Spanish frigate Villa de Madrid

This article is about the screw frigate with the devotional name Nuestra Señora de Atocha. For the Spanish galleon with that name, see Nuestra Señora de Atocha.

The Spanish screw frigates Reina Blanca and Villa de Madrid during the Battle of Abtao on 7 February 1866.
History
Spain
Name	Villa de Madrid (secular) Nuestra Señora de Atocha (devotional)
Namesake	Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid (secular) Our Lady of Atocha (devotional)
Ordered	30 September 1860
Builder	Arsenal de la Carraca, San Fernando, Spain
Cost	5,636,975 pesetas
Laid down	3 November 1860
Launched	7 October 1862
Commissioned	12 November 1863
Decommissioned	1884
Fate	Scrapped 1884
General characteristics
Type	Screw frigate
Displacement	4,478 tonnes (4,407 long tons)
Length	87.05 m (285 ft 7 in)
Beam	15.42 m (50 ft 7 in)
Draft	7.40 m (24 ft 3 in)
Depth	7.84 m (25 ft 9 in)
Installed power	800 hp (597 kW) (nominal) 3,200 hp (2,386 kW) (effective)
Propulsion	2 Penn & Son steam engines, 6 boilers, 1 shaft, 720 t (710 lt; 720 st) coal
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	617
Armament	As built: 30 × 200 mm (7.9 in) smoothbore guns 14 × 160 mm (6.3 in) rifled guns 2 × 150 mm (5.9 in) howitzers (for boats) 2 x 120 mm (4.7 in) rifled guns (for launches) 2 × 80 mm (3.1 in) rifled guns (for boats) From August 1868: 20 × 200 mm (7.9 in) guns 10 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns

Villa de Madrid (English: City of Madrid), devotional name Nuestra Señora de Atocha (English: Our Lady of Atocha), was a screw frigate of the Spanish Navy commissioned in 1863. She took part in several actions during the Chincha Islands War in 1866. She served on the rebel side during the Glorious Revolution of 1868, and her crew supported the cantonalist government of the Canton of Cartagena during the Cantonal rebellion of 1873–1874. She was decommissioned and scrapped in 1884.

Names

The name Villa de Madrid translates into English as "City of Madrid." However, the ship's name had a more specific historical meaning, honoring the Dos de Mayo (Second of May) Uprising in Madrid against occupying forces of the First French Empire on 2–3 May 1808.

The custom at the time of Villa de Madrid′s commissioning was that any Spanish Navy ship with a non-religious name had to carry an additional name that was religious in nature. Villa de Madrid thus also bore the devotional name Nuestra Señora de Atocha (English: Our Lady of Atocha), referring to a lost icon from a chapel discovered in high esparto (also known as atocha) grass during the Reconquista.

Construction and commissioning

Villa de Madrid′s construction was authorized by a royal order of 30 September 1860. Designed by the Spanish Navy engineer Juan Garcia Lomas, she was laid down at the Arsenal de la Carraca in San Fernando, Spain, on 3 November 1860 as a wooden-hulled screw frigate of mixed construction with iron beams , booms, and diagonals and steam propulsion. On 5 October 1862, the first attempt at launching her failed, but she was launched successfully on 7 October 1862 in the presence of Queen Regnant Isabella II.

Villa de Madrid′s fitting-out followed, and between 17 March and 15 July 1863 her machinery was installed and her bottom was lined with copper. Her sea trials took place on 6 November 1863, and she was commissioned on 12 November 1863 under the command of Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) Claudio Alvargonzález y Sánchez. Her figurehead bore the municipal coat of arms of Madrid, and her total construction cost was 5,636,975 pesetas.

Villa de Madrid′s 200-millimetre (7.9 in) smoothbore guns were mounted in a battery. Her 160-millimetre (6.3 in) rifled guns were mounted fore and aft, with six in her forecastle and eight on her afterdeck. She also carried two 120-millimetre (4.7 in) rifled guns for use aboard her launches and two 150-millimetre (5.9 in) howitzers and two short 80-millimetre (3.1 in) rifled guns for use aboard her other boats.

The Spanish Navy viewed Villa de Madrid′s design as successful and made plans to build five sister ships to the same design, but dropped these plans as it became apparent that armored frigates were taking the place of wooden ships in major navies.

