Spanish Navy Destructor

Destructor (“destroyer”) was a fast ocean-going torpedo gunboat built for the Spanish Navy in the late 19thcentury, and a precursor of the destroyer. Destructor was the first warship classified as a "destroyer" at the time of her commissioning, also described as a “contratorpedero” (counter-torpedo). Her designer was a Spanish Navy officer, Fernando Villaamil, commissioned by the Minister of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Manuel Pezuela.

During the 1860s-1880s the rapidly improving, fast and cheap torpedo boats were presenting an escalating threat to major warships. Escort vessels were already in use to provide protection for battleships but it was decided that what was needed was a new type of enlarged and fast torpedo boat, capable of escorting larger ships on long voyages and also able to attack enemy battleships with torpedoes as part of a fleet action. The Spanish Navy asked several British shipyards to submit proposals capable of fulfilling these specifications. In 1885 it chose the design submitted by the shipyard of James and George Thomson of Clydebank, near the Yarrow shipyards. The vessel was laid down at the end of the year, launched in 1886, and commissioned in 1887.

In terms of gunnery, speed and dimensions, the specialised design to chase torpedo boats and her high seas capabilities, Destructor is widely considered the first torpedo-boat destroyer ever built and was described as such by British naval engineer Sir William Henry White. Destructor is thought to have influenced the design and concept of later destroyers developed by the British Royal Navy. Further developments followed the pattern of the Havock class, built in 1893. The aim of the new destroyer design was not only to neutralize the torpedo boat as an effective weapon but also to replace it as a faster and more reliable torpedo-carrying warship.

Her triple-expansion engines generating 3,784 horsepower (2,822 kW), for a maximum speed of 22.6 knots (41.9 km/h), made Destructor one of the faster ships in the world by 1888. On her maiden voyage, Destructor established a record after steaming from Falmouth to Ferrol in 24 hours.

Construction:

Ordered: 1885

Builder: James and George Thomson of Clydebank, United Kingdom

Laid down: 14 November 1885

Launched: 29 July 1886

Commissioned: 19 January 1887

Decommissioned: 1 January 1908

Fate: Offered for sale December 1911 and scrapped

General characteristics:

Displacement: 348 long tons (354 t)

Length: 58.74 m (192 ft 9 in)

Beam: 7.63 m (25 ft 0 in)

Draught: 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)

Propulsion: 2 triple-expansion engines 3,784 hp (2,822 kW)

Speed: 22.6 knots (26.0 mph; 41.9 km/h)

Range: 4,500 NM (8,300 km)

Complement: 60

Armament:

1 × 90 mm (4 in) Spanish-designed Hontoria breech-loading gun

4 × 57 mm (2.2 in / 6 pdr) Nordenfeldt guns

2 × 37 mm (1.46 in) Hotchkiss revolving cannons

2 × 381 mm (15-inch) torpedo tubes with three Schwartzkopff torpedoes carried per tube.