for this week's armoured ship we have the Royal Spanish Navy's Battleship Pelayo. she was commissioned into the fleet in the summer of 1888. Pelayo was 334ft. 8in. long and displaced 9745t. main armour belt was 173/4" thick and her main armament was two 12.6" naval rifles on the centerline and two 11" rifles one on either side. the ship was powered by two triple expansion engines developing 9600ihp. i couldn't find her top speed but i imagine it was somewhere around 15-16kts. as she is described as being somewhat slow. Pelayo should have taken part in the Spanish-American War but due to various problems with diplomacy and just general slowness by the Spanish Marine she never got past the Suez Canal and returned to Spain to guard the Spanish Coast. Pelayo never fired her guns in anger but once in 1909 at Moroccan rebels in the 2nd Rif War. she was relegated to training duties shortly after this and scrapped in 1925. the first shows the ship from starboard side forward. the next is the port side from aft. third is a diagram of the ship. and number four is actually a picture of a model of Pelayo. being in the proper colours i thought i'd include it here.
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