Spanish cruiser Reina Regente (1887)

For the cruiser of the same name launched in 1906, see Spanish cruiser Reina Regente (1906).

Reina Regente was a Reina Regente-class protected cruiser of the Spanish Navy. Entering service in 1888, she was lost in 1895 during a storm in the Gulf of Cádiz while she was travelling from Tangier to Cádiz, Spain.

Spanish protected cruiser Reina Regente around 1890.
History
Spain
Name	Reina Regente
Namesake	Maria Christina of Austria, Govan
Builder	J&G Thomson,
Yard number	236
Laid down	20 June 1886
Launched	24 February 1887
Completed	1 January 1888
Maiden voyage	1888
Fate	Sank during a storm 10 March 1895
General characteristics
Class and type	Reina Regente-class protected cruiser
Displacement	4,725 tons
Length	97.3 m (319 ft 3 in)
Beam	15.4 m (50 ft 6 in)
Draught	8.92 m (29 ft 3 in)
Installed power	2 triple expansion engines
Propulsion	Screw propeller
Speed	20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph)
Complement	420
Armament	4 x 1 - 200/35 Hontoria M1883 6 x 1 - 4.7-inch (119 mm)/35 Hontoria M1883 6 x 1 - 57/42 Nordenfelt 2 machine guns (Main deck 120-80 mm and 25 mm fore and aft. 5 torpedo tubes (2 bow, 2 beam, 1 aft)

Construction

Reina Regente in 1889

Reina Regente was the first cruiser built of her class. She was laid down on 20 June 1886 and launched on 24 February 1887 at the J&G Thomson shipyard in Govan, United Kingdom. She was completed on 1 January 1888 and named Reina Regente after Maria Christina, queen of Spain, and queen regent during the minority of her son, Alfonso XIII. The cruiser was part of the Spanish Navy from 1888 until her loss in 1895.

Her sister ships were with sister ships Alfonso XIII and Lepanto. The ship was 97.3 metres (319 ft 3 in) long, with a beam of 15.4 metres (50 ft 6 in) and a draught of 8.92 metres (29 ft 3 in). The ship was assessed at 4,725 tons. She had 2 triple expansion engines driving a single screw propeller and 4 cylindrical boilers. The engine was rated at 11.500 nhp.

Fate

The sinking of Reina Regente during a storm on March 10, 1895, in an oil painting by Manuel Ussel de Guimbarda. In the work the naval ship appears as a central figure, being rammed by the waves, with the coat of arms of Cartagena covered by a mourning veil in the upper left margin as a sign of the pain of the city due to a shipwreck in which a large number of the 420 deceased were neighbors of.

On 10 March 1895, Reina Regente departed Tangier in Morocco for the port of Cádiz, Spain, with a crew of 420 on board under the command of Captain Francisco Sanz de Andino. Sanz de Andino ordered the unscheduled voyage because he wanted to witness the launching of the modern armored cruiser Carlos V in Cádiz the following day. As Reina Regente passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Gulf of Cádiz a severe storm struck the area and she went down with all hands lost. In the following days a search was undertaken in the hope of finding the ship somewhere sheltered in an African port. However, wreckage from the cruiser started to wash up on the beaches of Tarifa and Algeciras.

The cruiser had disappeared and had probably sunk somewhere in the Gulf of Cádiz with the loss of her entire crew. The current location of the ship is still unknown. This incident remains one of the deadliest shipwrecks of the Spanish Navy.