Audaz ("Audacious") was a of the Spanish Navy in commission from 1898 to 1924. She served during the Spanish-American War in 1898 and the Second Melillan Campaign in 1909 and participated in bombardment operations along the coast of Spanish Morocco in 1913. She was equipped for minelaying around 1920.
Design
Construction and commissioning In April 1896, the Minister of the Navy, Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) José María Beránger, presented a new naval program that included the construction of two additional s, larger than but with the same armament as the first two ships, and . The two additional destroyers became Audaz and . Spain later expanded its order to include another two Furor-class destroyers of the enlarged design, and these became and . The three-funnelled ships were, in the parlance of the day, "torpedo boat destroyers," designed to protect larger ships against torpedo boat attack and also carrying torpedoes with which to attack larger ships themselves.
The Spanish government signed the contract for the construction of Audaz and Osado with the shipyard of James and George Thomson on 1896. The Thomson shipyard at Clydebank, Scotland, in the United Kingdom laid the keel of Audaz on 1896 and launched her on 1897.The historical database Todoavante presents an internal chronological error regarding this dates, stating that Audaz was launched on 1898 and officially delivered to the Spanish Navy on 1898, indicating an impossibly short fitting-out period of only one week. Contemporary shipbuilding registries and official U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence logs from 1897 clarify that the vessel was actually launched over a year prior, on 1897, providing a thirteen-month window for fitting-out and machinery trials before her March 1898 commissioning. The company changed its name to the Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding Company in April 1897 and under this name delivered her to the Spanish Navy on 1898.
Audaz′s construction cost was just over 2,000,000 pesetas. Although Plutón was delivered to the Spanish Navy on time, the construction of Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina experienced a delay of eight months. The Spanish government sued the shipyard in the British courts, which finally resulted in a judgment in February 1903 requiring Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding to pay the Spanish government 67,500 pounds in damages.
Service history Delivery voyage Soon after commissioning, Audaz began her delivery voyage from the United Kingdom to Spain. During the voyage, she encountered a severe storm on 1898 which bent and badly damaged her bow and almost sank her. She sought refuge in Waterford Harbour on the southeastern coast of Ireland. After temporary repairs at Waterford, she got back underway and reached Spain, arriving at Ferrol. She became part of the 2nd Torpedo Boat Squadron, which also included Osado, Proserpina, and the torpedo boats , , and .
Spanish-American War The United States Navy armored cruiser , often referred to as a "battleship," had sunk due to an explosion while anchored in the harbor at Havana, Cuba, on 1898, and by the time Audaz arrived in Spain anti-Spanish sentiment in the United States had grown to the point that Spain had begun to prepare for war between the two countries. The United States declared war on Spain on 1898, stipulating that the declaration was retroactive to . Shortly thereafter, the Spanish Ministry of the Navy ordered warships — Audaz among them — to concentrate at Cádiz to form the 2nd Squadron under the overall command of Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Manuel de la Cámara y Livermoore. One mission of the squadron, in the absence of any other direction, was to guard the Spanish coast against raids by the U.S. Navy. While Cámaras squadron lay idle at Cádiz, the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Navy's Pacific Squadron under Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Patricio Montojo y Pasaron in the Philippine Islands in the Battle of Manila Bay on 1898, and the Spanish Navy's 1st Squadron, under Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Pascual Cervera y Topete became trapped in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba on the southeastern coast of Cuba on 1898, blockaded there by the U.S. Navy's Flying Squadron, reinforced by the North Atlantic Squadron on .
On 15 June 1898, Cámara finally received his orders: He was to depart immediately for the Philippines, escorting a convoy carrying 4,000 Spanish Army troops for reinforcement of the Philippines, and destroy Dewey's squadron there. His orders directed him to depart Cádiz with the battleship (Cámara′s flagship); the armored cruiser ; the auxiliary cruisers and ; a destroyer flotilla under the command of Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) José Ferrándiz y Niño — a future vicealmirante (vice admiral) and minister of the navy — consisting of Audaz (Ferrándiz′s flagship), Osado, and Proserpina; the transports , , , and ; and four colliers carrying 20,000 tons of coal. He was to detach Alfonso XII and Antonio Lopez near Gibraltar after dark so that they could proceed to the Caribbean, then take the rest of his force to the Philippines via Gibraltar, Port Said, Suez, Socotra, the Laccadive Islands, and Ceylon. After that, he was told to coal either along the coast of Sumatra or in Singapore or Batavia, and then either make an optional stop at Labuan, Borneo, or proceed directly to Mindanao. Once in the Philippines, he was to disperse (to places such as Balabac, Jolo, Basilan, and Zamboanga) or concentrate his squadron as best he saw fit to ensure the safe arrival of the troops. Then he was to find and destroy Dewey's squadron.
