Spanish gunboat General Concha
Encyclopedia
General Concha was a General Concha-class Cañonero (gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
) or more technically "Third Class Non-Armored Cruiser" 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...
which fought at San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, during the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
.
Technical Characteristics
General Concha was built at the naval shipyard Esteiro at Ferrol in 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...
, working order #169. She had an iron hull with bow ram, a single funnel, and a light schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
rig. She was the first ship of a class of four gunboats ordered by Admiral Francisco de Paula Pavía y Pavía during his third term as Ministro de Marina (Minister of the Navy). The design was made in Spain. Keel was laid down in 1 May 1882 and the ship was launched in 28 November 1883. The 600 hp engine with two boilers was constructed by Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
at a final cost of 312,000 pesetas
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra .- Etymology :...
and was constructed directly aboard the ship, after being towed from Ferrol to Barcelona by merchant vessel José Pérez. Bunker coal stock capacity was 70-80 tons having an average consumption of 10 tons per day.
Initially, weaponry was led by three main 120 mm. "González Hontoria" guns (a heavy armament for a gunboat, which made her being technically categorised as "Cruiser, Third Class" in spite of being a standard gunboat in all other aspects) and three Nordenfelt
Nordenfelt gun
The Nordenfelt Gun was a multiple barrel machine gun that had a row of up to twelve barrels. It was fired by pulling a lever back and forth. It was produced in a number of different calibres from rifle up to 25 mm...
-type machine guns, 2 x 25 mm. and 1 x 11 mm., but sometime after late 1899 the ordnance was changed to a lighter four rapid-fire 42 mm. Nordenfelt guns and two 25 mm. Maxim machine guns.
She was named after Spanish Navy Brigadier Don Juan Gutiérrez de la Concha, governor of the intendency
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of Salta del Tucumán, then part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
, and explorer of the Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
. He was executed by the first independent Argentine government
United Provinces of South America
The United Provinces of South America was the original name of the state that emerged from the May Revolution and the early developments of the Argentine War of Independence...
on August 1810, near the city of Cruz Alta
Cruz Alta
Cruz Alta may refer to:*Cruz Alta, Córdoba Province, Argentina*Cruz Alta Department, Tucumán Province, Argentina*Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil...
, Córdoba
Córdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
.
Operational history
After becoming fully operational and ready for duty the General Concha was assigned to the then Spanish colony of San JuanSan Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
where she served mainly as a coastal surveillance vessel until the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
began in April 1898.
The U.S. Navy soon established a permanent blockade of San Juan on 18 June 1898. On 22 June 1898 General Concha, 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...
Isabel II
Spanish cruiser Isabel II
Isabel II was a Velasco-class unprotected cruiser of the Spanish Navy that fought at San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the Spanish-American War.-Technical Characteristics:...
, and destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
Terror
Spanish destroyer Terror
Terror was a Furor-class destroyer of the Spanish Navy that fought at San Juan, Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.-Technical Characteristics:...
came out of port to test the blockade, resulting in the Second Battle of San Juan (1898)
Second Battle of San Juan (1898)
The Second Battle of San Juan occurred on 22 June 1898 when two Spanish vessels tried to break the American blockade off San Juan.-Background:...
. Auxiliary cruisers USS St. Paul and USS Yosemite
USS Yosemite (1892)
USS Yosemite was an auxiliary cruiser of the United States Navy.At the beginning of the Spanish-American War, El Sud — a merchant steamer built in 1892 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. — was acquired by the Navy from the Southern Pacific Company on 6 April 1898. The ship was renamed...
moved in, resulting in a short, running gun battle, from which the Spanish quickly broke away. Isabel II and General Concha had a poor top speed of 11 knots; Terror made a torpedo run on St. Paul to cover their retreat, and was badly damaged by gunfire from St. Paul, but all three Spanish ships made it back into port at San Juan. Two men had been killed aboard Terror, the only casualties on either side suffered during the battle.
On 28 June 1898, General Concha, Isabel II and gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
Ponce de León left port again to assist a Spanish blockade runner, the merchant steamer Antonio López, trying to make its way into San Juan's harbor with an important cargo of war supplies. The Yosemite intercepted the Antonio López and attacked it making her run aground in nearby reefs. The General Concha arrived first and engaged the Yosemite, thwarting the efforts of the Americans to disrupt the undergoing salvage operation. The three Spanish warships exchanged long-range gunfire with St. Paul, Yosemite, and cruiser USS New Orleans
USS New Orleans (CL-22)
USS New Orleans was a United States Navy protected cruiser.She was laid down in 1895 as Amazonas for the Brazilian Navy by Armstrong, Mitchell and Company, Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, launched on 4 December 1896, purchased by the Navy while building on 16 March 1898; and commissioned 18 March 1898...
