL).


The Acapulco-built units had lower bridges, different funnels and ventilators. The 1915 batch were named Firme (FE), Indomable (IB), Glorioso (GL) and Bizarro (BR). Only Indomable was completed when the war started; Glorioso was rushed into service as well, the last torpedo boat commissioned by the Imperial Mexican Navy.


Of the 1916 batch, only the Veracruz-built units were laid down; their names were Triunfante (TF), Fuerte (FE), Fulgurante (FG) and Pujante (PJ). None was completed in time. SAAG failed to lay down any of the 1916 batch due to the war; they had been assigned the names Feroz (FZ), Rapido (RP), Sutil (SI) and Illustre (IS). The Veracruz-built ships were stationed there in 1916 and remained in readiness to defend the base against any US attempts to take it by surprise. All four survived the war and were surrendered to the USA, who sold them to Brazil. The former Ponderoso was torpedoed and sunk by a Thiarian submarine, the other three were scrapped in the mid-1950s. The Acapulco-built ships accompanied the Mexican Pacific squadron on the Panama raid; both had no torpedoes during the battle of Banderas, but escaped destruction, in a different direction than the rest of the squadron. They were scuttled at Acapulco by imperial loyalists to prevent their capture by the USA.

Displacement:
290 ts mean, 335 ts full load
Dimensions:
Length 59,50 m, Beam 5,90 m, Draught 1,90 m mean, 2,40 m full load
Machinery:
2-shaft AEG-Curtis Turbines, two Schulz-Thornycroft watertube boilers, 6.000 shp
Performance:
Speed 28 kts maximum, range 1.400 nm at 10 knots
Armament:
2x1 66mm/45 Skoda QF, 2x2 533mm torpedo tubes
Crew
50

Not very much more to come

E. Submarines

1. Barracuda-Class
Under the 1907 program, six submarines were ordered from three different suppliers, so Mexican sailors could get acquainted with different kinds of submarine technology. The first ones delivered were two Vickers boats identical to Britain’s own C-Class, named Barracuda and Tiburon (Shark); they reached Mexico early in 1910.


After an accident in 1912, when several crew members of Barracuda were suffocated by fumes from her petrol engines, they were not rated sufficiently safe for combat operations. They were used for training and experiments throughout their careers. Apart from some augmentation of bridgework, there were no modifications.


Neither one saw combat service during the war. Both were scuttled at Tampico when the Americans took the city.

Displacement:
285 ts surfaced, 320 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 43,30 m, Beam 4,10 m, Draught 3,40 m surfaced
Machinery:
1-shaft Vickers petrol engine, 600 bhp; Parkinson electric motor, 300 shp
Performance:
Speed 13 kts maximum surfaced, 7,5 kts maximum submerged; range 800 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 40 nm at 5 kts submerged
Armament:
2x1 450mm torpedo tube (bow, 2 torpedoes each)
Crew
16

2. Calamar-Class
The second group of the 1907 program was purchased from Krupp and was very similar to the German U-1 or the Russian Karp-class, also German built. With their Koerting Kerosene engines, Calamar (Squid) and Marlin were not as dangerous to their own crews as the other submarines of the 1907 program, all of which had gasoline engines, so they were the only ones who were ever placed in active service.


Like all Mexican submarines, these units had their bridges built up in 1913/15. They were Mexico’s sole operational submarines without w/t.


Calamar was lost in 1915 when she grounded off Bermeja. Marlin was sent to hunt for US civilian shipping along the Gulf coast. Due to her small size, she was considered suitable for penetrating the Mississippi delta and going on the hunt virtually inside the US, but since she carried only two torpedoes each and no guns, this daring approach failed. She disappeared during that mission and was never again found.

Displacement:
245 ts surfaced, 300 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 42,40 m, Beam 3,80 m, Draught 3,20 m surfaced
Machinery:
2 shaft Körting Kerosene engines, 400 bhp; Siemens electric motors, 400 shp
Performance:
Speed 10,5 kts maximum surfaced, 8,5 kts maximum submerged; range 1.500 nm nm at 8 knots surfaced, 50 nm at 5 knots submerged
Armament:
1x1 450mm torpedo tube (bow, 3 torpedoes)
Crew
12

3. Cachalote-Class
Surprisingly, the Mexicans approached an American firm for the last two submarines of the 1907 program; at that time, Holland designs were considered world-leading, and the US government generally placed no significant restrictions upon military contracts, even if they included cutting-edge technology. Cachalote and Orca were built by Electric Boat and rated reliable and handy craft. They were also the smallest Mexican boats, and due to their petrol engines, they were barred for operational service after 1912.


