page_title: Spanish battleship Jaime I
section_title: Spanish Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish battleship Jaime I / Service history / Spanish Civil War
caption_attribution_description: English: El vigia Vickers 305/50 Battery near Tarifa. Bow battery from Battleship Jaime I Português: Bataria de Artilharia de costa El Vigia em Tarifa. Canhões Vickers-Armstrong 305/55 mm. Torre de Vante do Couraçado Jaime I
context_page_description: Jaime I was a Spanish dreadnought battleship, the third and final member of the España class, which included two other ships: España and Alfonso XIII. Named after King James I of Aragon, Jaime I was built in the early 1910s, though her completion was delayed until 1921 owing to a shortage of materials that resulted from the start of World War I the previous year. The class was ordered as part of a naval construction program to rebuild the fleet after the losses of the Spanish–American War in the context of closer Spanish relations with Britain and France. The ships were armed with a main battery of eight 305 mm guns and were intended to support the French Navy in the event of a major European war.
  By the time Jaime I was completed, the Rif War had broken out in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and the ship was used to support Spanish forces fighting in the colony in the early to mid-1920s. She was placed in reserve in 1931 after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, but was reactivated in 1933 to serve as the fleet flagship. Plans to modernize the vessel in the mid-1930s came to nothing after the start of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936.
context_section_description: In mid-July 1936, Jaime I was moored in Vigo; she was at that time the only battleship capable of going to sea, as her sister España was being repaired in Ferrol. Franco, the leader of the Nationalist coup against the government, relied on defections from the Navy to carry the Army of Africa to Spain. The ships' crews in Ferrol already knew about the plans by 13 July, and many attended a meeting that day to discuss what course of action they would take if the officer corps joined Franco when he launched the coup. On the morning of 18 July, wireless operators in the navy headquarters Madrid intercepted radio messages from Franco to rebels in Morocco; they alerted naval headquarters, which in turn sent messages to every ship in the fleet to alert the crews to watch for rebellious officers. The crews in Cartagena, including Jaime I, mutinied after their commanders began to join the Nationalists, murdering many of them and ensuring the ships would remain under government control in the Spanish Republican Navy. Jaime I avoided the worst of the bloodshed, as her commander opted to remain loyal to the government.
  Jaime I got underway on 19 July to attempt to block the crossing, joining other elements of the fleet off Gibraltar later that day. Despite the fact that the Republican government had retained most of the fleet in the Mediterranean, it was unable to block the passage of the Army of Africa to Spain. The vessels were crippled by poor discipline for some time, as they had had few remaining officers and the crews distrusted those that were not killed. In addition, the German Kriegsmarine (War Navy) had sent the heavy cruisers Deutschland and Admiral Scheer to protect the convoys of transport ships that carried heavy weapons. And significant numbers of soldiers were carried by Junkers Ju 52 transport aircraft covertly supplied by the Nazis through the dummy corporation Sociedad Hispano-Marroquí de Transportes (Spanish-Moroccan Transport Company).
  In the first months of the war, Jaime I shelled a number of rebel strongholds, among them Ceuta, Melilla, and Algeciras. In Algeciras, she scored hits with her secondary armament on the Nationalist gunboat Eduardo Dato, which was burned down to the waterline, although she was later repaired and returned to service. On 13 August, Jaime I was damaged by a Nationalist air attack at Málaga; a pair of bombers from the German Condor Legion attacked the vessel early that morning. They scored a hit with a small bomb that struck the ship in the bow and caused minimal damage.
  The elements of the Spanish fleet that had been moored in Ferrol were seized by Nationalist forces at the start of the revolt; these ships included España, which was used to enforce a blockade of the northern Spanish ports of Gijón, Santander, and others. In response to these operations, the Republicans deployed a flotilla of five submarines from the Mediterranean, though one was sunk by Nationalist forces en route. They also briefly deployed Jaime I, a pair of light cruisers, and six destroyers to Gijón, arriving on 25 September, but the squadron departed already on 13 October without having attacked España or any other elements of the Nationalist fleet. For their part, the Nationalists avoided confronting the Republican ships, owing in large part to the significantly better condition of Jaime I compared to España, the latter having only three of her four turrets in operation. When the Republican ships departed, they left behind two of the submarines and one of the destroyers, and some of Jaime I's secondary guns were dismounted, later to be installed on four fishing boats.
  In early 1937, Jaime I was dry docked in Cartagena for repairs after a recent grounding. A group of five Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers of the Italian Aviazione Legionaria attacked on 21 May after she had been re-floated. Republican anti-aircraft fire was ineffective and failed to prevent the bombers from making two runs on the ship, dropping around sixty 100 kg (220 lb) bombs in total. Reports of their success vary; the military historian Albert No
caption: The forward turret from Jaime I as a coastal battery near Tarifa
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