Service history

Early service

Villa de Madrid′s first operation after commissioning was to carry a a Spanish Marine Infantry unit, the 6th Marine Infantry Battalion, from Spain to Havana in the Captaincy General of Cuba, after which she returned to Spain, arriving at Cádiz. Assigned to the Pacific Squadron, she departed Cadiz soon afterward, getting underway on 6 September 1864 bound for Montevideo, Uruguay, where she rendezvoused with the Spanish Navy screw frigates Reina Blanca and Berenguela. The three ships then passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean and in December 1864 joined the Pacific Squadron in the Chincha Islands. Villa de Madrid became the flagship of the squadron's commander, Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) José Manuel Pareja, whose predecessor Luis Hernández-Pinzón Álvarez had seized the Chincha Islands from Peru in April 1864 amid growing tensions between the countries. On 27 January 1865 Peruvian government representative Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco and Pareja signed the Preliminary Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Peru and Spain, known informally as the Vivanco–Pareja Treaty, aboard Villa de Madrid in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to settle claims between the two countries that instead sparked the outbreak of the Peruvian Civil War of 1865.

Chincha Islands War

The political situation in the region further deteriorated during 1865 when Pareja steamed to Valparaíso, Chile, to settle Spanish claims. When Chile refused to settle, Pareja announced a blockade of Valparaíso, and the Chincha Islands War broke out between Spain and Chile on 24 September 1865. Early setbacks in the war culminating in a humiliating Spanish naval defeat in the Battle of Papudo on 26 November 1865 prompted Pareja to commit suicide aboard Villa de Madrid off Valparaíso, shooting himself in his cabin on 28 November 1865 while lying on his bed wearing his dress uniform. He was buried at sea, and Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) Casto Méndez Núñez received a promotion to contralmirante (counteradmiral) and took command of the Pacific Squadron.

Peru and Ecuador joined the war on Chile's side in January 1866. In February 1866, Méndez Núñez sent Villa de Madrid, still under Sánchez's command, and Reina Blanca south to destroy the combined Chilean-Peruvian squadron. To save coal, the two frigates stopped at the Juan Fernández Islands to obtain supplies and information before beginning their search. The Spanish frigates found the allied squadron, composed of the Peruvian Navy frigate Apurímac and corvettes América and Unión and the Chilean Navy schooner Covadonga, anchored and immobilized in an inlet on the Chilean coast in the Chiloé Archipelago at Abtao Island on 7 February 1866. In the resulting Battle of Abtao, the Spanish ships were reluctant to close with the allied squadron because of a fear of running aground in shallow water. Apurímac opened fire at 16:15, and an indecisive exchange of long-range gunfire ensued over the course of about 90 minutes in which the ships fired about 1,700 rounds and Covadonga scored several hits on Reina Blanca. The Spanish frigates displayed good marksmanship but had little success and ultimately withdrew as darkness fell to avoid wasting ammunition. During the engagement, Villa de Madrid was hit seven times in her hull and four times in her masts and rigging, suffering four men wounded and three others accidentally injured; two of her guns burst at their muzzles, although this did not result in any additional damage or casualties. Reina Blanca was hit eight times in her hull and eight in her masts and rigging, suffering two men wounded.

Bolivia joined the war against Spain on 22 March 1866, closing all the Pacific ports of South America south of Colombia to Spanish ships. Under orders to take punitive action against South American ports, Méndez Núñez selected undefended Valparaíso as his target. On the morning of 31 March 1866 his squadron arrived at Valparaíso. Facing no opposition, Villa de Madrid, Reina Blanca, the armored frigate Numancia, the screw frigate Resolución, the screw corvette Vencedora, and the steamer Paquete de Maule conducted a three-hour bombardment of Valparaíso that killed two people, injured 10, and sank 33 merchant ships in the harbor, destroying Chile's merchant fleet. The bombardment inflicted US$10 million (about US$224 million in 2011) in damage.

Méndez Núñez chose the heavily defended port of Callao, Peru, for his next attack, carried out by Villa de Madrid, Numancia, Reina Blanca, Resolución, Vencedora, the screw frigates Almansa and Berenguela, and seven auxiliary ships. On the morning of 2 May 1866 the Spanish ships entered Callao Bay, beginning the Battle of Callao, the largest battle of the Chincha Islands War. Vencedora and the auxiliary ships stood off near San Lorenzo Island while the other six Spanish ships attacked the harbor, with Numancia, Almansa, and Resolución steering northward and Villa de Madrid, Berenguela, and Reina Blanca heading south. Villa de Madrid was hit several times, including by a 450-pound (204 kg) projectile that killed 14 men and wounded 13, destroyed her boilers, and disabled her. Vencedora towed her out of danger, but Villa de Madrid fired over 200 rounds at the Peruvian fortifications during the maneuver. In command of a battery of guns on Villa de Madrid′s main deck, Teniente de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant) Manuel de la Cámara, a future almirante (admiral), played an active and conspicuous role in the battle, the guns under his command firing until they ran out of ammunition. The most significant combat action of Villa Madrid′s career, the Battle of Callao coincidentally took place on the 58th anniversary of the Madrid uprising for which she was named. Sources suggest that her crew suffered 35 casualties during the battle; she suffered a total of 74 men dead or wounded during the Chincha Islands War as a whole.

