Spanish cruiser Navarra
Encyclopedia
Navarra was an Aragon-class
Aragon class cruiser
The Aragon class of unprotected cruisers was a series of three cruisers built between the late 1860s and early 1880s for service with the Spanish Navy...
unprotected cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
of the Spanish Navy
Spanish Navy
The Spanish Navy is the maritime branch of the Spanish Armed Forces, one of the oldest active naval forces in the world. The Armada is responsible for notable achievements in world history such as the discovery of Americas, the first world circumnavigation, and the discovery of a maritime path...
in the late 19th century.
Technical Characteristics
Navarra was built at Ferrol, SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Her construction as an armored corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
with a central battery ironclad design began in 1869, with plans to give her 890 tons of armor and 500 mm (19.7 inches) of armor at the waterline. In 1870, her design was changed to that of an unprotected cruiser or wooden corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
, and, after political events delayed her construction, she finally was launched in this form in 1881 and completed in 1882. Her original conception as an armored ship and the change to an unarmored one during construction left her with an overly heavy wooden hull that was obsolescent by the time of her launch.
Designed for colonial service, she had two funnels and was rigged as a barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
. Her machinery was maufactured at the naval shipyard at Ferrol. The original main battery of Armstrong
Armstrong Whitworth
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. Headquartered in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth engaged in the construction of armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles, and aircraft.-History:In 1847,...
-built 8-inch (203-mm) guns was obsolescent when she was completed, and were quickly replaced with more modern Krupp-built guns, with the 5.9-inch guns mounted in sponsons.
Operational history
Navarra was commissioned in 1882. By the 1890s, she was assigned to the CadizCádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
Naval Group. Sources differ on her career after that; she either was hulked in 1896 and sold for scrap in 1899 or survived the 1890s to become a cadet training ship in 1900