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The ''España'' class was a series of three dreadnought battleships built for the Spanish Navy between 1909 and 1921. The construction of the ships, particularly the third vessel, were significantly delayed due to shortages of materiel supplied by Great Britain during World War I, particularly armament. The class comprised ''España'' (Spain), ''Alfonso XIII'', and ''Jaime I''. The three ships were the only Spanish dreadnoughts ever built. They were also the smallest battleships of the type constructed, owing to the weak Spanish economy. The ships were armed with eight guns, but their small displacement—only —forced the designers to compromise on armor protection and speed. ''España'', ''Alfonso XIII'', and ''Jaime I'' served in the 1st Squadron of the Spanish Fleet, which became the Training Squadron in the 1920s. They all saw action during the Rif War in the early 1920s supporting Spanish ground forces in North Africa. ''España'' ran aground in August 1923 and the Navy could not salvage her; she instead broke up under tidal forces. ''Alfonso XIII'' was renamed ''España'' in 1931 after her namesake, King Alfonso XIII was forced into exile. The two surviving ships served on opposite sides of the Spanish Civil War, and both were destroyed during the conflict. ''España'' struck a naval mine laid by her own side in on 30 April 1937 and sank, and ''Jaime I'' was destroyed by an internal explosion in June 1937. ==Development== The Spanish public blamed the disastrous losses in the Spanish–American War of 1898 on the Navy, but recognized the need to modernize and rebuild it. The first attempt to rebuild the Navy came in the Fleet Plan of 1903, which called for a fleet centered on seven battleships and three cruisers. This plan proved to be far too ambitious for the weak Spanish economy, and an unstable Spanish parliament proved unable to provide funding. It was followed by the Fleet Plan of 1905, which proposed a fleet of eight battleships along with a number of torpedo boats and submarines. It too fell victim to the weaknesses of the Spanish government. It was not until early 1907 that a strong cabinet led by Antonio Maura came to power that the question of naval construction was settled.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, p. 63〕 The Fleet Plan of 1907 proposed three 15,000 MT battleships along with several destroyers, torpedo boats, and other craft. The construction plan was to last for eight years. Debates over the plan took place in the ''Cortes Generales'' (General Courts—the Spanish legislature) through November, with a final approval vote on 2 December. The Fleet Plan was formally signed into law on 7 January 1908.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, pp. 63, 65〕〔Fitzsimons, p. 856〕 The delay enabled Spain to take advantage of experience gained by Britain with the world's first commissioned all-big-gun battleship, , and by the United States with its own new battleship, .〔 The Spanish Navy was principally concerned with defending its three main naval bases: Ferrol, Cádiz, and Cartagena. Of secondary importance was the need to keep the new battleship design tightly constrained due to the frail Spanish economy and industrial sector.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, pp. 66–67〕 A third constraint was the need to build ships small enough to fit in existing dockyard facilities, since there were insufficient funds to both build larger battleships and to enlarge the navy's dockyards.〔 As a result, the design requirements called for relatively heavy offensive power with minimal range and armor protection. The Navy began discussing the design requirements with Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers in 1907 well before the law was actually passed. On 5 September 1907, Vickers provided a proposed design for a 15,000-ton battleship armed with eight 12-inch guns. This design was the basis for the requirements for the design competition, which was issued on 21 April 1908.〔 Four shipbuilders submitted bids: the Italian Gio. Ansaldo & C. led a group that also included the Austro-Hungarian Škoda Works and the French ''Marrel Freres Forges de La Loire et du Midi''; the French Schneider-Creusot firm partnered with ''Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée'' and ''Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde''; the Spanish ''Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval'' (SECN), which was formed by Vickers, Armstrong Whitworth, and John Brown & Company; and a group of Spanish industrialists backed by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company and William Beardmore and Company. Only the first three proposals were seriously considered, as the fourth was considered to be too vague. The ''Junta Superior de la Armada'' (the Navy Staff) and the Navy Minister were responsible for reviewing the three proposals. Ansaldo prepared two design variants; the first called for four twin gun turrets for the main battery, with one forward, one aft, and two offset amidships. The second proposal had two triple turrets, fore and aft, with a twin turret on the centerline amidships. Artillery experts in the Navy rejected the second variant. The SECN and Schneider designs also featured the same arrangement as the first Ansaldo proposal.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, pp. 67–68〕 In October 1908, the Artillery Committee met to make its recommendations to the ''Junta Superior''. The Committee concluded the SECN and Schneider proposals were superior to the Ansaldo version, but neither had a marked advantage over the other. The following month, the Naval Construction Committee met to evaluate the proposals. It recommended the SECN design first, followed by Schneider, with Ansaldo last. The Office of the Navy Controller also evaluated the proposals in November, and advised the ''Junta Superior'' that only the SECN bid met the design requirements without any legal, administrative, or cost problems.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, pp. 68–70〕 In February 1909, the Navy requested a revised design from SECN to incorporate several alterations, including an increased freeboard to improve seakeeping, an increased height and length of the main belt armor, and the addition of individual rangefinders for each gun turret. SECN agreed to make the changes on 20 March, and the company received the contract on 14 April.〔Fernandez, Mituckov & Crawford, p. 72〕 Due to the constraints imposed by the Spanish economy, the resulting design produced the smallest dreadnought-type battleships ever built.〔 They were also obsolescent before completion due to rapid technological change—most significantly the rise of the superdreadnought battleships—and lengthy delays in completion of the later units of the class.〔Fitzsimons, p. 857〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「España-class battleship」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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