Spanish Furor Torpedo Boat Destroyer
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FUROR's keel was laid on February 21 1896 at the yard of James & George Thomson Ltd., Scotland. and completed on November 21. The Torpedo Boat Destroyers FUROR, PLUTON and TERROR were attached to Admiral Cervera's Squadron. Mechanical problems forced the Admiral to leave TERROR behind at Martinique when the rest of the fleet left for Cuba.
FUROR and its half sister PLUTON, under the personal command of Cap
tain Villaamil, who a decade earlier had conceived the DESTRUCTOR (arguably the world's first torpedo boat destroyer), were the last two vessels out of Santiago Harbor on July 3, 1898. The torpedo boat destroyers soon came under heavy attack by the armed yacht USS GLOUCESTER and the battleships INDIANA and IOWA. Both Spanish vessels were soon riddled, the FUROR plunging to the bottom and the PLUTON being run up on some rocks and later exploding. Villaamil went down with the FUROR. With minor differences in the engines, the class included also TERROR (in Puerto Rico) and AUDAZ, OSADO and PROSERPINA (in continental Spain, together with the much older DESTRUCTOR).
Vital statistics
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History: Laid down: 1896; launched: 1896; completed: 1896 |
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Dimensions: length:
69m; beam:
6,8 m;
draught 1,7 m.
displacement:
370 tons |
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Armament: 2x3 in. quick firers fore and aft, 2x57mm quick firers and 2x37 mm revolving cannons (one on either beam), 2x350mm torpedo tubes in single centerline mountings. |
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Armor: None |
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Engines: 2 shaft vertical triple expansion engines, 4 Normand water tube boilers, ca. 6000 hp. 28 knots. Endurance: 1000 miles. |
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Complement: 65 |
This model is a very heavily
modified Iron Shipwright's USS Hopkins DD7. The differences between both ships are
enormous, to begin with in dimensions, which
I fixed by cutting over a centimeter
of the hull aft. The main
other changes I did were:
- Redistributing armament, cowl vents, boats, mast and various other fittings.
- Reshaping the bow profile and bridge.
- Sanding bilge keels out.
- Suppressing one funnel and reshaping and relocating the other three.
- S uppressing the aft superstructures
- Scratchbuilding the open aft pilot house, and reshaping the stern and the steering gear.
The USS Hopkins
kit proved very versatile and would lend itself to conversion into most of the
turtleback decked torpedo boat destroyers of the 1890's. Most of the
original parts could be used after some cuting and sanding.
These two photos show Furor and Hopkins together and give an idea of the extent of the modifications.
This photo shows Furor escorting the Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón.
The major sources I used were
drawings and photographs in
- Coello Lillo, Juan
Luís (2001): Buques de la Armada española a través de la fotografía (1849-1900).
- Aguilera, Alfredo & Vicente Elias. (1972): Buques de Guerra Españoles (1885-1971). 2nd Edition. Editorial San Martín.
- Lyon, David (2001): The first destroyers. Caxton Editions.
- http://www.revistanaval.com/armada/buques0/terror.htm
-
http://www.spanamwar.com/tbd.htm