Cámara sortied from Cádiz on 1898, passed Gibraltar on Nofi, p. 168 (first detaching Alfonso XII and Antonio Lopez for their independent voyages to the Caribbean), and arrived at Port Said on 26 June 1898. There he requested permission to transship coal. However, intelligence operatives in Spain had made the United States aware of Cámaras itinerary, and the U.S. acting vice consul to Egypt in Cairo, diplomat Ethelbert Watts, had acquired a lien on all coal available in Suez. Further complicating matters for Cámara, the British government, which effectively controlled Egypt at the time, informed him on 29 June that his squadron was not permitted to coal in Egyptian waters, on the grounds that it had enough coal to return to Spain and that any coaling activity it undertook in Egypt would violate Egyptian and British neutrality, and that he would have to return to sea within 24 hours. Cámara complied.
On 1898, Cámara received orders to send Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina back to Spain, and on the three destroyers detached from his squadron to begin their return voyage. They made a stop at Messina, Sicily, and arrived at Mahón on Menorca in the Balearic Islands on . Ordered to continue its own voyage, the remainder of Cámara's squadron passed through the Suez Canal on and reached the Red Sea, but also was recalled to Spain on to defend the Spanish coast after the annihilation of Cerveras squadron in the Caribbean in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on . Cámaras squadron returned to Spain on and was dissolved on 25 July 1898.
The Spanish–American War ended on 12 August 1898 without Cámara, Audaz, or any of his other ships seeing combat. The Spanish Navy suffered heavy losses in the conflict, which resulted in the Spanish Empire losing control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam.
1898–1924 In early November 1898, Osado arrived at Vigo in company with Audaz to coal.
The Training Squadron, which served as a home squadron for the Spanish Navy and included Pelayo, Emperador Carlos V, the armored cruisers and , the protected cruiser , and the coastal defense ship got underway from the Balearic Islands on 13 June 1903 and proceeded to Cartagena, Spain. Steaming from Ferrol, Audaz joined it there. The ships attended a visit to the city by King Alfonso XIII on 22 June. The French Navy's Mediterranean Squadron and a British Royal Navy squadron from Gibraltar also were present.
In the autumn of 1907, the Spanish Navy established a squadron made up of Audaz, Osado, Proserpina, and their sister ship Terror and gave it the responsibility for maintaining rapid communications between Cádiz and ports on the coast of North Africa.
Audaz departed Cádiz in company with Emperador Carlos V and Princesa de Asturias on 1908 bound for Barcelona, which the ships reached on . Audaz moored in the inner harbor, and more ships of the squadron arrived in the following days. The squadron remained in port for a visit by King Alfonso XIII. Audaz departed Barcelona on 1908 in company with Emperador Carlos V, Princesa de Asturias, and the armored cruiser bound for Cartagena, where she arrived on the morning of the , ahead of the other ships. In early December 1908, she left Cartagena in company with Princesa de Asturias bound for Cádiz, which they reached on . Then then stopped at Vigo before setting out for Ferrol. Rough seas which caused Audaz to roll so heavily that her commanding officer fell and fractured his arm forced her to put into port at Villagarcía de Arosa to await better weather. She finally reached Ferrol after the seas moderated.
Audaz, Osado, and Terror were assigned to the Training Squadron in 1909. Audaz, Osado and Princesa de Asturias departed San Sebastián at 10:00 on 1909 bound for Ferrol, and on Terror and Emperador Carlos V got underway from San Sebastián to rendezvous with them at Ferrol. At Ferrol, the Training Squadron received King Alfonso XIII, who arrived aboard the royal yacht Giralda on .
The Second Melillan Campaign, which pitted Spanish forces against Riffian tribes in northern Morocco around Melilla, began in July 1909. That summer Audaz was integrated into the North African Naval Forces Group and began operating off North Africa in support of Spanish forces fighting in the campaign as part of a squadron that patrolled the coast to prevent smuggling and defend coastal ship traffic from attacks by the Riffians. On 1909, she steamed from Tangier to Larache, Morocco, following orders from the Spanish Minister Plenipotentiary in Tangier, Alfonso Merry del Val. That day, however, a violent uprising in Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia that became known as la Semana Trágica (the Tragic Week) broke out due to working-class discontent there over Prime Minister Antonio Maura′s call-up of reserve troops to serve in Morocco On , Audaz joined Princesa de Asturias, Emperador Carlos V, Osado, and Proserpina at Barcelona, where the ship's crews joined troops of the Spanish Army in restoring order. On , the ships headed back to North Africa to patrol the Moroccan coast. By early September 1909, the squadron operating off Morocco included Audaz, Terror, the first-class gunboats , , and , and the second-class gunboats , , and .