Civil War The first three ships of the class were seized by the insurgents and served in the rebel fleet at the very beginning of the war. Their first deployment was the blockade of
Bilbao. She also laid four minefields off
Santander and
Gijón, from April to July 1937. The rebel battleship
España was lost on 30 April after hitting by accident one of her mines at Santander. There were only four casualties among
Españas crew. On 17 July, while on patrol off Gijón,
Júpiter caught two British cargo ships while they were attempting to run the blockade. One of them,
Sarastone, managed to reach the harbor despite being fired on. The other steamer,
Candleston Castle, stopped after the minelayer fired two shots across her bows. She was handed over by
Júpiter to the auxiliary cruiser
Ciudad de Palma, which escorted the captured merchantman to
Ferrol. A fruitless sortie was launched from the French port of
Saint Jean de Luz by the
Royal Navy battleship and the destroyer . She engaged the
Basque Auxiliary Navy destroyer
Císcar on 10 August off Gijón. During this exchange of fire,
Júpiters gunfire accidentally straddled the British destroyer . Occasionally, she also provided support fire for the rebel troops inland. On 5 October, while she was escorting the seized freighters
Dover Abbey and
Yorkbrook to
Ribadeo, the former vessel sent a distress message to , giving the position and course of the convoy and claiming that her capture had taken place outside territorial waters. Actually, they have been caught by armed trawlers off shore, well inside Spanish
maritime boundaries.
Júpiter successfully outran the British battleship and the convoy reached destination without incident. At least five minor vessels carrying refugees and soldiers of the Republican army where seized by the minelayer after the fall of the last government's strongholds on northern Spain by the end of October. On Christmas Day 1937
Júpiter shelled the port of
Burriana, near
Castellon, in the Mediterranean coast, where the British freighter
Bramhill was at anchor. The merchant was hit by several rounds, specially on her bow, and had to withdraw to
Marseille to undergo repairs. Towards the end of the war, along with the auxiliary cruiser
Mar Negro, she supported the landing of an
infantry division on
Mahón,
Menorca, after the Republican surrender of this island, on 9 February 1939. She was one of the units involved in the blockade of
Alicante, where thousands of refugees gathered in order to flee Spain when Franco's victory was in sight. Assisted by her sister ships,
Júpiter entered the port on 31 March, the day before the official end of the conflict, in order to land the 121st and 122nd
Galician Regiments. After the Spanish Civil War, in December 1940,
Júpiter carried out an undercover
reconnaissance mission around
Gibraltar with
Admiral Canaris,
General Lang and a Spanish officer aboard. The goal was to gather intelligence about the British fortifications and boom defenses as a first step toward the proposed
Operation Felix.
Vulcano Vulcano temporarily blocked the entrance to
Gijón of the British merchants
Stanray and
Stangrove. At the end of the war in the north she joined a naval squadron which drove back the steamers
Hillfern,
Bramhill,
Stanhill and
Stanleigh off Cape Peñas, seizing a number of small Republican vessels crowded with refugees in the process. During this period she shelled, without success, the British
Thorpebay when this steamer entered the port of the Musel. Between the last months of 1937 and 1939
Vulcano was active in the Mediterranean, where she was part of the rebel fleet which bombarded Castellon, Burriana and
Vinaròs on Christmas Day 1937. Perhaps the most famous action of
Vulcano is the chase and capture of the Republican off Gibraltar, in the course of a battle fought as close as between the ships involved.
José Luis Diez eventually became stranded in
Catalan Bay, in the territory of Gibraltar, the last day of 1938. The destroyer was turned over to Franco's government after its recognition by Britain as the legitimate authority in Spain. She was the leading unit of an aborted landing at
Cartagena on 7 March 1939, after the withdrawal of the Republican fleet from its bases and its
internment at
Bizerte. The operation was mounted on the belief that anti-communist Republicans had taken over the port once the Government navy fled. However, loyalist forces retook control of the coastal batteries around the harbour. All the ships received the order of aborting the operation, but two transports, and
Castillo Peñafiel, deprived of radio, continued toward Cartagena undeterred. They were the former Soviet steamers
Postishev and
Smidovich, of 3,545 and 2,485 tons respectively, which had been seized by the Nationalists at high seas.
Castillo de Olite was sunk by a
battery close to the docks, with a loss of life of almost 1,500. Meanwhile,
Castillo Peñafiel had a narrow escape, harassed by Republican aircraft. In a letter to General Franco, Admiral Francisco Moreno put the blame on
Vulcanos commander for his failure to prevent the departure of the freighters, as ordered by Moreno himself.
Vulcano apparently gave a green light to the transports after receiving contradicting orders from the high command to proceed. Along with her sister ships,
Vulcano landed two infantry battalions at Alicante on 31 March, the day before the official end of hostilities.
Marte was released to the Nationalist navy on 11 November 1938. The minelayer departed from
El Ferrol in December 1938 to take part in the chase of the Republican destroyer
José Luis Díez, which had taken shelter in Gibraltar. Given the inexperience of her crew,
Marte didn't play any major role in the neutralization of the Republican warship. Later, in January 1939, while based at the
port of Palma,
Marte participated in gunnery trials off
Majorca and in blockade activities along the Catalan coast and the
Gulf of Lion. In February, she relieved her sister
Júpiter from her blockade duties off Catalonia, and on 21 February she attended a naval parade at
Salou. On 7 March 1939, during the ill-fated landing on Cartagena,
Marte loaded troops and cargo at
Castellon before the operation was cancelled. Along with her sisters, she patrolled the Republican waters off Alicante in the waning days of the war.
Marte took part in one of the last international maritime incidents of the war on 19 March 1939, when she prevented the British steamer
Stanbrook from entering Alicante. The ship, chartered by the Republican government, went back to
Oran,
Algeria. The
Stanbrook eventually reached the Spanish port on 27 March, after the Nationalist side displayed some indulgency toward the evacuation of refugees in return for the British recognition of Franco's legitimacy. Two days later,
Stanbrook left Alicante bound for Oran, crowded with at least 2,000 people, one of the last ships to either enter or flee Republican Spain. Her
Welsh skipper, Captain Archibald Dickson, later killed during the sinking of his ship in World War II, is today remembered as a hero in Alicante.
Refurbishment Of the four vessels, only
Júpiter and
Vulcano took part in a modernization program after the agreements between Spain and the United States in the 1950s, and were reclassified as frigates. The modernization was held in
Cartagena from 1958 to 1961. The antisubmarine and antiaircraft weapons were updated by adding a
squid multiple mortar and
Bofors 40 mm guns. The units were also fitted with radar. Both ships joined the frigate squadron along with those units of the first
Pizarro class.
Júpiter was written off the Navy List on 23 November 1974, and
Vulcano was used as a store ship from 12 March 1977 until her final decommissioning on 30 April 1978, this being the last warship to be removed from service of those who participated in the Civil War.
Marte and
Neptuno remained unchanged until their decommissioning in 1971 and 1972 respectively. ==Units of the class==