Dédalo (Spanish for Daedalus) was a Spanish seaplane and balloon carrier, the first of two ships of the Spanish Navy to bear this name. She entered service in 1922 and was written off in 1936, after taking part in the Second Moroccan War, where her aircraft were instrumental to the successful landing of Franco-Spanish forces at Al Hoceima on 8 September 1925.

Spanish seaplane carrier Dédalo, during the landing of Al Hoceima, September 1925
History
Germany
Name	Neuenfels
Namesake	Neuenfels castle
Builder	Swan Hunter, Newcastle
Launched	19 April 1901
Completed	1901
Fate	Seized by Spain, October 1918
Spain
Name	Dédalo
Namesake	Daedalus
Acquired	1921
Commissioned	1922
Decommissioned	1934
Stricken	April 1936
Fate	Scrapped 1940
General characteristics
Displacement	9,900 tonnes
Length	127.4 m (418 ft 0 in)
Beam	16.76 m (55 ft 0 in)
Draft	7.4 m (24 ft 3 in)
Installed power	one 3-cylinder reciprocating engines, 1 shaft, 3,000 shp (2,200 kW)
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Crew	398
Armament	4 × Krupp 105 mm (4.1 in) guns 2 × 57 mm (2.2 in) AA guns
Aircraft carried	20 seaplanes, 2 airships, 2 captive balloons

History

Dédalo was originally the German steamer Neuenfels, built in Britain in 1901. In October 1918, towards the end of World War I, she was seized along with five other German ships interned at Spanish ports at the time, as reparations for Spanish ship losses to Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare during the war. Neuenfels was given the temporary name "España No.6", until transferred to the Spanish Navy in the autumn of 1921. The Spanish Naval Aeronautics had been interested in acquiring a seaplane carrier for some time, and "España No.6" was accordingly renamed Dédalo, then spent five months in Barcelona from December 1921 to be converted into a seaplane tender at a cost of 8 million pesetas.

Based in Cartagena, Dédalo participated in the Rif War until late September 1925 under the command of Wenceslao Benítez Inglott, with her Supermarine Scarab seaplanes and an airship carrying out bombing raids in support of the first successful amphibious landing of the modern era, at Al Hoceima.[1][2][3][4][5]

After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 she joined the Spanish Republican Navy. On 7 March 1934 aviation history was made when Juan de la Cierva, the inventor of the autogyro, performed a perfect landing onto Dédalo with a model C. 30 autogyro registered G-ACIO, near the port of Valencia; half an hour later it took off from her deck, after a short run of just 24 metres. This was the first rotorcraft to take off and land on the deck of a ship.[6]

Dédalo was decommissioned in 1934, and was struck in April 1936,[7] but the Spanish Civil War prevented her from leaving her homeport of Cartagena until 1 March 1940, when she was towed to Valencia for scrapping.

Aircraft facilities

Dédalo could carry two captive observation balloons of 1,200 m³ (42,000 cu ft) volume, two Italian-built armed airships of 1,500 m³ (53,000 cu ft) volume, and up to 20 seaplanes of various types over the years, including Felixstowe F.3, Savoia S.16 and S.16 bis, Macchi M.18 and Supermarine Scarab.

Dédalo was equipped with two hangars. The one in front of the superstructure was reserved for the airships, with a mooring mast at the bow. The other, behind the superstructure, was fitted with an elevator to service the seaplanes. Having neither a flush deck nor a catapult, her seaplanes had to be launched and retrieved by cranes.

See also

• List of aircraft carriers
• Spanish aircraft carrier Dédalo

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dédalo (ship, 1901).

• "La Aeroestación Naval y el Dédalo" (in Spanish)
• Spanish portable station of naval aeronautics Dédalo

На других языках

[de] Dédalo (Schiff, 1901)

[es] Dédalo (1922)

[it] Dédalo (portaidrovolanti)