She was launched at the yard of Laird, Birkenhead, England on 11 December 1890 as the Nueve de Julio, completed a year later and in 1892 renamed Indepencia and still mentioned by Jane‘s Fighting ships edition 1944/1945. She was part of the Libertad-class with as sister ship the Libertad. With a displacement of 2,330 tons (normal) were her dimensions 230’ (between perpendiculars) x 43 x 13’ (mean) or 70,10 x 13,11 x 3,96 metres. The vertical triple expansion engine and 4 cylindrical boilers supplied 2,780 ihp (design 3,000 hp) allowing a speed of 14,2 knots with a coal bunker capacity of 230-340 tons. In 1925-1927 she was converted to use oil in stead of coal. The armour for which steel was used consisted of a 8” belt while the barbettes were protected by 6-8”, the hoods by 5”and the secondary guns by shield of 1,5” and finally the conning tower by 4”. her crew numbered 230 men. The armament consisted of 2x1-9.4”guns, 4x1-4.7” guns, 4-3pdr guns and 2-18” surfaced torpedo tubes.