Cachalote was fitted with a larger bridge and w/t in 1913/4. Orca was not reconstructed.


Both were taken in hand in 1916 to be re-engined with license-built MAN diesels. They were laid up in a stripped-down state at Tampico when the war started and never re-entered service. Both were demolished immediately before the garrison surrendered.

Displacement:
240 ts surfaced, 275 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 32,20 m, Beam 4,20 m, Draught 3,00 m surfaced
Machinery:
2 shaft Craig gasoline engines, 500 bhp; Westinghouse electric motors, 300 shp
Performance:
Speed 10,5 kts maximum surfaced, 9 kts maximum submerged; range 700 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 80 nm at 5 kts submerged
Armament:
2 – 450mm torpedo tubes (bow, 2 torpedoes each)
Crew
15

4. Marsopa-Class
None of the 1907 submarines were seriously meant for operational deployment. But for the subs of the 1910 program, a wholly different set of requirements applied. The Imperial Navy’s projected area of operations include the entire Gulf of Mexico, the whole Caribbean, and both the eastern and the western coastline of the USA. This required large oceangoing submarines with at least 15 knots of surface speed and 3.000 nm range; some degree of reliability also would not hurt. Petrol or paraffine engines were ruled out; only diesels would do. The Imperial Navy approached the same contractors as in 1907, and asked them to build submarines which were as good or better than the best delivered to their own navies. Vickers built two boats identical to the contemporary E-class for the RN, named Marsopa (Porpoise) and Foca (Seal). They were transferred to Mexico late in 1912 and commissioned in April 1913.


As completed, they had no deck gun, which the Mexicans had inexplicably omitted from their specifications; a 66mm/45 was retrofitted in 1915 on both units, when the bridge was provided with a bulwark to improve seaworthiness.


Both units were operational at Tampico in 1916. Marsopa prowled the southern coast of the USA. Marsopa sank two US merchants, re-supplied at Guantanamo, made an unsuccessful attempt to intercept Admiral Mayo’s battle squadron, sank another US merchant and managed to reach Venezuela when the Empire fell. Foca operated around Hispaniola and single-handedly ‘blockaded’ Puerto Rico; she sank an US and – in error – a Dutch merchant. She was en route to Guantanamo and critically short on fuel when the Cubans closed the base. She surfaced at Port au Prince and was interned by the Haitians, who sold her to Venezuela in 1920. Both submarines were commissioned by the Venezuelan navy, initially crewed by Mexican mercenaries till the Venezuelans could train submarine crews of their own.

Displacement:
655 ts surfaced, 795 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 54,2 m, Beam 6,90 m, Draught 3,80 m surfaced
Machinery:
2-shaft Vickers 4-stroke diesels, 1.600 bhp; Parkinson electric motors, 850 shp
Performance:
Speed 15 kts maximum surfaced, 10,5 kts maximum submerged; range 3.000 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 65 nm at 5 knots submerged
Time to dive: 105 seconds
Armament:
4x1 450mm torpedo tubes (1 forward / 3 torpedoes, 1 aft / 3 torpedoes, 1 on each beam / 1 torpedo each)
Crew
30

5. Narval-Class
Krupp’s contribution to the 1910 program was virtually identical to the German Navy’s U23-class, but with MAN and Siemens engines instead of the Germania and SSW gear installed in German boats, and 450mm rather than 500mm torpedo tubes to match Mexican standard issue ordnance. They were named Narval and Manta and delivered in mid-1913.


In 1914/5, one 66mm/50 Skoda QF gun in a HA mount was added to each boat.


