Spanish battleship Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII was a Spanish dreadnought battleship , the second member of the . She had two sister ships , " España " and " Jaime I " . " Alfonso XIII " was built by the SECN shipyard ; she was laid down in February 1910 , launched in May 1913 , and completed in August 1915 . Named after King Alfonso XIII of Spain , she was renamed " España " in 1931 after the king was exiled following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic . The new name was the namesake of her earlier sister ship , the that served in the Spanish fleet from 1913 to 1923 . " Alfonso XIII " served in the Spanish fleet from 1915 to 1937 . Spain remained neutral during World War I , and so " Alfonso XIII " and her sisters were the only European dreadnoughts to avoid the war . She and her sisters participated in the Rif War , where they provided gunfire support to Spanish Army forces . The ship was seized by General Francisco Franco at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War . While steaming off Santander on 30 April 1937 , she struck a mine and sank ; most of her crew was taken off by the destroyer " Velasco " . Technical characteristics . " Alfonso XIII " was long at the waterline and long overall . She had a beam of and a draft of ; her freeboard was amidships . Her propulsion system consisted of four - shaft Parsons steam turbines and twelve Yarrow boilers . The engines were rated at and produced a top speed of . " Alfonso XIII " had a cruising radius of at a speed of . Her crew consisted of 854 officers and enlisted men . " Alfonso XIII " was armed with a main battery of eight / 50 guns , mounted in four twin gun turret s . One turret was placed forward , two were positioned en echelon amidships , and the fourth was aft of the superstructure . This mounting scheme was chosen in preference to superimposed turrets , as was done in the s , to save weight and cost . Her secondary battery consisted of twenty guns mounted in casemate s along the length of the hull . They were too close to the waterline , however , which made them unusable in heavy seas . She was also armed with four 3 - pounder guns and two machine guns . Her armored belt was thick amidships ; the main battery turrets were protected with the same amount of armor plate . The conning tower had thick sides . Her armored deck was thick . Operational history . " Alfonso XIII " was laid down at the " Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval " shipyard in Ferrol on 23 February 1910 . She was launched on 7 May 1913 , and completed on 16 August 1915 . After their completion , " Alfonso XIII " and her sisters , " España " and " Jaime I " , the three battleships formed the 1st Squadron of the Spanish fleet . Spain remained neutral after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , so " Alfonso XIII " and her sisters were the only European dreadnoughts to avoid the war . In August 1917 , " Alfonso XIII " assisted in the suppression of general strikes in Vizcaya and Bilbao . After the end of the war , " Alfonso XIII " conducted cruises to show the flag , including a visit to Annapolis , Maryland , in 1920 , during which , a former Spanish Navy cruiser captured by the United States during the Spanish - American War in 1898 , flew the Spanish flag to honor her visit . Throughout the early 1920s , she provided fire support to the Spanish Army in its campaigns in Morocco during the Rif War . On 17 September 1921 , she and " España " bombarded Rif positions south of Melilla while Spanish Foreign Legion troops assaulted the positions . In August 1923 , she participated in the first aerial , naval , and land combined arms operation in Spanish military history . In September 1925 , she provided fire support for the Al Hoceima landings , a decisive Franco - Spanish operation ; there , she served as the flagship of the Spanish naval contingent . In April 1931 , after the advent of the Second Spanish Republic , " Alfonso XIII " became part of the Spanish Republican Navy and was renamed " España " , the name previously held by her sister ship , which had been wrecked in 1923 while engaged in combat operations at Cape Tres Forcas . By 1934 , the renamed " España " was laid up at Ferrol awaiting disposal . That year , the Spanish Navy considered rebuilding the ship and " Jaime I " into analogues to the German s , with new oil - fired boilers . The ships ' hulls would have been lengthened , and the main battery turrets rearranged so they would all be on the centerline . The ships ' secondary batteries would have been replaced with dual - purpose guns . The plan was nevertheless abandoned . In 1936 , the Navy again proposed a modernization for the two ships . It was a less radical plan , and called for additional anti - aircraft guns , modern fire control equipment , oil - fired boilers , and an increase to the elevation of the main guns . At the time of General Franco ' s coup in 1936 Ferrol fell within Nationalist territory . " España " was refitted and fought on the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War , when she captured or drove back a number of Republican and foreign merchant ships . " España " seized the Republican freighter " Mar Báltico " with a cargo of iron ore on 13 February 1937 , and on 30 April she prevented the entry of the British steamer " Consett " to Santander by firing her main guns across the bows . According to Nationalist sources the " Consett " and other blockade - runners were escorted at the time by the destroyer . Later that day the " España " accidentally struck a mine laid by her own side and sank three hours later off the coast near Santander , while assisting the destroyer " Velasco " in turning away the British merchantman " Knistley " . While the ship was sinking , Republican aircraft attacked her . All her crew , with the exception of five seamen , were rescued by the " Velasco " .