Spanish destroyer Sánchez Barcáiztegui

Destroyer Sánchez Barcaiztegui
History
Spain
Name	Sánchez Barcáiztegui
Namesake	Victoriano Sánchez Barcáiztegui
Builder	SECN, Naval Dockyard, Cartagena, Spain
Launched	24 July 1926
Completed	1928
Commissioned	1928
Decommissioned	1 July 1964
Honours and awards	Distintivo de Madrid 1938
Fate	Scrapped in 1965
General characteristics
Class and type	Churruca-class destroyer
Displacement	1,650 t (1,620 long tons) (normal); 2,067 t (2,034 long tons) (maximum)
Length	101 m (331 ft 4 in)
Beam	9.6 m (31 ft 6 in)
Height	6.02 m (19 ft 9 in)
Draft	3.3 m (10 ft 10 in)
Installed power	42,000 shp (31,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × Parsons geared steam turbines 4 × Yarrow boilers 2 × shafts
Speed	36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) 3,100 nmi (5,700 km; 3,600 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	160
Armament	5 × 120 mm (4.7 in) L45 guns (5x1) 1 × 76.2 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft gun 4 × machine guns 6 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2x3) 2 × depth charge racks

Sánchez Barcáiztegui was a Churruca-class destroyer of the Spanish Republican Navy. She took part in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the government of the Second Spanish Republic.

She was named in honor of Victoriano Sánchez Barcáiztegui, a Spanish Navy Teniente de Navío (lieutenant) who took part in the Battle of Callao and was killed in action in the Battle of Motrico during the Third Carlist War.

Barcáiztegui was launched in Cartagena, Spain in 1926 and commissioned in 1928. She was anchored in Barcelona harbor in 1934, during which time she served as the prison for Manuel Azaña after the Asturian uprising.

Following the coup of July 1936, the captain took the side of the Nationalists and rebelled, but the crew remained loyal to the Second Spanish Republic and they took over the ship.

Sánchez Barcáiztegui took first part in the blockade of the Gibraltar Strait, then joined a Spanish Republican Navy task force led by the battleship Jaime I that included cruisers Libertad and Miguel de Cervantes, destroyers Almirante Valdés, Almirante Antequera, Almirante Miranda, Alsedo, José Luis Díez, Lepanto, Lazaga, and three C-class submarines. This fleet entered the Cantabrian Sea where Spanish Republican Army troops were isolated from the remaining Republican-controlled territories. All ships, except Ciscar, which had been requisitioned by the Basque Auxiliary Navy, José Luis Díez, two C and two B-class submarines, returned to the Mediterranean Sea.

Sánchez Barcáiztegui took part in the Battle of Cape Palos where she, together with Almirante Antequera and Lepanto, engaged the cruiser Baleares, firing four torpedoes.^[1] Sánchez Barcáiztegui was awarded the Distintivo de Madrid along with other vessels.^[2]

On 5 March 1939, Sánchez Barcáíztegui was seriously damaged by a bomb after being attacked by five Nationalist Savoia-Marchetti SM.79s medium bombers; the attack also damaged destroyers Alcalá Galiano and Lazaga.

Barcáiztegui was refloated in 1940, repaired by the Nationalists, and recommissioned, serving until decommissioned in 1964. She was scrapped in 1965.

• Flórez, Dionisio García (2002). Buques de la Guerra Civil Española. Destructores (in Spanish). ISBN 84-932284-7-8.

• Destroyers in Spanish civil war (in Spanish)
• Battle of Cape Palos (in Spanish)