# Spanish cruiser Cataluña

Cataluña was a Spanish Navy Princesa de Asturias-class armored cruiser in commission from 1908 to 1928. She fought in the Rif war of 1921–1926.
Cataluña was named for Catalonia, a region of Spain.

## Characteristics

Cataluña was 110.97 metres (364 ft 1 in) long and had a beam of 18.59 metres (61 ft 0 in), a draft of 6.61 metres (21 ft 8 in), and a displacement of 6,888 tons. She had reciprocating steam engines rated at 14,800 indicated horsepower (11,036 kW) driving two shafts, giving her a top speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). Her main armament consisted of two 9.4-inch (239 mm) guns mounted in single turrets. Her secondary armament consisted of eight 5.5-inch (140 mm) guns on single mounts.
The Princesa de Asturias-class ships in essence were modernized Infanta Maria Teresa-class cruisers with more modern and better-balanced armament, but like the Infanta Maria Teresa-class ships their armour coverage was not comprehensive, and the ships were poorly armoured by the standards of their time. Cataluña had belt armour of 11.88 inches (30.2 cm), conning tower and barbette armour of 7.88 inches (20.0 cm), 3.88-inch (9.9 cm) turret armour, and 2.25-inch (5.7 cm) deck armour.

## Construction and commissioning

Cataluña′s construction was authorized by a royal decree of 17 September 1888. She was laid down at the Arsenal de Cartagena at Cartagena, Spain, on 23 January 1890 and was launched on 24 September 1900. While fitting out, she conducted several wireless telegraphy tests with her sister ship Princesa de Asturias off Cartagena in late April 1907. She was delivered to the Spanish Navy on 7 April 1908. Her total construction cost was 14,000,000 pesetas.

## Service history

Cataluña departed Cartagena on 9 April 1908 bound for Barcelona. While at Barcelona she received her battle ensign, presented to her by the ladies of Barcelona in a ceremony attended by King Alfonso XIII and Queen Maria Christina as well as the French Navy battleships Démocratie and Patrie. She got underway from Barcelona in early May 1908 and proceeded to Palma de Mallorca on Mallorca on the Balearic Islands, where she brought aboard the remains of King Jaime for transportation to Valencia. She then returned to Cartagena to coal.
Due to unrest in Morocco, Cataluña subsequently headed from Cartagena to the coast of North Africa to anchor at Larache, where several of the incidents had occurred. She later moved to Tétouan, where she rendezvoused with Princesa de Asturias. She anchored alone at Larache again before Princesa de Asturias replaced her there in late August 1908.
In October 1908, Cataluña and the destroyer Audaz made a voyage from Cádiz to Barcelona, which they reached on 17 October. Princesa de Asturias and the armored cruiser Emperador Carlos V joined them on 18 October, also arriving from Cádiz. On 21 October 1908, a French squadron arrived, and the Spanish and French ships remained at Barcelona during the visit there of King Alfonso XIII and Queen Maria Christina. The Spanish ships departed Barcelona on 8 November 1908, Cataluña proceeding to Alicante for a several-day visit while the rest headed for Cartagena.
On 17 January 1909, Cataluña arrived at Gioia Tauro in the Kingdom of Italy with supplies for the relief of victims of the 28 December 1908 earthquake in Messina, Sicily. A few days later she arrived at Milazzo, Sicily, and embarked a large number of injured people destined for the Santa Marta Hospice in Vatican City. She arrived at Naples on 31 January with 23 injured people and 180 orphaned children aboard and reached Civitavecchia on the morning of 1 February 1909.
When King Alfonso XIII visited Melilla on the coast of North Africa on 8 January 1911, Cataluña was part of the Spanish Navy squadron charged with escorting his royal yacht, Giralda. When troops of the Spanish Army and Spanish Marine Infantry occupied Larache on 8 June 1911, Cataluña and several transports transported them and protected their landing and occupation of the town in the run-up to the beginning of the Kert campaign.
King Alfonso XIII and Queen Maria Christina attended a naval parade in Santander on 12 July 1912 in which sailors and marine infantrymen from Cataluña, Emperador Carlos V, and Princesa de Asturias participated. On 20 September 1912 Cataluña departed Ferrol and proceeded to Cádiz with the Training Squadron. She conducted gunnery exercises off Torre García between 13 and 16 March 1913, making port at Cádiz when they concluded. With other ships of the Training Squadron, she steamed from Cádiz to Ferrol in early May 1913 to attend the launching of the battleship Alfonso XIII, which took place on 7 May.
World War I broke out in late July 1914, and Spain remained neutral. On 2 October 1914, the Training Squadron, including Cataluña, gathered at Cartagena for the visit of the President of France, Raymond Poincaré, after which part of the squadron headed for the coast of Africa. At around 17:00 on 20 November 1914, Cataluña left La Palma in the Canary Islands escorting the German merchant ship Macedonia — which had had a part of its propulsion machinery replaced — to Las Palmas to prevent the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Victorian from capturing Macedonia in international waters. From 21 to 22 June 1916, the Imperial German Navy submarine U-35 anchored off Cataluña′s port side while delivering a message from the Emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II, to King Alfonso XIII. The war concluded in November 1918.
Cataluña visited Bizerte in French Tunisia in the spring of 1921, where she received a salute from the interned ships of Wrangel's fleet, the ships of the former Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet which had fought on the losing White side in the Russian Civil War and fled to internment at Bizerte.
Cataluña operated against Rifian forces during the Rif War in Morocco of 1921–1926. In 1924 Rifian forces at M'Ter fired at her, and as she returned fire a gun exploded on her deck, killing one of her officers. At the end of 1924 she entered dry dock at Matagorda, Spain, for careening.
Cataluña later served as a training ship and made several midshipman training voyages. The barquentine Juan Sebastián de Elcano was commissioned as the Spanish Navy's training ship in August 1928, replacing Cataluña, and Cataluña was decommissioned by a Royal Order of 12 November 1928.

## Final disposition

Cataluña was stricken from the naval register in 1930. She was sold at Bilbao in 1930 for scrapping.