It isn’t often that a warship unsuccessful from the time of her launching can look forward to an abnormally long and useful career. Yet the old Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes turned out to be just such a paradox. When towed from her wharf at the U. S. Naval Academy in November 1957, this old ship numbered over seventy years—truly a ripe old age! She had outlived by many years all save one of the U. S. ships in the Spanish- American War. That one is Admiral Dewey’s flagship, the Olympia.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Spanish Navy had fallen into the doldrums primarily as a result of a lack of interest on the part of the government. Starting in the early 1880’s, however, funds were allocated on a limited scale to build new ships to replace the old, worn-out vessels then in service. Although the building program was reasonable and in keeping with Spain’s need for a modern fleet to protect her extensive empire, it was a failure from the start. A combination of inefficiency in the shipyards, ordnance plants, and other suppliers of marine equipment, coupled with the complacency and lack of appreciation of naval problems in the government, frustrated timely implementation of this program. In some cases it required up to ten years or more from inception of design to final outfitting of a Spanish warship. Needless to say some of these ships were already old before they became fully effective. In addition to the problems of shipbuilding, the Spanish ships in commission during this era suffered from lack of maintenance stemming largely from inadequate funds and inability to obtain repairs on a timely basis.
It was into this inauspicious background that the cruiser Reina Mercedes was launched in 1887. She was one of three sister ships designed under the direction of Don Tomas Tallerie, the Brigadier of Naval Engineers. As designed, they were good examples of the transition period from sail to steam. They were rigged as three-masted schooners and were capable of propulsion under either sail or steam. The hulls were of iron with the following principal characteristics:
Length |
278 feet, 2 inches |
Beam |
49 feet, 9 inches |
Draft at half load |
16 feet, 5 inches |
Displacement |
3,090 tons |
Engine horsepower (single propeller) |
4,400 |
Coal bunker capacity |
40 tons |
Designed speed |
17 ½ knots |
Armament |
Six 6.3-inch and eleven smaller guns; five fixed torpedo tubes. |
The three ships were christened Alfonso XII, Reina Mercedes, and Reina Cristina, in honor of the King and his two successive wives. Queen Mercedes reigned only five months until her premature death on 26 June 1878, and Cristina married Alfonso on 29 November 1879. The Reina Cristina and Alfonso XII were built at the Ferrol Navy Yard and were launched on 2 May 1886, and 21 August 1887, respectively. The Reina Mercedes was built on the Santa Rosalia slipway of the Cartagena Navy Yard and launched on 12 September 1887.
The Cartagena Echo, a local paper of the above date, gives a detailed account of the launching of the Reina Mercedes. A partial translation reads: “The Sixth Marine Regiment with flags and music, under the command of Lt. Col. Franco, rendered the ordination honors. At three-thirty Vice Admiral Valcarcel cheered ‘Long live the King,’ which was answered enthusiastically by the spectators, and the chords of the Royal March floated softly over the hugh mass of the ship, christened a few moments before by the military chaplain under the patronage of St. Teresa de Jesus. The launching operation was directed by the road engineer, Jose Baldasano who had been charged with responsibility for the launching apparatus.” This article goes on to describe how the newly launched ship was towed to the floating drydock with both the military and civilian authorities assisting. It was indeed a gala occasion.
These three ships entered service in 1887 and 1888, six years after construction commenced. Despite this long building period they were short many items of equipment when commissioned. In fact, the records show that the Reina Mercedes was not completely finished nor its armament completely installed until 1894—thirteen years after completion of the design. Under the 1887 Naval Law these ships were classed as “First Class Cruisers.” This proved much too optimistic in reality since they were unarmored. Design- wise they were old when they entered service and proved unsatisfactory as fleet units. The Royal Decree on naval units of 29 November 1890, eliminated these cruisers from the fleet organization and stated: “At an opportune time, and in order to utilize these vessels whose condition makes them unfit for modern warfare, the following vessels will be fitted out as transports: Reina Cristina for 1,000 infantrymen, Reina Mercedes for cavalry and war munitions; and Alfonso XII munitions, torpedo, and stores ship.” This directive like so many others of that era was never carried out, but it indicates the dissatisfaction of the Spanish Navy with this type.
Of the three, the Reina Cristina had the shortest career. Despite her known shortcoming, eight years later in 1898 she was the flagship of Admiral Montojo’s Philippine Squadron. With all her faults she was still the best of the numerically superior but materially inferior fleet that succumbed to Admiral Dewey’s well trained and effective squadron in the battle at Cavite on May 1, 1898. The Alfonso XII was in Havana, Cuba, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. Her boilers were in such poor condition that she could scarcely get underway and she never left the confines of the harbor during this short war. At the end of hostilities her boilers were partially repaired and she returned to Spain where she was stripped and converted into a coal barge at the Carraca Navy Yard in 1900. In 1907 she was sold as scrap.
