From PeterD - The Battle Santiago For Overdues and Returns (58 points)

WARNING:  This post is 25 years in the making, has lots of naval and personal history and I am too verbose at the best of times.  

In February 1998 I relocated from Halifax NS to Regina SK.  I spent the first two months in a sublet apartment with almost no furniture until my wife and toddler daughter joined me in April.  At loose ends with my evenings and weekends I bought an Xacto knife, sandpaper and some bass wood and started carving Pre-Dreadnought battleships for the Spanish American war.   I got some work done and then my family arrived, we moved into a new house and you know the rest....

In early 2011, I set up a blog and my second post featured my 1:1200 scratch built ships from this project which I had begun working with again.  Venturing onto the internet allowed me to meet gamers who lived within 2km of me, and my fleets made it on table in 2012.   I am not sure what happened but I'll ascribe it to real life.

In September, 2023 I went to Philly for Society of Actuaries exam meeting.  During some time off I went to visit USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship from Manilla Bay.  This time I think the bug took up permanent residence.  Fleets were ordered in 1:2400 scale from Tumbling Dice as I no longer have the patience for scratch building.  And my veterans came out for another test game.

OK, initial blather over, let's move on to the models.  Fast service from Tumbling Dice meant that I these arrived and were assembled and primed in time to get initial paint on during my wife's book club in November and then December hit and they sat.  So yes full disclosure, these were started prior to the Challenge but Curt tell's me that Overdues and Returns allows for that.  So I represent the full fleets from there battle of Santiago 1898.

First up is the US Navy with USS Texas, USS New York and USS Brooklyn leading the way.  I will note that the US Navy painted all of their ships grey for the war, but I've represented them in their much spiffier white and ochre peace time livery.

• Texas was built as a second class battleship to counter South American navies.  She was the first major warship built in the US for many year and construction was delayed as industry tooled up.  Therefore while her design was au courant when ordered in 1886 it was passe on completion in 1895 such was the speed of naval development.  She was considered slow and underarmed but gave a good fight at Santiago.
• No such worries with the Armoured Cruisers New York (ACR2 completed in 1893) or Brooklyn (ACR2 completed in 1896) which had a good balance of speed, protection and firepower. 
• New York was the flagship of Admiral Sampson in 1898.  She almost missed the battle at Santiago, as she was taking Sampson off to see his Army equivalent the ex CSA General Wheeler and only arrived at the very tail end.  She had a long service with two name changes to free up names for new construction and was finally decommissioned in 1932 in Cavity, where she was scuttled in 1941.
• Brooklyn had her turrets in a schwacky French-style lozenge arrangnement and was the flagship of Commodore Schley in 1898.  Schley had his moments during the war but was senior officer when Spanish came out to fight.  He narrowly avoided ramming the Texas, but sank the entire Spanish squadron with Brooklyn doing much of the heavy lifting.  There was a bun fight between Sampson and Schley after the war over who did what,

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Next up three American Battlewagons, USS Indiana (BB1), USS Oregon (BB3) and USS Iowa (BB4).

• Indiana was lead ship of her three ship class, the others being Oregon and Massachusetts (which was off coaling and missed the battle).  They were designed for coastal defence and thus smaller than contemporary European designs and had low freeboard.  But they were well armoured and packed a punch with 4*13" main guns, 8*8" intermediates plus light guns.  They were overarmed and there was a lot of blast interference between the 13" and 8" guns. 
• Oregon was the most famous member of the trio.  Built in California she relocated 14,000 nautical miles around Cape Horn to the Caribbean in 66 days.  This level of efficiency probably scared the pants off of European navies, while the length of the voyage lead to the building of a canal by a certain Roosevelt.  She chased the Colon for over an hour until the Spanish ran out of decent coal. 

Last of the American are some light ships.

• USS Vixen and USS Gloucester were armed yachts, taken over by the navy, stripped of their finery and armed with light quick firers.  Gloucester was formerly owned by J P Morgan.  They were useless against big ships but shot up the Spanish destroyers.  While most of the Tumbling Dice models are really nice, I am not a huge fan of these casts as they don't yachty enough.  I may try to fine substitutes.
• The USN didn't build destroyers until the 20th Century but employed torpedo boats during the war.  USS Ericsson was part of the Santiago blockade but went off with Sampson to meet the army.  The rules I plan to use (Long Face Games Broadside and Salvo), represent torpedo craft in flottillas instead of individual ships so I've grouped them two per base.

Now over to the Armada Espanol (yes that it still the official name).

First up are the three armoured cruisers of the Infanta Maria Teresa class, all of which were sunk at Santiago.  These were standard armoured cruisers if slightly under armoured and influenced by the Royal Navy's Orlando class..  The biggest problem was the hopeless state of efficiency in the Armada.  

• The Infanta Maria Teresaflies the flag of Admiral Cervera who commanded the squadron.  She was named for a Spanish Princess who was the first wife of Louis XIV and thus green grandmother of Louis XV.
• The Almirante Oquendo was named for the Admiral who lost the battle of the Downs in 1639.   Other Oquendos had prominent roles in the 1588 Armada.  If your Spanish (or Scottish) you celebrate valiant losers.
• The Vizcaya was named for the Biscay region.  She had the misfortune to visit New York on a friendly tour just after the destruction of the Maine and without knowing what happened.  She was slowed considerably by a dirty bottom in need of a scrub (this brings back memories of saving with my dad).

• Cristobal Colon was a member of the Italian Garibaldi class cruisers, and was named for some guy who figured he found China.  Half sisters served in the Italian, Argentine and Japanese navies.  They were fine ships but Colon sailed without her 10" main guns due to a bun fight with the makers.   She nearly escaped at Santiago but her supplies of good coal ran out and she couldn't maintain a decent speed.
• Reina Mercedes was on station at Santiago when Server arrived from the Canaries.  Named for the first wife of King Alfonso XIII (she died six month after their wedding), she was old slow and not much use at anything.   Too slow to join Cervera's planned escape she did trade shots with the US Navy during the siege and was eventually sunk as a block ship in the harbour entrance. 

• While most of the Armada was old and cranky, they had some shiny new destroyers ordered from the UK.   Cervera sailed from Europe with three destroyers, of which the Furor and Pluton were sunk at Santiago.  Terror and engine troubles in transit and ended up in Puerto Rico where she traded shots with American blockaders.
• I can't find any records of Spanish torpedo boats in combat in 1898, but they had quite a few and there's always what ifs.

Blather over and a project well under way after 25 years.   I'll have ships from the Pacific side of operations later in the Challenge.  

Points wise I make it 19 ships in 1:2400 at 2 points per hull is 38 points plus a 20 point room bonus for Overdues and Returns.

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Excellent work and interesting history Peter, but better yet a wonderful bit of personal lore on your first efforts as well.

These look terrific and I very much look forward to seeing them on the tabletop. While these little models certainly look the business, I do appreciate the clear labelling and sturdy basing. I will do my best not to break off any funnels or masts in our next game, which would be a better fate than my poor Griffin and Flagellants, (ahem) I'll say no more. ;P

Well done!

- Curt