When war seemed imminent in April 1916, Narval went on patrol off the US east coast. She sank three merchantmen with torpedoes and another three with gunfire, before she was re-routed to Key West and told to intercept the US fleet as it left port. Her sister was deployed there directly from Veracruz. Narval did not reach Key West before the US fleet had departed, while Manta ran straight into them and was sunk by an US destroyer without having achieved a firing position against one of the heavies. Narval proceeded to sink an USN collier, then went to Guantanamo to resupply. From there she sortied together with Marsopa and tried to intercept Admiral Mayo’s battle squadron. They failed to make contact, and without further orders, both subs went raiding in the Caribbean. Narval sank another two US merchantmen, before she was recalled to Guantanamo, where she twice torpedoed and sank the old protected cruiser USS Philadelphia, which was on picket duty to watch the port before Admiral Mayo’s main fleet arrived. Having expended her torpedoes, she headed back to Veracruz, where she made port on October 7th. There she was when the Empire fell; she was handed to the Americans early in 1917 and sunk as an artificial reef off Key West.

Displacement:
670 ts surfaced, 875 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 64,70 m, Beam 6,30 m, Draught 3,50 m surfaced
Machinery:
2-shaft MAN 4-stroke diesels, 1.800 bhp; Siemens electric motors, 1.200 shp
Performance:
Speed 16,5 kts maximum surfaced 10,5 kts maximum submerged, range 8.000 nm at 10 kts surfaced, 85 nm at 5 kts submerged
Time to dive: 135 seconds
Armament:
4x1 450mm torpedo tubes (2 forward, 2 aft / 2 torpedoes each)
Crew
35

6. Morena-Class
The final two boats of the 1910 program were ordered from Electric boat. True to the spirit of free trade, there was no official attempt to prevent the deal, despite the less than friendly relations between the US and the Empire. These submarines were the only ones of the 1910 program specifically designed for the Imperial Navy, dubbed Project 31 by the Holland design bureau. Three near-copies were later license-built in Russia (Narval-class). The Mexican boats were delivered late in 1913 and named Morena (Murena) and Esturion (Sturgeon).


In 1915/6, they were fitted with a bridge bulwark and two 66mm/50 Skoda QF guns.


Both were stationed at Tampico when the war started. They patrolled the Gulf of Mexico in search of the main US fleet, and Esturion was the sole Mexican boat which actually made contact with them. She sank the armored cruiser USS Memphis with two torpedo hits, one of which caused uncontrollable flooding to the starboard engine room. Esturion also destroyed an US merchantman. Morena never found a suitable target. When the Empire fell, both made for Venezuela. Morena was grounded off La Guaira while trying to enter the harbor submerged and had to be abandoned. She was lifted an scrapped in 1928. Esturion was sold to Peru by the Venezuelans in 1922; the Peruvians had also acquired one of the Russian boats of her type.

Displacement:
675 ts surfaced, 990 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 70,15 m, Beam 6,50 m, Draught 3,50 m surfaced
Machinery:
2-shaft NSME 4-stroke Diesels, 1.700 bhp; Westinghouse electric motors, 900 shp
Performance:
Speed 16 kts maximum surfaced, 11 kts maximum submerged; range 3.500 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 105 nm at 5 knots submerged
Time to dive: 50 seconds
Armament:
4x1 450mm torpedo tubes (2 forward / 2 torpedoes each; 2 aft / 1 torpedo each)
Crew
45

7. Otario-Class
The 1910 submarines were bought from different contractors to select a design suitable for license production. Assessment proved difficult; all classes had strong and weak points. Speed and torpedo armament was the same in all three designs, but that was as far as commonality went. The British boats were the cheapest, easiest to operate and most reliable they had however the shortest range, the worst diving depth, were structurally the weakest and had awkwardly arranged armament. The German boats had the longest range by far (almost three times what the others offered), could dive deeper than the others and were the most robust design structurally; they were however the least maneuverable and least habitable. The US boats had by far the fastest diving time, the best maneuverability, the longest submerged range and generally the most modern and best-conceived equipment, but they were complex to build and maintain, complicated to operate and needed the largest crew. Nevertheless, Mexican submariners liked the Holland boats best – particularly on account of their crash-dive capability – and recommended them for license production. In a last minute effort, Krupp offered a new design based upon the Narval-class, but with bigger and roomier hulls, a fifth torpedo tube and considerably faster crash-dive time (although still considerably less than the Holland boats). Range was a quarter shorter than Narval, but still way longer than in the British and US boats; submerged range was now the same as with the Holland design. Habitability had been markedly improved, and for the first time in a Mexican submarine, a 100mm gun was included in the basic design. The Germans pointed out that only their design was tailor-made for Siemens electric motors and MAN diesel engines, both of which would soon be available from factories then under construction in Mexico, which in the end proved the decisive factor. Under the 1913 program, six units – named Otario (Sealion), Delfin (Dolphin), Sirenio (Dugong), Rorcual (Rorqual), Morsa (Walrus) and Manati (Manatee) – were ordered from the newly established submarine yard at Tampico, and the first two boats were laid down that same year. Three sets of German-built engines were imported; for the last three, the engines were to be locally constructed. Five more boats of that type were simultaneously built in Germany for the Austro-Hungarian navy and ended up in German service as U66 through U70. Misgivings concerning Mexico’s ability to start domestic submarine production with a design so large, complex and demanding proved prophetic. None of the boats were completed on schedule, and Delfin was grounded badly during her first trial cruise due to faulty depth-control gear. She was salvaged and repaired at Tampico, but not complete when the war started in 1916. At that time, only Otario and Sirenio were operational; none of the boats with domestic engines had been accepted by the Imperial Navy due to severe reliability issues.


