Spanish monitor Puigcerdá

The Puigcerdá was the only monitor ever commissioned in the history of the Spanish Armada, and was acquired to defend the estuary of Bilbao and the coast of Cantabria during the Third Carlist War, at a price of ₧840,000.

History
Spain
Name: Puigcerdá
Namesake: Capital of Cerdanya
Builder: FCM, La Seyne, France
Cost: ₧840,000 pesetas
Laid down: 28 September 1874
Launched: 19 November 1874
Commissioned: 1875
Decommissioned: 1890
Recommissioned: 1898
Decommissioned: 1900
Fate: Sold off
General characteristics
Type: monitor
Displacement: 553 tons
Length: 41 m (135 ft)
Beam: 9 m (30 ft)
Draft: 2 m (6.6 ft)
Installed power: 530 ihp
Speed: 8 knots
Complement: 59 officers and enlisted
Armament:
  • (1874 as built)
  • 1 × 12 cm (4.72 in) bronze guns
  • 2 × 10 cm (3.94 in) bronze guns
  • (1898 as rearmed)
  • 2 × 16-centimetre (6.30 in) guns
  • 2 × 12-centimetre (4.72 in) guns.
Armor:
  • Iron.
  • Belt 3.93 inches (100mm)
  • Shields 3.14-3.93 inches (80-100 mm).
Notes: 23 tons of coal

Construction and naming

The acquisition of Puigcerdá was approved on August 25, 1874, by General Serrano and Minister of Marine Rafael Rodriguez Arias. The contract for the construction of the ship was signed September 11, 1874, with the ship to be built in the shipyard of the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, in La Seyne, Toulon, France.

By a Royal Order dated October 30, 1874 it was ordered that the ship be given the name:

"...Puigcerdá, thus perpetuating in the Navy one of the memorable events of this civil war that unfortunately divides us"

Third Carlist War service

During the Third Carlist War, Puigcerdá defended the province of Vizcaya against Carlist troops. After the war the ship was laid up at Ferrol with the floating battery Duque de Tetuán, and was decommissioned in 1890.

Spanish–American War

With the breaking out of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Puigcerdá was recommissioned and rearmed, and dispatched for the defense of the Ria de Vigo.

Disposal

In 1900 Puigcerdá was decommissioned, and sold for 30,000 pesetas for civilian use as the small steamer Anita; later it was sold to John Holt & Co. of Liverpool.

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References
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