When the Civil War began, the ships were still completing trials and fitting out, so the Nationalists improvised fire-control and secondary-armament arrangements. Construction at Ferrol by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval demonstrated Spain's ability to build large modern cruisers domestically. They measured 194 metres in length, with a 20-metre beam and 6.53-metre draught. Yarrow-type boilers supplied about 90,000 horsepower to Parsons geared turbines driving four shafts. The resulting 33-knot speed and 8,000-nautical-mile endurance show what the industrial effort achieved even though the ships entered wartime service unfinished.
Chapter · 15:28-17:08
Spanish construction and the machinery behind 33 knots
The unfinished ships, their Ferrol yard, and their machinery reveal both domestic capacity and incomplete wartime readiness.