Numancia
P. 143: “Floating Dock At Cartagena. The largest ship in the Spanish navy, the Numancia, was lately lifted on the floating dock at Cartagena, a dock made by Messrs. Ronnie, at Greenwich. The Numancia is built entirelv of iron with the exception of the teak backing for the armour plating. She is 310ft. long, 57ft. beam, draught of water 27ft. 4in.f with a displacement of 7,420 tons (her displacement on leaving for the Pacific was 8,200 tons) but she was lightened before docking to 5,600 tons; she is completely encased by 5in. armour of 1,500 tons weight, and pierced for forty 68-pounders. The port cills with provisions for 600 men and 1,000 tons of coal on board, are 7ft, 6in. out of water; her full speed 13 knots; her engines are 1,000 horse-power, developing nearly 4,000. The Cartagena dock was the first introduction of iron floating docks; the length is 324ft., breadth outside, 105ft.; and inside 78ft. The actual lifting occupied 8 hours 13 minutes, but it is said it could be done in 4 hours on other occasions, now that the strength of the dock is known.”(1)
Note
1. Original a armoured frigate later rebuilt as a coast defence battleship at La Seyne, France 1897-1898 and since then used as training ship before being broken up around 1920. Launched at La Syne 19 November 1863 according to Conway’s All the world fighting ships 1860-1905 and according to the list of Spanish battleships and monitors to be found at www. Wikepedia.org laid down September 1862 and commissioned December 1864. According to this list she was sold in 1912 to be broken up all ready in 1912 but which happened not earlier as around 1920. Displacement 7.189-7.500 tons or 7.400 long tons and dimensions 315 (between perpendiculars) x 57 x 27 (maximum) and armed with 8-10” guns, 7-8” guns, 1-7’9” gun, 8 machineguns and 4-14” torpedo tubes (Conways) or 4-6.3” guns and “6-5.5” guns (list Wikipedia).
Source
Artizan Club. The Artizan, volume 26, 1 June 1868.
