España - class battleship The " España " class was a series of three dreadnought battleships built for the Spanish Navy in 1909 – 1921 . The construction of the ships took so long due to shortages of material supplied by Great Britain during World War I , particularly armament . The three ships were the only Spanish dreadnoughts ever built , and the smallest dreadnoughts ever built . They were armed with eight guns , but their small displacement — — forced the designers to compromise on armor protection and speed . " España " , " Alfonso XIII " , and " Jaime I " served in the 1st Squadron of the Spanish Fleet , which became the Training Squadron in the 1920s . They all saw action during the Rif War in the early 1920s supporting Spanish ground forces . " España " ran aground in August 1923 and was wrecked . " Alfonso XIII " was renamed " España " in 1931 after her namesake , King Alfonso XIII was exiled . The two surviving ships served on opposite sides of the Spanish Civil War , and both were destroyed during the conflict . " España " struck a naval mine laid by her own side in February 1937 , and " Jaime I " was destroyed by an internal explosion in June 1937 . Design . Following disastrous losses in the Spanish - American War of 1898 , Spain lacked the money to rebuild its navy , so it was not until the Navy Law of 7 January 1908 that a new program authorizing three new battleships — " España " , " Alfonso XIII " , and " Jaime I " — along with other ships , was passed . The delay enabled Spain to take advantage of experience gained by Britain with the world ' s first commissioned all - big - gun battleship , , and by the United States with its first ship of the type , . As Spain was incapable of building the " España " class herself , Armstrong Whitworth was contracted for the design and John Brown received the contracts for the construction of the shipyard and ships themselves . Armstrong ' s designers were constrained by the need to build ships small enough to fit in existing dockyard facilities , since there were insufficient funds to both built larger battleships and to enlarge the navy ' s dockyards . As a result , they were the smallest dreadnought - type battleships ever built . Built for coast defense and national pride more than for combat , the " España " class provided Spain with formidable ships at reasonable cost . Unfortunately , due to rapid technological change at the time and lengthy delays in completion of the later units of the class , the " España " class was obsolescent before completion . General characteristics and machinery . The ships of the class were long at the waterline and long overall . They had a beam of and a draft of ; their freeboard was amidships , much lower than was normal for battleships of the period . They displaced as designed and up to at combat load . The vessels had a single stack amidships , two tripod masts , and small superstructure . Each ship had a crew of 854 officers and enlisted men . Their propulsion system consisted of four - shaft Parsons steam turbines and twelve coal - fired water - tube Yarrow boilers . The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . Each ship could store up to of coal , which permitted a cruising radius of at a speed of . Armament and armor . Their main armament consisted of eight 12 - inch ( 305 mm ) 50 - caliber guns manufactured by Vickers . Each weighed and fired an 850 - pound ( 385 kg ) shell at a muzzle velocity of 3 , 000 ft / s ( 914 m / s ) . The guns had a maximum range of 23 , 500 yards ( 21 , 500 m ) and a rate of fire of one round per minute . These guns were housed in four twin turret s , arranged with " A " and " Y " on the centerline , the others " en echelon " on the wings . The turrets used hydraulics to operate , and could be loaded at any angle of elevation . The " en echelon " arrangement was chosen over superfiring turrets — such as those used in the American dreadnoughts — to save weight and cost . All four turrets could fire on the broadside , and three could fire ahead or astern . The secondary battery comprised twenty 50 - caliber guns mounted individually in casemate s along the length of the hull . They fired a shell . The guns were too close to the waterline , however , and were unusable in heavy seas . The ships also carried four 3 - pounder guns , two machine guns , and two landing guns that could be taken ashore . Such heavy armament in a small - displacement battleship , however , forced compromises on the armor protection . The main belt armor was only thick , and tapered to on either end of the central citadel . The upper belt that protected the casemate guns was thick . Each turret , which had 8 in sides , sat on a barbette that was protected with thick plating . The conning tower also had 10 - inch thick sides . Both the armored deck and the torpedo bulkhead were thick . Construction . Although the lead unit , " España " , was built in less than four years , her sisters , and particularly the third unit , " Jaime I " , were held up by a lack of materials from Britain as a result of the outbreak of World War I . History . " España " was the only member of the class completed by the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , though she did not see action , as Spain remained neutral for the duration of the war . In August 1914 , she participated in the opening ceremonies for the Panama Canal . " Alfonso XIII " joined her in August 1915 in the 1st Squadron of the Spanish fleet . In late 1921 , " Jaime I " was finally completed . Throughout the early 1920s , the three ships served in the Training Squadron . During this period , Spain became involved in the Rif War in Morocco ; all three ships saw action during the conflict , primarily by providing artillery support to Spanish ground forces engaging the Rif rebels . In August 1923 , while bombarding Rif positions , " España " ran aground off Cape Tres Forcas . A lengthy salvage operation failed to free the ship , and in November 1924 , the stress of repeated tidal battering broke the wreck in half . In 1931 , after the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII , his namesake battleship was renamed " España " . In the mid - 1930s , the Spanish Navy considered modernization programs for the two surviving battleships , but none came to fruition , primarily as a result of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 . The two ships found themselves on opposite sides during the conflict ; " España " served on the side of Francisco Franco ' s Nationalists , and " Jaime I " fought for the Republicans . In August 1936 , " Jaime I " was attacked and moderately damaged by Nationalist bombers ; while undergoing repairs in Cartagena , she was destroyed by an internal explosion in June 1937 . " España " was meanwhile sunk in February 1937 after striking a mine laid by her own side .