Spanish Civil War vessels

[reytuerto]

Good afternoon gentlemen:

Unfortunately for me, I can't have the feedback from you for correcting the drawings, or even retrieve the corrected drawings (in a moment of fool lack of common sense I sent the corrected Mallorca to the cloud and I am unable to retrieve the drawings from it!). After a prolongued period, I had finished the most appealing civilian vessels (at least for me) of the interwar period of the spanish mercantile fleet. The trio Cabo San Antonio, Cabo San Agustin and Cabo Santo Tome from the well known Ybarra and Co. Line, from Seville.

Cabo San Antonio was the prototype, and was one funneled. The next ones were the twins Cabo San Antonio and Cabo Santo Tome, the 3 ships were build having the premiere route from the Italian harbour of Genoa, and the Spanish harbours of Barcelona and Valencia, to the Brasilian southern coast, and the cities of the River Plate: Buenos Aires and Montevideo.


During the SCW, Cabo San Antonio was interned in Buenos Aires and remained there until the end of the war. But the two funneled twins were active vessels serving the Spanish Republic, bringing the first loads of soviet arms and ammunitions in the crucial months of late 1936, weapons that were much needed for the stabilization of the front around Madrid in November and December of that year.



The 3 vessels had sad ends: Cabo San Antonio survived the Civil War, but during a trip in the mid Atlantic, a fire was declared and the liner was abandoned, being sunk by shellfire of a french warship. Cabo Santo Tome with the appearance of the fake british liner Korsu, was shelled and sunk after a fierce gun battle by the francoist gunboats Dato and Canalejas (qv) in the Algerian coast.


And Cabo San Agustin was seized by the soviets many months before the end of the war (in 1937!!!) and was sunk by the germans in the Black Sea in 1941.

Credits: Colombamike helped me since the inception until the correction of the two funneled twins (specially with the armed merchant: I only was able to see clouds of burned cordite) . Unfortunatelly I can't had his aid with Cabo San Antonio, so a drop in detail quality is expected in that drawing. Lots of thanks. Cheers.

PS: I am reworking/ experimenting with the shadows of the cruisers, but I will upload them when I being able to use the web with normality.

[Hood]

Very nice work, lovely additions.

[maomatic]

Excellent thread with top quality drawings!

[eswube]

Fantastic series!
I hope You'll be able to eventually (preferably sooner, rather than later) overcome the technical issues that have recently hampered Your activity here.

[reytuerto]

Good morning, gentlemen. Finally, after 4 months without internet service, I can post once again with normality. More good news, I was able to retrieve from the cloud the drawings of SS Mallorca and twin!



SS Mallorca and the slightly longer Rey Jaime I were steam ships ordered by Isleña Maritima during the WW1 years. Both vessels were fast steamers for one of the most important route of Isleña Maritima: Barcelona to Palma (the other was from Valencia to Palma). Here is SS Mallorca depicted during the war years with neutrality flags painted in the black hull. During the early 1930s, Isleña Maritima was absorbed by Transmediterranea Shipping Company.

The beginning of the Civil War found the pair in rebel waters, so in October 1936 both vessels were transformed in auxiliary cruisers in italian shipyards. Armed with a 120 mm gun aft, and a 76 mm gun forward both vessels were used as warships for blocking the mediterranean republican harbours, but also as fast transports for the francoist forces: In May 1937, Mallorca was used to sail to Porto Conte with the spanish crews for the recently bought ex-italian destroyers Ceuta and Melilla.

And together with SS Marques de Comillas, made the last sortie of the war, sailing to Bizerte with the francoist crews that were going to man the surrendered republican fleet.

Rey Jaime I had also and active wartime career, both as auxiliary cruiser and transport, and was part of the blocading forces that chase and capture the republican ocean liner in the West Mediterranean Sea during February 1937.

But during the war, both Mallorca and Rey Jaime I were hampered by the fact that the boilers were coal fired instead liquid fuel.

After the war, both ships were returned to Transmediterranea and during WWII had huge neutrality flags in the hull and decks. In 1956, in the very last part of their careers, both vessels were docked and the boilers transformed to being fuel fired.

Credits: Colombamike help me with the initial line drawings, and made the searchligts, flags and letters in the post war drawing. Lot of thanks! Cheers!

[reytuerto]

A little vessel with an interesting career: ST Ophir.



This vessel was one of six ships built by the shipyard Echevarrieta y Larrinaga of Cadiz, as a private venture, in the wake of WW1. Initially they were built as general cargo vessels, and in absence of buyer, they were operated by the shipyands.