As for the Reina Mercedes, the naval budget for 1892-93 permitted additional construction and installation of the remaining armament and other equipment. With final completion, the relative value of this cruiser class must have improved since we find both the Reina Mercedes and her sister ship Alfonso XII assigned to the Instruction Squadron from 1893 to 1895. This consisted of some of the best of the available fleet units. After an intensive training period during the summer and fall of 1895, a portion of this squadron, including both the Reina Mercedes and the Alfonso XII were dispatched to the Antilles to bolster the heterogeneous fleet of gunboats and small warships charged with patrol of the Cuban and Puerto Rican coasts and suppression of smuggling to the insurrectionists.
Both ships should have been overhauled prior to transfer in view of the extensive operations to which they had so lately been subjected. However, political expediency took precedence and the ships were rushed to Cuban waters in relatively poor material condition. The Reina Mercedes was assigned as station ship at Santiago de Cuba and, as we have seen, the Alfonso XII was assigned to Havana. Since there were no facilities available in any of the Cuban ports for repairs other than those of a minor nature, some of the major equipment, especially the boilers, gradually deteriorated as casualties occurred which were beyond the capabilities of the ship’s force and local repair shops to correct.
In March of 1898, the Reina Mercedes had been in Cuban waters for two and a half years. It had been almost five years since her last drydocking and overhaul. During this time the crew had done a reasonably good job of maintaining the hull, armament, rigging, and other equipment, but seven of the ten boilers were useless and the bottom was extremely foul. When on the eve of war with the United States the main elements of the Spanish fleet were concentrated in Havana, the Reina Mercedes was the only important unit not included because it was not considered safe to sail her in the open sea. At the end of March, in preparation for the impending hostilities, the Reina Mercedes was anchored at the entrance to the port of Santiago between the Socapa Battery and fortified Smith Key. She was stripped of her topmasts and yards and heavy chains were lashed to her unarmored bow and forward part for protection. To reinforce the ground defenses around the city, the four after 6.3-inch Hontoria guns were removed and also one of the 57-mm. and four of the 37-mm. These represented powerful reinforcements to the land defenses of Santiago. Along with the guns went part of the crew. These were organized into two combat companies under their own officers.
On May 19, Admiral Cervera’s squadron arrived at Santiago after a hurried trip from Spain. This squadron consisted of the armored cruisers Infanta Maria Teresa, Oquendo Vizcaya, and Cristobal Colon, and the torpedo- boat destroyers Furor and Pluton. Although perhaps basically a potent fighting squadron, these ships all suffered from the same neglect which was characteristic of the whole Spanish Navy. The Vizcaya was long overdue for drydocking. The machinery plants were in only fair to poor condition and even more inexcusable, the Cristobal Colon had none of her main battery guns. The U. S. fleet under Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley was quick to locate Cervera’s squadron and mobilized a strong blockade composed of 21 ships, including six battleships.
The Reina Mercedes, immobilized at the mouth of the bay, was a natural target for American naval guns when they commenced their bombardment of the shore batteries on June 6. This first heavy attack subjected the ship to a number of hits and resulted in the death of the Second Commander, Emilio Acosta, and five others. Twelve men were wounded. From this date until the sorties of Admiral Cervera on July 3, the Reina Mercedes was subjected to no less than seven other bombardments from the sea and her men ashore were under attack at least five times. Despite numerous hits from the blockading ships, the Reina Mercedes continued to fire her two remaining heavy guns until the very end. Twice the ship was set on fire, but both of these fires were successfully extinguished under the valiant direction of Lieutenant Antonio Ozamiz. Without armor or splinter shields and only the makeshift protection afforded by the draped anchor chains, Spanish casualties ran exceedingly high during these numerous bombardments. The tenacity with which the crew manned their guns until the end is a tribute to the courage of the Spanish captain and his men.
During June, 1898, Lieutenant Hobson and seven volunteers made a heroic attempt to scuttle the old collier Merrimac in the narrow entrance channel. This was foiled by the swift current and the heavy fire of the Spanish shore batteries, aided by the Reina Mercedes, which carried away one of the anchor chains. After Hobson’s surrender to Admiral Cervera, he and his men were temporarily quartered on board this vessel.
On 3 July 1898, Admiral Cervera led his squadron out of Santiago harbor in a desperate bid to extricate all or part of the ships from the every-tightening pincers around Santiago. It was a courageous but hopeless gesture, and all his ships were sunk or run ashore in the only major ship action of the Cuban campaign. The next day the Naval Commandant at Santiago recommended to the Admiral in Havana and the General-in- Chief that the Reina Mercedes be scuttled in order to block the harbor and prevent access of the U. S. fleet. Consent was given and after dark on the night of 4 July the Captain of the Reina Mercedes, along with Ensign Nardiz, a few machinists, firemen, and sailors, got the ship underway. Before reaching the point selected for scuttling, she was picked up by the searchlights of the U. S. ships and immediately taken under fire by the battleships Texas and Massachusetts. This rapidly developed into a situation like that of the Merrimac several weeks before, only in reverse. Heavy damage caused by the shelling from the U. S. ships assisted again by the strong current caused the Reina Mercedes to swing out of the channel before she finally sank.