Otario and Sirenio were dispatched to the US east coast when the war began; Otario’s assigned area of operations was New York City, Sirenio was to operate off Boston. Sirenio suffered structural damage in heavy seas during her approach, and her battery compartment was flooded; the damage could not be contained with onboard means, and she had to be scuttled. Otario was told to pick up her crew and bring them to Guantanamo; she thus returned from her cruise without having sunk an enemy vessel. When she passed through the Florida keys, she sank an US sail merchantman with gunfire. She re-supplied at Guantanamo and proceeded back towards Tampico, where she encountered Admiral Knight’s retreating bombardment squadron. Using her last two torpedoes, she hit USS Missouri, which was already damaged, and sank her. Afterwards, she proceeded to Veracruz, where she lay when the war was over. She was joined by Delfin a few days later; the boat had left Tampico the day the city fell, rescuing the wounded Admiral Azueta. Both submarines were surrendered to the USA and used for trials, then sunk as targets. Rorcual, Morsa and Manati were never delivered to the navy; Manati was destroyed during the siege of Tampico, Morsa was scuttled shortly before the city fell. Rorcual was captured by Pershing’s troops and brought to the USA for trials; she was sunk as a target in 1923.

Displacement:
790 ts surfaced, 935 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 69,50 m, Beam 6,30 m, Draught 3,80 m surfaced
Machinery:
2 shaft MAN 4-stroke diesels, 2.400 bhp; 2 Siemens electric motors, 1.300 shp
Performance:
Speed 16,5 kts maximum surfaced, 10,5 kts maximum submerged; range 6.000 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 115 nm at 8 knots submerged
Armament:
5x1 450mm torpedo tubes (4 forward, 1 aft / 2 torpedoes each), 1x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF
Crew
35

8. Vaquita-Class
Despite the problems the Imperial Navy encountered with the rather too complex Otario-class, the type was chosen for continued production under the 1915 emergency program. Torpedo caliber was to be increased to 533mm forward and aft; to retain the previous number of spare torpedoes, the boats were two meters longer, 30cm wider and had 30cm more draught, although they looked very similar outwardly. No less than twelve units – named Vaquita (Dwarf Sea Cow), Zifio (Beaked whale), Yubarta (Humpback Whale), Ballena (Blue Whale), Beluga (Beluga whale), Franciscana (La Plata Dolphin), Albacora (Albacore), Picudo (Swordfish), Bonito (Skipjack), Cornuda (Hammerhead Shark), Pulpo (Squid) and Malagua (Jellyfish) were approved, of which only the first three were laid down late in 1915 and early in 1916. None were completed.


Displacement:
870 ts surfaced, 1.030 ts submerged
Dimensions:
Length 71,80 m, Beam 6,60 m, Draught 4,05 m surfaced
Machinery:
2-shaft MAN 4-stroke diesels, 2.600 bhp; Siemens electric motors, 1.400 shp
Performance:
Speed 16,5 kts maximum surfaced, 10 kts maximum submerged; range 7.000 nm at 10 knots surfaced, 120 nm at 5 kts submerged
Armament:
5x1 533mm torpedo tubes (4 forward, 1 aft, 2 torpedoes each), 1x1 100mm/55 Skoda QF
Crew
35

And an overview of the fleet in 1912...


... and in 1916 immediately before its final demise.


WRAP!

Greetings
GD