1716 - Six Sisterships

The shipyards of Orio and Pasajes, west and east of San Sebastian, build six 60-gun ships of the line, three each.

These constructions fall within the ambitious King Felipe V’s plans to restore a great Spanish navy. It may be considered as imprudent to build so many ships at once but there is some background around 60-gun two-deckers in Spain, and at Orio specifically. The six ships form the San Luis class : San Luis, San Felipe and San Fernando (built at Orio), San Pedro, San Isidro, San Juan Bautista (built at Pasajes).

It is not fully ascertained that the six ships are identical but there is a good presumption that it is the case : they have been ordered within the same contract, designed and built under the supervision of a single naval officer and engineer, José Antonio de Gaztañeta e Iturribalzaga, 60 years old, and launched in a short sequence in 1716-17.

San Luis is 129-foot long, 33¾-foot broad, 16½-foot deep for a tonnage declared at 830 tons. She carries twenty-six 18-pounders on the gun deck, twenty-six 12-pounders on the upper deck and eight 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. In comparison, a British 60-gun ship as Montague (1716) is a 920-ton vessel, 144-foot long, 38-foot broad and 15½-foot deep and carries twenty-four 24-pounders, twenty-six 9-pounders and ten 6-pounders.

Simultaneously two other 60-gun ship are built at Guarnizo, nearby Orio and Pasajes : San Carlo and Santa Isabel. They are larger vessels by 100 or 150 tons but they carry more or less the same armament as San Luis.

In Spain as in France, there had previously been a number of twin vessels when laid down simultaneously so built on the same plans, by chance. This time, hauled by an ambitious programme, there is a will and an organisation behind this serial construction.  In their finest days, the Dutch were already able of series-building but it seems to belong to a bygone past.

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IN RETROSPECT FROM TODAY

NOTE A - About the ships fate.

Four in six will have a sad end. Two are captured by the British at the battle of Cape Passaro (1718). Two are also wrecked in 1718 and 1720.

NOTE B - About further Gaztañeta’s career.

He seems to be the only reliable or available figure in Spain in those days on any maritime matter.

He receives command of the Spanish fleet at the hopeless battle of Cape Passaro. With nine ships – two 70s, six 60s and one 50 – he must face a British force of twenty-one – one 90, two 80s, nine 70s, seven 60s and two 50s. Over three times more gun power on British side. The defeat is terrible as one can expect. Gaztañeta does not fall into disgrace after Cape Passaro, King Felipe V having understood how desperate the imbalance of odds was – a wise decision.

In 1727, at the age of 71, in a situation of quasi war with Great Britain, he receives command of the Treasure fleet and saves it and its precious cargo amounting to 31 millions pesos – that is £105m – by sneaking before Admiral Hosier’s fleet whose blockade is challenged by yellow fever which kills three in four sailors in the British fleet. Worth of the saved treasure is surprisingly high : it is usually nine or ten millions pesos, which is already sky high.