In 1920 Ophir was bought by the shipping company Vasco Valenciana, and was used as a coastal vessel from the Mediterranean to the Bay of Biscay for several years. In 1923 Trasmediterranea bought the ship (as a tanker for the parent company Petroleos Porto Pi) and she was transformed by Euskalduna of Bilbao in an oil tanker in 1927. In the same year, the state monopoly CAMPSA was founded, an Trasmediterrranea was forced to sell all oil related vessels and shore instalations).

The civil war found Ophir in republican waters, but the tankers was at Malaga when this city and harbour was taken over by francoist and italian troops in February 1937. She was pressed into rebel service in the same month, beginning the route between Canary Islands and Ceuta and Melilla and in port services. After the francoist offensives of winter 1938, Ophir was used in the dangerous route between Palma and Vinaroz, sailing during the night and without lights. Finally, after the fall of Barcelona, Ophir and Badalona (qv) were used to retrieve the fuel of the sunk oiler ST English Tanker.

After the war, Ophir was used as service tanker at Barcelona until being paid off in 1965, being scuttled two years later. Cheers.

[reytuerto]

The first modern diesel powered mercantile vessel built in Spain was Arantza Mendi in 1923 at the shipyard Euskalduna at Bilbao:


Built for the Sota y Aznar Line, she was active during 12 years as tramp cargo vessel until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, which surprised her at Genoa. In that harbour she was seized by the Italian fascist government and transferred to the Societa Anonima Cooperative di Navegazione Garibaldi and renamed Lecce.



As Lecce, she was active between the ligurian coast and the balearic harbour of Palma. Some months before the end of the war she was returned to the owners (now only as Aznar, because Mr. Sota was a basque separatist, and all his sharings were confiscated by the new francoist government), and renamed as Monte Gorbea.

Monte Gorbea had a sad end: During WW2, and despite huge neutrality flags painted in the hull, in October 19th 1942 she was torpedoed and sunk 60 miles SW Martinica by the german submarine U-512, a Type IXC U-Boat (Cdr. Wolfgang Schultze) with a tragic death toll of 55 crew and passengers.



Credits: The nice drawing of the Type IXC is Darth Panda´s work! Cheers.

[reytuerto]

A pair of motor fruit vessels, with different histories during the Spanish Civil War, Ebro and Sil.


A pair of rather small fruit ships built by Euskalduna in 1928 for the Pinillos Line, for the profitable fruit line between the Canary Islands and peninsular Spain and other countries, specially Britain.

The beginning of the Civil War surprised Ebro in Sete, France; but the skipper and some of the crew maneged to went to Genoa. Once there, the fascist italian government took over the vessel and she was given to Navegazione Garibaldi under the name Aniene. As Aniene (she also used the name Amoris) she was one of the most active (if not the most) vessels between the ligurian harbours and Spain, specially the balearic harbour of Palma de Mallorca, with no single incident during more than two years.


But in the last year of the war, some 100 miles south of the Balearic Islands, Aniene and her escort, the corvette Orsa were attacked by a trio of Tupolev Katiuskas bombers (SB-2). No direct hit was attained, but some close misses damaged the hull and making a fire on the deck. Both vessels managed to reach Palma and Aniene was repaired there.



In May 1939 she was returned to Pinillos Line. After the end of the civil war, Ebro returned to the fruit trade, but after the end of WWII, during the hard post war years with the political and economical isolation of the francoist regime, she made several trips with migrants mainly to South America.

The twin, Sil, had a totally different history: She was in republican waters and was seized by the government. She was used as a floating jail, first in Alicante and then in Cartagena, in that harbour, in August 14th 1936 more than 300 army and navy rebel officers were murdered (no trail), 40 of them being foundered still alive.

In late 1936 Sil went to Mexico and returned with an important load of rifles and ammo. During 1937 she operated from the Northen harbour of Santander, making several trips to UK and Scandinavia. With the fall of the republican harbours at the Bay of Biscay late in 1937, she begun to operate from british harbours until she was interned in October 1938. In 1939 she was returned to Pinillos Line. Finally, Sil and Ebro were paid off and scuttled in Valencia in 1965. Cheers.

Credits: The fine drawing of the Torpediniere Orsa is work of Tiger Hunter. Thanks to him!

NB: Unfortunatelly, in this series I was unable to have Colombamike´s important aid, so a drop in detail is expected

[heuhen]

awesome series of boats

[eswube]

Fantastic additions.