The Cervera or Alfonso class were three light cruisers built for the Spanish Navy in the 1920s. The ships were built by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval

Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval

From 1909 up until the Spanish Civil War, the naval construction in Spain was monopolized by the Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval - also Spanish Society for Naval Construction was largely owned by the British , and therefore almost all ships were designed after Royal Navy vessels...

 in Ferrol which had strong British links and were designed by Sir Philip Watts

Philip Watts (naval architect)

Sir Philip Watts, KCB FRS was a British naval architect, famous for his design of the revolutionary Elswick cruiser and the HMS Dreadnought.-Early life:...

. The design was based on the British Emerald class cruiser

Emerald class cruiser

The Emerald or E class was a class of two light cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Following the Cavendish Class, three ships of a new class were ordered in March 1918, towards the end of World War I, designed to emphasise high speed at the cost of other qualities, for use against rumoured new high...

, but had all boilers grouped together reducing the number of funnels to two. The main armament comprised Vickers pattern 6 inch guns with single mountings in A and Y positions and Twin turrets in B,Q and X positions. The programme was initially authorised in 1915 but was delayed by World War I with construction of the first ship starting in 1917

The Galicia and Cervantes had substantial refits in the 1940s. The 6 inch turret in Q position was replaced by a catapult for a seaplane and the single 6 inch mountings were replaced by twins to retain an 8 gun broadside. Extra AA guns were fitted in all three ships.

Ships

Ship	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Principe Alfonso / Libertad / Galicia	27 July 1922	30 August 1925	Stricken Feb 1970
Almirante Cervera Spanish cruiser Almirante Cervera Almirante Cervera was a light cruiser of the Cervera class of the Spanish Navy. She was named after the Spanish admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, commander of the Spanish naval forces in Cuba during the Spanish-American War...	16 October 1925	May 1927	Stricken 1966
Miguel de Cervantes	17 May 1929	10 Feb 1930	Stricken 1964

• The Principe Alfonso conveyed King Alfonso XIII on several foreign tours in the late 1920s and in 1931 conveyed him to exile in Italy. During the Spanish Civil War
  Spanish Civil War
  The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
  
   she served in the Republican Navy and was interned in Bizerte at the end of the conflict. Returned to Spain in 1939 and renamed Galicia.
• The Miguel de Cervantes (named after poet Miguel de Cervantes
  Miguel de Cervantes
  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
  
  ) was also part the Republican fleet during the civil war and was torpedoed by the nationalist submarine General Mola
  Archimede class submarine
  The Archimede class were a group of submarines built for the Italian Navy in the early 1930s. The boats fought in the Spanish Civil War and in World War II...
  
   in 1936. The ship was interned in Bizerte and returned to Spain. She was badly damaged by fire in 1943 and repaired. Represented Spain in the Coronation Fleet Review in 1953.
• The Almirante Cervera (named after Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete
  Pascual Cervera y Topete
  Pascual Cervera y Topete served as an admiral of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron during the Spanish-American War, and prior to this served his country in a variety of military and political roles....
  
  ) served on the Nationalist side in the civil war and was present in most of the major battles.

External links

• Buques De Guerra, a Spanish website about warships