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Gunboat Photo Archive

Isla de Cuba



Call sign (1912):
Nan - Have - Watch


Isla de Cuba served the Navies of Spain, the United States, the Maryland Naval Militia and Venezuela
Isla de Cuba Class Gunboat:

  • Laid down 25 February 1886 as the Spanish Cruiser Isla de Cuba by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Newcastle on Tyne, England
  • Launched 11 December 1886
  • Scuttled 1 May 1898 in Manila Bay, Philippines
  • Salvaged and commissioned USS Isla de Cuba 11 April 1900 at Hong Kong, China
  • Decommissioned 9 June 1904 at Portsmouth, NH
  • Loaned to the Maryland Naval Militia 21 March 1907
  • Sold to the Republic of Venezuela 2 April 1912 and renamed Mariscal Sucre
  • Struck from the Navy list 17 May 1912
  • Scrapped in 1940.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,125 t.
  • Length 196' 6"
  • Beam 30'
  • Draft 12' 3"
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Complement 142
  • Armament: Four 4" mounts, four 6-pounders and three torpedo tubes
    1905 - Six 3" mounts, four 6-pounders and four .30 cal. machine guns
    1910 - Six 3" mounts and four 6-pounders
    1911 - Two 4"/40 rapid fire mounts, two 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, four 3-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and two temporary 3-pounder rapid fire mounts
  • Propulsion: Two straight-away cylinderical boilers, two 425.5ihp horizontal triple-expansion engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Spanish Cruiser Isla de Cuba
    Isla de Cuba 175k
    Namesake:

    Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometers (42,800 sq mi) (109,884 square kilometers (42,426 sq mi) without the territorial waters). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometers (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Isla de Cuba 56k Protected Cruiser 2nd Class
    Isla de Cuba 117k Photographed soon after completion, probably in a British port [Elswick on the River Tyne, Northumberland]
    Copied from Office of Naval Intelligence Album of Foreign Warships
    U.S. Navy photo NH 88604    		 Naval Historical Center
    Isla de Cuba 72k Her peacetime Spanish paint scheme, with her black hull is clearly evident
    Photos and text from Spanish American War Centennial website    		 Robert Hurst
    Isla de Cuba 157k Scuttled wreck of the Spanish cruiser Isla de Cuba, photographed sometime after the battle
    Donation of Lt. C. J. Dutreaux, USNR (Ret.), 1947
    US Navy photo 902940 from the Naval History and Heritage Command
    USS Isla de Cuba
    Isla de Cuba 101k U.S. Navy photo from Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Robert Hurst
    Isla de Cuba 274k c. 1904
    Portsmouth, NH
    At anchor flying a homeward-bound pennant with tug on her port quarter
    Photo from the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum    		 Darryl Baker
    Photos added 19 August 2021
    Isla de Cuba 238k Post card postmarked 1908 Arnold A. Putnam
    Mariscal Sucre
    Isla de Cuba 65k c. 1918
    Seen here as Mariscal Sucre
    Photo from the 1924 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    View the Isla de Cuba
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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