As the land transports were very bad the vessels in this line were picking up the passengers arriving in Marseilles by train from Paris, and were disembarking in Alicante to continue the trip to Madrid again by train, and opposite. On 1874 she was sold to Compañía de Vapores Correos Españoles de las Antillas y Seno Mejicano, based in La Habana and renamed Nuevo Moctezuma. She was scrapped on 1887. |
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She grounded and was lost in Fernando Poo coast on 7 December 1929. |
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She grounded and sank on 13 February 1885 in Gando (Gran Canaria) just after leaving Las Palmas, carrying 280 persons including the crew. There was not casualties because as she was so close to shore the local fishermen helped in the evacuation from the fisrt moment. |
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She was built by AG Vulcan, Stettin in 1890 as Havel for North German Lloyd. She was 6,875 GRT with 139.4 meters length and 15.6 beam. With a single screw her speed was 18 knots. Her passanger capacity was 244 in First class, 122 in Second and 460 in Third. In 1898 was bought by the Spanish Navy and converted in the auxiliary cruiser Meteoro. In 1899 was bought by Trasatlántica and renamed Alfonso XII, being the third vessel with this name. Was scrapped in 1926 in Italy. |
She was 5,100 GRT, 3,869 DWT and 10,000 displacement, with 124.41 meters length, 14.36 beam and 9.83 depth. With her four masts was an original ship. In her transatlantic trips she used some times the sails when the tail shaft was broken. She had single screw with a triple expansion steam machine of 5,260 HP that gave her 17.61 knots in trials. Her accomodation had capacity for 164 passegers in First Class, 15 in Second, 42 in Third and 1,343 in Emigrant. The emigrants or troop travelled in the tweendecks, which when free were used for cargo. This distribution changed several times during the life of the vessel. Among other remarkable facts the crew of this ship took part in the Cabo Machichaco disaster, when this ship exploded at Santander on 3 November 1893 with more that 500 casualties. The Cabo Machichaco carried in her cargo around 50 tons of dynamite when started a fire due to the breaking of a sulphuric acid container. Thirty two crew from the Alfonso XIII were helping in the firefighting dying all them. Since 1896 to 1898 was attached to the Spanish Navy as auxiliary cruiser, being armed with four Hontoria cannons of 120 mm, two of 90 mm, two of 37 mm and two machine guns, carrying out several transport and patrol missions. On 12 May 1898 five shots hitted her when from the Northamerican Navy attacked San Juan de Puerto Rico. After the was helped to the evacuation of the Spanish Army from the Caribe and Philipines till 20 March 1899 when again started at Santander the line to Havana. Except during the war she serviced the line North Spain - La Habana - Veracruz until sank at Santander on 5 de February 1915. The ship was at anchor whilst carrying out works onboard, including on the hull, and in the evening started a strong South wind, typical at Santander that has always produced heavy damages in the area, producing heavy seas which flooded the hold 2. As the vessel had the boilers shut down was not possible to remove the water and , although the crew remaining onboard tried to stop the water intake, the ship listed to starboard until she was completely sumerged except the port side. |
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The propulsion had twin screws, each one linked by a triple expansion steam machine of 1,440 HP. Each machine had a H.P. cylinder with 864 mm bore, a M.P. cylinder with 1,848 and one L.P. one with 2,337 mm, being the stroke 1,524 mm. The trial speed was 19.6 knots. In 1895 was lengthened, and her new dimensions were 7,859 GRT, 4,089 NRT and 160 meters length, with accomodation for 400 passengers in First class and 25 in Second. In 1900 was transferred to Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co. after the merging of the two shipping companies and in 1905 was sold to Hamburg America Line and renamed Oceana. She serviced the line Hamburg - New York until sold in 1910 to Bermuda North Atlantic Co. for cruises New York - Bermuda. She was arrested in 1912 and and laid up in the river Hudson.
In 1916 was bought by Trasatlántica, after the first Alfonso XIII was lost at Santander in 1915, and renamed with this name. In 1923, when a new Alfonso XIII was built, was renamed Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. She serviced the lines Spain - New York and Havana until 1925 when was laid up in Cadiz. She was scrapped in Italy in 1927. |
She had 10,551 GRT and the displacement was 14,400 MT, being the lenght 146.49 meters, the breadth 19.09 and the depth 9.83. Her speed in trials was 19.5 knots, with two steam turbines of 10,700 HP. The daily consumption was very high: 190 MT of good coal.
In the early '40s got a fire at Bilbao and was rebuilt as cargo ship, removing all the passanger accomodation.
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