# Spanish cruiser Emperador Carlos V

Emperador Carlos V was an armored cruiser of the Spanish Navy in commission from 1898 to 1931. She was rushed into service during the Spanish-American War, but did not see combat during the war.

## Technical characteristics

Emperador Carlos V′s designed was derived from that of the British Blake-class protected cruisers. She was classified as an armored cruiser, although she lacked the speed, armor, and armament of foreign armored cruisers and in some ways resembled a large protected cruiser. Her boilers and propulsion machinery were of Spanish construction, her armor German, her stern and stern post British, and her gun turrets were French.
Emperador Carlos V had two vertical triple-expansion engines manufactured by Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima of Barcelona, Spain, and four boilers, generating 18,000 indicated horsepower (13,423 kW) under forced draft and 15,000 indicated horsepower (11,185 kW) under natural draft and driving two screws, giving her a maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) under forced draft. She had three funnels.
Emperador Carlos V′s 11-inch (280 mm) main guns were mounted fore and aft in centerline hooded barbettes. One of her strengths was considered to be her great steaming range: With limited fuel, she could steam 3,300 nautical miles (6,100 km; 3,800 mi) at full power and 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at an economical cruising speed of 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph).
Emperador Carlos V was weakly armored, relying mostly on her armored deck for protection. Her belt armor was 160 millimetres (6.3 in) and her deck armor 60 millimetres (2.4 in). Her main gun turrets had 254 millimetres (10 in) of armor, and her secondary guns had 101 millimetres (4.0 in) of armor protection. Her steel hull was divided into 129 watertight compartments.

## Construction and commissioning

Emperador Carlos V′s construction was part of the naval plan approved under Minister of the Navy Rafael Rodríguez de Arias Villavicencio in September 1887. Money originally intended to build torpedo boats was diverted to fund her construction, and the Spanish government awarded a contract for her construction to the Vea Murguía (which became Vea Murguía, Noriega y Cía in 1895) shipyard in Cádiz on 30 April 1891 with an initial budget of 18,850,000 pesetas. She was laid down on 4 March 1892. A tragedy related to her scheduled launching occurred when the protected cruiser Reina Regente, whose commanding officer was trying to steam from Tangier to Cádiz in time to attend the launching in person, sank in a storm with the loss of all hands on 10 March 1895. Emperador Carlos V was launched on 12 March 1895, a day before Reina Regente was declared overdue at Cádiz.
In April 1897, Emperador Carlos V conducted sea trials, but failed to reach her designed speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), and her range at economical cruising speed was calculated at 9,600 nautical miles (17,800 km; 11,000 mi) rather than the planned 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi). She was delivered to the Spanish Navy without her main guns on 18 August 1897 — the largest ship built in a Spanish shipyard in this era — and headed for Le Havre, France, late in 1897 to have her main battery guns and gun turrets installed.
The Spanish-American War broke out when the United States declared war on Spain on 25 April 1898, stipulating that its declaration was retroactive to 21 April. This forced Emperador Carlos V to return to Spain before her main guns could be installed, and she was commissioned without them on 2 June 1898.

## Operational history

Emperador Carlos V was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, commanded by Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Manuel de la Cámara. After spending the war's first weeks lying idle in Spanish waters with a nominal mission of defending the Spanish coast, this squadron was ordered to steam to the Philippines and face the United States Navy's Asiatic Squadron, which had controlled Philippine waters since defeating the Spanish Navy's Pacific Squadron of Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Patricio Montojo y Pasaron in the Battle of Manila Bay.
Camara's squadron — consisting of Emperador Carlos V, the battleship Pelayo, the auxiliary cruisers Patiota and Rapido, the destroyers Audaz, Osado, and Prosepina, and the transports Buenos Aires and Panay — sortied from Cádiz on 16 June 1898, passing Gibraltar on 17 June 1898. It arrived at Port Said, Egypt, on 26 June 1898, and requested permission to transship coal, which the Egyptian government finally denied on 30 June 1898 out of concern for Egyptian neutrality. By the time Camara's squadron arrived at Suez on 5 July 1898, the squadron of Vice Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete had been annihilated in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba, freeing up the U.S. Navy's heavy forces from the blockade of Santiago de Cuba. Fearful of the security of the Spanish coast, the Spanish Ministry of Marine recalled Camara's squadron on 7 July 1898, and Emperador Carlos V returned to Spain, where Camara's 2nd Squadron was dissolved on 25 July 1898. Emperador Carlos V spent the rest of the war in Spanish waters, and hostilities ended on 13 August 1898 without her having had an opportunity to see combat.
After the war, Emperador Carlos V conducted cruises to show the flag, attending naval reviews in foreign countries, most notably including the coronation of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1902.
In 1914 she was present at the United States occupation of Veracruz.
She was decommissioned in 1922, stricken in 1932, and scrapped in 1933.