Méndez Núñez's squadron spent the next several days at San Lorenzo Island just off Callao, making repairs and tending to casualties. The war ended in a ceasefire on 9 May 1866, and Mendez Núñez's ships departed South American waters on 10 May and steamed west, bound for the Philippines, where they underwent further repairs. The ships then continued westward, crossing the Indian Ocean.Villa de Madrid passed around Cape Horn under sail in winter without warm clothing or fresh food, and scurvy broke out among her crew. By the time the squadron had crossed the South Atlantic Ocean and made port at Rio de Janiero, Brazil, on 24 June 1866, completing a circumnavigation of the world, 31 members of Villa de Madrid′s crew had died and 350 more were sick.

After arriving at Rio de Janeiro, the squadron began patrols in the South Atlantic while Méndez Núñez took measures to address the needs of his own squadron and indiscipline at the Spanish Navy′s Río de la Plata station. The arrival of the screw frigates Concepción and Navas de Tolosa finally allowed Méndez Núñez to release his ships in the poorest condition — Villa de Madrid, Reina Blanca, and Resolución — to return to Spain. Villa de Madrid got underway from Rio de Janeiro on 26 September 1866 and reached Spain on 4  November 1866, arriving at Cádiz to a jubilant welcome from the authorities and a crowd of civilians. She entered the Arsenal de la Carraca in San Fernando for careening and repairs.

Later service

In 1867, Giuseppe Garibaldi launched an expedition to capture Rome from the Papal States and complete the unification of Italy. Villa de Madrid steamed to the Papal States and anchored at Civitavecchia to provide transportation for Pope Pius IX in case he needed to evacuate Rome, but Garbialdi's defeat at the Battle of Mentana on 3 November 1867 made this unnecessary, and Villa de Madrid returned to Spain at the end of 1867, arriving at Cartagena.

In 1868, Villa de Madrid transported Infanta Isabel, Countess of Girgenti, and her husband Prince Gaetan, Count of Girgenti, to the Papal States for the couple's honeymoon in the spring of 1868, returning to Spain at Cartagena before proceeding to Cádiz. In July 1868 she transported Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, and his family into exile in Lisbon, Portugal, arriving there on 3 August 1868. She then was assigned to San Sebastián, Spain, where the court of Isabella II was in residence.

Villa de Madrid arrived at Cádiz at the end of August 1868 for alterations to her armament, plans calling for her to undergo modifications that would give her twenty 200-millimetre (7.9 in) smoothbore and ten 160-millimetre (6.3 in) rifled guns. However, these plans were cancelled when the Glorious Revolution broke out in September 1868, resulting in the deposition of Isabella II. Under the command of Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) Rafael Rodríguez de Arias y Villavicencio, she sided with the rebels. On either 23 or 25 September 1868, Villa de Madrid, with General Juan Prim aboard, and the armored frigate Zaragoza got underway from Cádiz for a cruise along the coast of Spain and North Africa to incite rebellion, during which they visited Algeciras, Ceuta, Malaga, Cartagena, Valencia, and Barcelona. After the cruise, she entered the Arsenal de la Carraca at San Fernando for repairs.

In December 1868, Villa de Madrid joined the Mediterranean Squadron, remaining at anchor at Santa Pola during this assignment. In June 1869 she arrived at Valencia for modification of her armament, emerging from it with thirty-four 200-millimetre (7.9 in) guns mounted in battery and six 160-millimetre (6.3 in) rifled guns mounted on her forecastle and stern.

Villa de Madrid was anchored at Cartagena on 24 November 1870 under the command of Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) Don Eduardo Butler y Anguita and serving as the flagship of the squadron commander, Contraalmirante (Counteradmiral) Don José Ignacio Rodríguez de Arias when Minister of the Navy José María Beránger Ruiz de Apodaca and President of the Congress of Deputies Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla came aboard. Villa de Madrid, Numancia, and the armored frigate Vitoria then departed Cartagena on 26 November 1870 and steamed in company to La Spezia, Italy, where the Spanish dignitaries offered the Spanish crown to Prince Amadeo of Savoy. On the outward voyage she raised the royal standard without a monarch on board, the only time in the history of Spain that a ship has done so. Amadeo boarded Numancia and the Spanish ships returned to Spain, arriving at Cartagena on 30 December 1870. Amadeo subsequently ruled as Amadeo I of Spain until 1873.