When hostilities ceased in August 1898, the U. S. Navy investigated the wrecks of both the Merrimac and the Reina Mercedes, since they constituted a danger to navigation in and out of the port. The Merrimac was destroyed with explosives, but since the Reina Mercedes was only partially submerged it was decided to refloat her. As sunk she rested on her port bilge with a 28° list about 250 feet off shore from the Estrella Battery. Her port rail was six feet under water but divers reported they could find no holes in the bottom.
On 2 January 1899, the Merritt and Chapman Wrecking Company, forerunners of the present day Merritt, Chapman, and Scott Company, began salvage work on this ship under a contract with the Navy Department. It was necessary to plug the shell damage and portholes which were under water. The well decks and open hatches required construction of a cofferdam to bring these openings above the water level. On the first of March, two months after the start of salvage operations, the Reina Mercedes was refloated with water in the holds as high as twelve feet. After all the water was removed and temporary repairs completed, she was towed to Norfolk Navy Yard where she arrived on 10 June 1899, the largest single trophy of the brief War with Spain.
During the next few months while the Navy Department was determining what disposition to make of this hulk, many curious visitors came to view the strange vessel at her moorings. Since the machinery was now worthless, but the hull still good, the Americans decided to convert the Reina into a barracks ship. The two remaining 6.3-inch guns, boilers, and machinery were removed. In place of her three masts and two tall smokestacks, two signal masts and a galley smoke pipe were installed. This conversion and overhaul was completed in 1903. The next year she was towed from the Norfolk Navy Yard to Newport, Rhode Island, where she served as the receiving ship.
Early in 1912 the Reina Mercedes left Newport in tow by the Navy tugs Patuxent and Lebanon. On arrival at the Norfolk Navy Yard she underwent an overhaul and refit. Then, on 30 September 1912, she arrived at the Naval Academy at Annapolis and relieved Admiral Farragut’s old flagship Hartford as station ship. Thus began over 45 years of service to the U. S. Naval Academy and many generations of midshipmen. Thousands of Annapolis graduates well remember the white ship with the foreign name which was jokingly referred to as the “fastest ship in the Navy” because she had remained “fast” to the pier in the Severn River for so many years. This long sojourn in one spot was broken only by brief visits to Norfolk for docking and overhaul in 1916, 1927, 1932, 1939, and 1951.
As station ship the Reina, as she was customarily called, performed many functions, including keeping a maternal watch on the Academy’s sailing craft. For many years she served the onerous role of brig for recalcitrant midshipmen. Confinement ranged from one week to two months, depending on the offense. The midshipmen were not excused from classes or drills during these periods, but were required to eat all meals on board and to sleep in hammocks at night. On 5 September 1940, this custom was abolished and restriction of midshipmen to their rooms in Bancroft Hall became the prescribed procedure in all such disciplinary matters.
Once during this long period the Reina Mercedes again flew the gold and red flag of her native Spain. In 1920 the Spanish battleship Alfonso XIII paid an official visit to the Naval Academy. Lieutenant Don Mateo Mille, whose father had served on the Reina, tells of the effect the sight of the ancient cruiser produced in him: “The first of September the Alfonso XIII weighed anchor and covered the 140 miles up the Chesapeake Bay [from Norfolk] to Annapolis, anchoring at 5 o’clock in the afternoon a short distance from the battleship Utah. Our salute was answered by an ancient ship, painted white, which flew the Spanish flag from her mast. It was our old cruiser Reina Mercedes, sunk at Santiago de Cuba in 1898, tied up to the Naval Academy dock that, after twenty-two years, flew her native flag once again, if only for a few moments.”
In the last few years with the growth of the Naval Academy and the rapidly changing concepts of warfare, the contributions of the old Reina Mercedes to the functioning of the Academy became increasingly less. The staunch old hull finally succumbed to the ravages of brackish water. The ancient decks, doors, and hatches were worn and in some cases distorted. In September 1957 the Board of Inspection and Survey found the old ship unfit for further naval service and recommended disposal. Acting on this recommendation, the Navy sold the Reina to a Baltimore scrap company and she was towed away. For many Academy graduates, part of the Academy they knew left with her, but the legend of this old ship will live on for succeeding generations of midshipmen. For years to come, when shipmates reminisce, there will be many stories about the Reina Mercedes, a cruiser, a trophy, and a legend.