Cool sub.
Here is a (barely adequate) machine translation of the web page above :
THE UNDERWATER one PORTAMINAS
"ANTONIO SANJURJO "
Personal file of D. Daniel Tight
CARACTERISTICAS
LAUNCHING: AUGUST OF 1898
SHIPYARDS: SHIPYARD AND FUNDICION A. SANJURJO
DISPLACEMENT: 4,25TM
DIMENSIONS: LENGTH: 5.20 METRO.
SLEEVE: 3.75 METRO.
DIAMETRO VERTICAL CYLINDER: 1.12 METRO
VELOCITY: 2 KNOTS
ELEVATION MAXIMA: 20 METRO
ARMAMENT: 2 MINES OF CONTACT (OF 100 L. OF EXPLOSIVE), HOOKED IN TWO HANGERS OF 13 METRO
DOTACION: 2 MEN
PRICE: 16,000 PTAS.OF THE EPOCA (13.000.000 PTAS. CURRENT)
HISTORY OF THE UNDERWATER one SANJURJO
Summer of 1898, next to close a century of the history of Spain that had begun with the rout of Trafalgar, the naval catastrophe is consummated of Cavite and Santiago of Cuba.
The civil population distrusts of a government that only some months ago spoke to sweep the enemy and now feels unprotected of its Armada.
In June, when the Squad of the Admiral Camera splits toward East to avenge the insult of Cavite, is notified the hurried judgment and the political weight of the decision more than the strategic value and the knowledge of the reality and of the enemy, that so difficult circumstances required.
The fear and the risk of an expedition of punishment on the part of the fleet yankee on our coasts is increasingly more worrying. The Government tries to calm down to the public opinion, while regiments of sappers displace themselves toward the coast to accelerate the works of defense and barely existing fortification.
July 2, from Washington, a telegraphic notice arrives, reporting that the Fleet of the admiral Dawson has done to the aimlessly known sea, is sufficient to alert to the population of Cadiz that, fearful of see to appear to the enemy warships in the horizon, abandons the city, just like its compatriots of certain villages as Rate, where the scare is greater, upon hearing the Shots of a battery of coast in a target practice.
The press analyzes the situation and daily its pages of military informations of all types are filled, compare opinions, strategies are studied, is spoken of the state of the defenses. The spirits go of the pessimism to the optimism, any news can influence. A German general has said that the Americans will not attack laugh them spaniards, because would be to become in a mousetrap.
Someone is asked: Where it is the fleet that will cover this mousetrap? Vigo and The Coruña they are known vulnerable, is feared for the women and the children and is spoken of a plan of evacuation.
While some they think about the future wrongs, other, without losing the calm, they intensify the ingenuity of the one that is seen trapped and they put to the service of the community their ideas. They are numerous the inventors of military appliances that appear for these days.
Galicia also contributes an inventor to this assembly of national ingenuities. It will be Vigo the city that see to build and to sail the" Buoy torpedo Tube " of Mr. Antonio Sanjurjo Badía. This man, seeing their country in danger, is thrown to the solitary adventure of building in their own workshops an underwater appliance in order to defending the estuary of the inopportune visitors that are expected.
Time ago that by the city the construction of a submarine was rumored, but now, to first of August, to the two months of begun the works, is transported to the dock of the port to perform the final tests. There is Mr. Antonio Sanjurjo, with two operatives of his factory, arranged, with his bow tie and beret, to be become scuba diver.
The partial tests turn out to be satisfactory and themselves fixed for August 12 the official tests and the presentation to the authorities. They attend the military governor of the plaza, General The Porthole and the Commander of Navy, Mister Godínez, aside from numerous public. The tests result a success: remains in immersion during an hour and thirty continued minutes and later another of forty-five minutes, being descended to an elevation of 20 meters, although the depth of navigation are seven meters.performs also a test of velocity, giving near two knots of march.
They finished the tests, itself about to the spring, where they preside the act the satisfied authorities and is just then when the captain inventor, since the turret-hatchway hoists the Spanish flag, in which is recorded: BY SPAIN! This man, that loves the symbols and to every act seeks a significant correspondence, has converted with its gesture to the submarine in a weapon to defend the sacred floor.
Vigo lives a patriotic day and feels tranquil because Dawson will not fall on the city as already did it Nelson, Drake and other.
But only it is not Vigo the city that can rest easy, the remainder of Spain also because that same day August 12, 1898, while Mr. Antonio Sanjurjo tests its submarine, in Paris the Peace signs itself that after the rout marks the end of all a historic cycle.
The news is known in Vigo the next day. The tests of appliance as arms they remain suspended, upon ceasing the causes that motivated their construction: the invasion of the American Fleet. The underwater device returns to the factory" The Industrious one", where nowadays is conserved for the admiration of own and few strange that know such history and the existence of the submarine.
It conserved by its children and grandchildren, is one of the motives of pride of the family Sanjurjo, serving as homage I live a man that with its effort and diligence contributed to the rising industry of Vigo, a man that knew to unite ingenuity, patriotism, value and skill.
12 October 2007, 10:25:10 AM
