“El Pelayo”,whose was named in honor to the first king of Asturias , was a pre-dreadnought or multicaliber battleship built for the Spanish Navy at the end of the 19th century by the Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranée shipyards in Toulon (France). From its entry into service in 1888, it was the flagship of the Navy and the only battleship in the Spanish fleet until the entry into service of the single-caliber battleship Spain in 1913. Design
The Pelayo was built according to a design by the engineer Amable Lagane and was based on the French Marceau class, but with a slightly longer length and a smaller draft to allow passage through the Suez Canal. At first it was planned to carry a sail rig for 372 m² of sails, which were later replaced by two military masts. A full belt of Schneider Le Creusot steel stretched from 1.5m below the waterline to 0.6m above. There was an extensive compartment below the armored deck with 13 full transverse bulkheads. Armament
Its main armament arranged in the so-called rhombus or diamond shape was composed of two 320 mm Gónzalez Hontoria cannons installed in barbettes at the bow and stern, with full firing angles. Two 280 mm Gónzalez Hontoria guns, one on each side amidships and on projecting side platforms, provided axial firing. A single 160mm gun was mounted forward, with 120mm guns in a battery amidships. Another important novelty was the incorporation of a Telefunken TSH (wireless telegraphy) station, together with the cruise ship Extremadura, being the first two navy units to use this system, which was revolutionary at the time.
Armament • 2 Hontoria 320 mm guns
• 2 Hontoria 280 mm guns
• 1 Hontoria 160 mm cannon
• 12 Hontoria 120 mm guns
• 3 (later 5) 57 mm Hotchkiss guns
• 13 37mm guns
• 4 machine guns
• 7 torpedo tubes (reduced to 3 in 1904) General characteristics
Displacement 9950 t2
Length 105 m2
Beam 20.2 m2
Prop 11.02 m
Draft 7.5 m2
Armor • Armored belt 298-450 mm
• Cover 70mm
• Barbettes 298-399 mm
• 152 mm bulkheads
Propulsion • 4 double expansion vertical machines
• 12 boilers
• 2 propellers
Power • 6860 hp at natural draft
• 9600 hp at forced draft
Speed 16.7 knots
Range 3000 nautical miles at 10 knots
Crew 520
Capacity 1000 t of coal
I think she’s too old to be viable in War Thunder. Those 320mm guns have a listed reload time of 5 minutes and the 280mm secondary guns reloaded in 1 minute. And the armor is much lower quality steel than in 20th century warships.
Maybe,but It IS a very powerfull ship.If ships from 19 century are added It Will have more sense. @DarkLordMagus look at my others sugesttions and coment its.
The Pelayo IS better than andestroyer because It can not be pierced with low calibre guns.By the way son I Will make more articles about spanish ships,when my computer gets restored.
I have started in cronological order for de bluewater fleet there more modern line ships.
Her armour belt is narrow - heavily armored of course - albeit only with steel armor, but its sheer thickness would be useful at 300-450mm.
But almost all the superstructure is unarmored and the bits that are armored only have 70-80mm - fast firing DD guns would wreck the poor thing in a few salvoes.
And of course as a pre-pre-dreadnought “steel clad” it is horribly slow - 16.9 knots - it would be a sitting duck to torpedoes as well.
There really is no place for vessels of this vintage in WT as it currently exists
Honestly I’d be 1000% fine if WT started covering a longer time span so that late 19th century warships could fight each other. Even if it would result in slow battles. They’d just need to be kept separate from the dreadnought-era ships.
I think there would need to be a different game for them - it might be quite fun, but they are just so far removed from what WT as it exists as to be not compatible IMO.
I used to play rules for iron clad and steel clad naval warfare on table top with models - you’re talking maximum ranges of 2-3000m for any sort of gunnery, 1500m for torpedoes, ramming, etc :)
