Bustamante-class destroyer

In 1908, the Spanish Cortes passed a Naval Law that reorganised Spain's naval dockyards to make them more efficient and allowing a modern navy to be built. The law also authorised a large shipbuilding construction programme, with three battleships, three destroyers, 24 torpedo boats and 4 gunboats to be completed by 1914. While the ships were to be built in Spain's newly refurbished shipyards, most of the ships would be of foreign design. The three destroyers were built by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval (SECN), the consortium set up to refurbish and manage the Spanish shipyards, at Cartagena to a British design (either by Vickers — both companies were part of the SECN consortium. The new destroyers were long, with a beam of , a draft of and displaced . They were powered by steam turbines, fed by Yarrow or Normand boilers and driving three propeller shafts. The machinery was rated at which gave a speed of . The vessels had a range of at . Two funnels were fitted. ==Construction and service==

The three destroyers, Bustamante, Villaamil and Cadarso were laid down between 1911 and 1913. Bustamante and Villaamil were launched in 1913 while Cadarso was launched in 1914. Bustamante was completed in 1914, with Villaamil and Cadarso completing in 1916. Owing to the cessation of material support from Great Britain during the First World War Cadarso was fitted with torpedo tubes instead of the planned 450 mm tubes. By the time they entered service, the Bustamante class were outclassed by contemporary foreign destroyers, being poorly armed and slow. The ships carried out neutrality patrols around Spain's coasts during the First World War. They spent much of their time in a training squadron, and were disposed of in the early 1930s, with Cadarso being scrapped in 1930, Bustamante in 1931 and Villaamil in 1932. ==Citations==