, with neither side scoring any hits.
After the war the General Concha returned to Spain and her armament was refitted to four rapid-fire 42 mm. Nordenfelt guns and two 25 mm. Maxim machine guns. She was assigned to the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, as part of the effort to interrupt piracy and arms smuggling by the local cabilas, usually patrolling the area between Melilla and Alhucemas.
Accident
On 11 June 1913 General Concha sailed from AlmuñécarAlmuñécar
Almuñécar is a municipality in the Spanish Autonomous Region of Andalusia on the Costa Tropical between Nerja and Motril . It has a subtropical climate...
, Granada
Granada (province)
Granada is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Albacete, Murcia, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba, Málaga, and the Mediterranean Sea . Its capital city is also called Granada.The province covers an area of 12,635 km²...
in mainland Spain to Alhucemas
Al Hoceima
Al Hoceima is a city and port in the north of Morocco and in the center of the Rif Mountains. The Al Hoceima city region has a population of 395.644 and is the capital of the Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate region...
, a Spanish stronghold in the Moroccan coast. On command of the ship was the Capitán de Corbeta Don Emiliano Castaño Hernández and aboard was (as a passenger) Colonel Basterra. Upon reaching the Moroccan coast the ship encountered dense fog and continued inbound to Alhucemas at slow speed, but lack of sight from coastal references after some time led the crew to misinterpretation of the position of the ship and some five miles out from her destination she violently ran aground near the cove of Busicú at 07:40 local time. This area was de facto controlled by the Bocoy cabila, rebels against the Spaniards.
The ship was trapped among rocks with her bow pointed to the coast, so immediately an anchor was moored from the stern to try to free her, unsuccessfully. A rowboat was lowered to closely evaluate the extent of the hull damage. All bow compartments, the pantry and some engine room sections were flooded, and all rifles stored in the bow armory room were reallocated to the officers' room amidships. The armed boat nr.2 was launched, with eight seamen led by the Alférez de Navío Don Luis Felipe Lazaga with the mission of reaching Alhucemas to communicate the distress of the vessel and also evacuate Colonel Basterra.
The local insurgent forces soon realized the compromised situation of the Spanish vessel and began harassing the crew of the General Concha with spare rifle shots from the nearby cliffs. The crew was forced to fight the attackers and undergo repairs in the damaged bow section at the same time. The bow 120 mm. gun turned out to be inoperative, being partially below waterline.
During this first shooting came the first casualties for the crew, Seaman José Piñeiro and Gunner Benítez were hit and died; several other men including the Alférez de Navío Don Rafael Ramos Izquierdo y Gener were also wounded. The doctor, Don Manuel Quignon, improvised a "medical room" in a compartment inside the ship. With a rope he wrapped around himself a mattress as improvised protection and came to the outside deck, exposed to fire, dragging all the wounded and dead to the inside of the ship for treatment.
An attempt was made by three men to reach the aft 120 mm. gun to fire back but now the whole outer deck was well covered by abundant rifle fire and two died (2nd Constable Don Pedro Muiños and a Gunner) and the third one (Gunner Corporal Francisco García Benedicto) was badly wounded. The rest of the crew were forced to stay inside the ship.
About 12:30 h. the attackers left their positions and began an assault on the wrecked ship, boarding her by the partially submerged bow section and taking several prisoners here. But in the aft section the Alférez de Navío Ramos had rallied all remaining and able crew (some 20 or 25 men), most armed with rifles and some others with revolvers and even with axes, and shouting hails to Spain and the King they launched a fierce, desperate counterattack as a last chance to maintain control of the ship, forcing the looters in the bow to withdraw from the deck back to their row boats with many casualties. However they took a total of 11 crew men with them. The commander, D. Emiliano Castaño, was hit two times in the neck and the collarbone and died, and Alférez de Navío Izquierdo had to take command of the remainders of ship and crew.
Having now a bargaining element with the captive men of the crew the pirates ceased the attack and withdraw except for some remaining snipers on the cliffs. A few hours later one of the crew prisoners, Sailor Francisco Estensa, was freed and sent back to the wrecked General Concha with instructions from the rebels to surrender the ship in exchange for spare the lives of prisoners and crew, otherwise they would blow the ship with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
. The proposition was considered but not accepted nor answered by the Spanish officers, being the ship already damaged beyond repair, so Sailor Estensa joined the ship crew again. Both parties engaged again in an exchange of rifle fire from fixed positions, as the attackers did not make any further attempt to directly assault the boat.
Finally at 17:00 h. Spanish reinforcements arrived (gunboat Cañonero Lauria and Steamer Vicente Sáenz)