Still part of the Mediterranean Squadron and under Butler's command, Villa de Madrid departed Cartagena in March 1871 for a diplomatic visit to Tangier in company with the armored frigate Arapiles to convey Spanish government demands to Sultan Muhammad IV of Morocco. In company with Numancia, she again visited Tangier in August 1871.

During the Cantonal rebellion of 1873–1874, Villa de Madrid joined the Canton of Cartagena on 30 July 1873 and most of her crew abandoned her to enjoy leave granted by the cantonalist government. Her engine was broken, so when the First Spanish Republic attempted to regain control of Cartagena she played only a passive role in the defense of Cartagena Naval Base against the centralist squadron of Contraamlirante (Counteradmiral) Miguel Lobo y Malagamba.

From 1879 until either 1882 or 1884, Villa de Madrid served in the Training Squadron.

Decommissioning and disposal

Villa de Madrid was decommissioned in either 1882 or 1884 and was disarmed and scrapped in 1884.

A 600-kilogram (1,323 lb) anchor preserved as a monument on the edge of a pond in the Parque del Buen Retiro in Madrid bears a bronze commemorative plaque which reads "Homenaje a la mar. Ancla que fue de la fragata Villa de Madrid. 27 de febrero de 1982" ("Tribute to the sea. Anchor that belonged to the frigate Villa de Madrid. 27 February 1982"), the date apparently referring to the day on which the monument was dedicated. The plaque implies that the anchor belonged to Villa de Madrid. Although Villa de Madrid carried six anchors — four of 4,600.8 kilograms (10,143 lb), one of 1,242.22 kilograms (2,738.6 lb), one of 644.11 kilograms (1,420 lb), and one of 460.08 kilograms (1,014.3 lb) — she had no anchor matching the one preserved in the park. Apparently, the preserved anchor actually is an Admiralty-model anchor cast in 1930 by Fondeira Milanese Di Acciaio Vanzetti (Vanzetti Milanese Steel Foundry) in Milan, Italy, for the Spanish Compania Transmediterránea motor passenger ship Villa de Madrid, which operated from 1932 to 1979, when she was sold for scrap.

References

Bibliography

• Anca Alamillo, Alejandro (2009). Buques de la Armada Española del Siglo XIX (in Spanish). Ministry of Defense. ISBN 9788497815284.
• Coello Lillo, Juan Luis; Rodríguez González, Agustín Ramón (2001). Buques de la Armada Española a través de la Fotografía (in Spanish). ISBN 978-84-95088-37-6.
• Cos-Gayón, Fernando (1863). Crónica del viaje de sus Majestades y Altezas reales a Andalucía y Murcia en septiembre y octubre de 1682 (in Spanish). Madrid: Imprenta Nacional. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
• de Novo y Colson, Pedro (1882). Historía de la guerra de España en el Pacífico (in Spanish). Impr. de Fortanet.
• de Lara, M M (1869). El cronista de la revolución española de 1868. Div. 1 (in Spanish). Barcelona: Imprenta de Celestino Balaguer.
• Farcau, Bruce W. (2000). The Ten Cents War: Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific, 1879 - 1884 (1. publ ed.). Westport, Connecticut; London: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-96925-7.
• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1893). Viajes regios por mar en el transcurso de quinientos años: narración cronológica (in Spanish). Madrid: Impresores de la Casa Real. pp. 339–350.
• Lledó Calabuig, José (1998). Buques de vapor de la armada española, del vapor de ruedas a la fragata acorazada, 1834-1885 (in Spanish). Agualarga. pp. 96–98. ISBN 8495088754.
• New York Times staff (6 May 1866). "South America: From the Seat of War – Great Preparations and "Great Expectations" – The Grand Movement of the Allied Fleet Again Delayed – Paraguayan Spies and their Stories – The War Beginning to Affect the Finances of the Argentine Confederation. The Bombardment of Valparaiso: Letter from an Americal Naval Officer". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
• Peña González, José (2006). Historia política del constitucionalismo español (in Spanish). Madrid: Dykinson. p. 200. ISBN 978-84-9772-906-2.
• Rodríguez González, Agustín Ramón (1999). La Armada Española, la campaña del Pacífico, 1862-1871: España frente a Chile y Perú (in Spanish). Agualarga. ISBN 978-84-95088-90-1.
• Scheina, Robert (2003). Latin America's Wars: The Age of the Caudillo, 1791–1899. Brassey's. ISBN 9781597974776.

External links

• Villa de Madrid Todoavante (in Spanish)