Espana was a Spanish dreadnought battleship, the lead ship of the Espana class, the two other ships being Alfonso XIII and Jaime I. The ship was built in the early 1910s in the context of a cooperative defensive agreement with Britain and France, as part of a naval construction program to restore the fleet after the losses of the Spanish American War. She was the only member of the class to be completed before the start of World War I, which significantly delayed completion of the other vessels. The ships were armed with a main battery of eight 305 mm (12 in) guns and were intended to support the French Navy in the event of a major European war.
Because Spain remained neutral at the start of the war, Espana and her sisters were the only European dreadnoughts to avoid wartime service. She represented Spain at the opening of the Panama Canal in early 1915. In the late 1910s, she served in the 1st Squadron, but by 1920, the Spanish fleet had been reorganized and Espana and her sisters were assigned to the Training Squadron. The ship embarked on a major cruise to South America in 1920, during which she accidentally ran aground. The accident caused significant damage that required extensive repairs before she could return to Spain. Espana and the rest of the Spanish fleet supported forces fighting in the Rif War starting in 1921, and while bombarding rebel positions near Cape Tres Forcas, Morocco, in August 1923, the ship ran aground again. She could not be easily freed, though by November 1924, work on lightening the ship was nearly completed when severe storms destroyed the wreck. Some of her guns that were removed during salvage operations were used as coastal artillery as late as 1999.
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