Did the Spanish have any plans on replacing Dedalo I?

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Hardrada55

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As we know, Dedalo was a German merchant ship confiscated during WW1 and converted by the Spanish into a seaplane tender in 1922. Dedalo well demonstrated the utility of an aircraft capable ship by supporting the Spanish-French landings at Alhucemas during the Rif War in Morrocco in 1925. In 1934, the Spanish were the first to land and take off in an autogyro from Dedalo. I believe the Spanish Armada’s “portahidroavion” Dedalo was laid up by the time of the Spanish Civil War. Did the Spanish have any plans on replacing Dedalo with any other kind of seaplane tender or aircraft carrier or aircraft carrying ship between the time they laid up Dedalo in 1934 and the time they got Cabot (i.e. Dedalo 2) in 1967?
 
Naval plans for 1938 and 1943 included intentions for aircraft carriers but never progressed into specific designs.

El anteproyecto de flota de 1938 y la no beligerancia española durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial on JSTOR

Juan José Díaz Benítez, El anteproyecto de flota de 1938 y la no beligerancia española durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Ayer, No. 49, La política exterior de España en el siglo xx (2003), pp. 271-289
www.jstor.org www.jstor.org

Anexo:Planes navales de la Armada Española - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre

es.wikipedia.org es.wikipedia.org
 
Hardrada55 said:
As we know, Dedalo was a German merchant ship confiscated during WW1 and converted by the Spanish into a seaplane tender in 1922. Dedalo well demonstrated the utility of an aircraft capable ship by supporting the Spanish-French landings at Alhucemas during the Rif War in Morrocco in 1925. In 1934, the Spanish were the first to land and take off in an autogyro from Dedalo. I believe the Spanish Armada’s “portahidroavion” Dedalo was laid up by the time of the Spanish Civil War. Did the Spanish have any plans on replacing Dedalo with any other kind of seaplane tender or aircraft carrier or aircraft carrying ship between the time they laid up Dedalo in 1934 and the time they got Cabot (i.e. Dedalo 2) in 1967?
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The Salvador Carvia Plan Naval of 1930 provided, among others, for the construction of two light aircraft carriers of 15,000t and 30 aircraft.
 
Los portaaviones españoles by Busquets/Campanera/Coello. Aldaba Ediciones 1994 starting from page 67 to 79

Proyecto nº59 (1947) Conversion of a Empresa Nacional Elcano G tanker design into an auxiliary aircraft carrier. That finally evolved into Proyecto nº65 from 1949

During 1947 interest into the acquisition of a WWII surplus CVE resulted in a commercial proposal from a Dutch company which was the the owner of the HMS Nabob. But the amount of work and probable political issues of converting it again into an active warship prevented the sale.

Proyecto nº66 conversion of heavy cruiser Canarias into a CVL (1950)

Trieste "affair" : The Regia Marina heavy cruiser Trieste remained sunken since 1943 at shallow waters in Sardegna. It was recovered in 1950 and offered by its owners to the Spanish Navy where it was found as a candidate for rebuilding into a CVL. To avoid political issues, the operation was carried out under cover (the wreck declared to be bought from a civilian company for scrapping and payment was done in minerals) Once the hull was carefully inspected in Cartagena Naval Station during 1951 it was found that it was in such a bad condition that it better should send it to the scrapping yard. And so was done at Ferrol.

Finally, in 1965, US Government allowed the Spanish Armada to choose from the following USN surplus units:

USS Thetis Bay CVH-1 ( an ex- Casablanca CVE class): rejected by bad condition and little capacity
USS Lake Champlain CV-39 : discarded because it was over ambitious and unaffordable :) Who doesn't love the Essex class?
USS San Jacinto/USS Cabot ( both Independence class CVL) : the second one was in better condition thus it was selected to be "Dédalo" (the second) with The Armada.
 
Antonio said:
Proyecto nº66 conversion of heavy cruiser Canarias into a CVL (1950)

Trieste "affair" : The Regia Marina heavy cruiser Trieste remained sunken since 1943 at shallow waters in Sardegna. It was recovered in 1950 and offered by its owners to the Spanish Navy where it was found as a candidate for rebuilding into a CVL. To avoid political issues, the operation was carried out under cover (the wreck declared to be bought from a civilian company for scrapping and payment was done in minerals) Once the hull was carefully inspected in Cartagena Naval Station during 1951 it was found that it was in such a bad condition that it better should send it to the scrapping yard. And so was done at Ferrol.
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Are you sure it was Trieste and not Canarias or Baleares?
 
Tzoli said:
Are you sure it was Trieste and not Canarias or Baleares?
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Absolutely,
The text of the book is clear, there's even a foto of the hull at Cartagena Naval Station.
The idea came because at that time existed the plan to convert the Canarias


About the contemporary plan for Canarias, please read Proyecto nº65 at post#5.

Baleares, Canarias sistership was sunk in a naval battle in 1938 (Spanish Civil War)
en.wikipedia.org

Spanish cruiser Baleares - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

Battle of Cape Palos (1938) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
I don't know how deep she rests but still remains there
 

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Archibald said:
The silly joke with Dedalo: it was nicknamed Pedalo... paddle boat. (I'll get my coat)
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It was an old ship as the destroyers escorting her. It wasn’t a credible force operatimg outside NATO in
front of modern Soviet submarines. I see them more as training ships filling the gap while waiting for better times. Anyway, not a bad service she gave because Dedalo operated Harriers from her original wood deck. The same from which Hellcats operated in the Pacific War. A respectable lady, a piece of history.
 
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When I was thirteen years old, the school where I studied was chosen for a guided tour of the Canarias “heavy” cruise ship, they had told us about that ship in such grandiose terms that the reality disappointed me. I found the guns small and the deck too narrow. At that time I had already developed the bad habit of saying what I think and I won three failures in the subjects of urbanity, religion and the formation of the national spirit.:)
 
Got the joke from former French navy sailors on discussion forums. French and spanish carriers trained together back in the Clemenceau days.

What the french conveniently forgot was that before the Clems IOC in the 1960's France had not one but two pedalo... Dedalo sisterships: Lafayette and Bois Belleau. All three were Independance class CVL.

It was an old ship as the destroyers escorting her. It wasn’t a credible force operatimg outside NATO in
front of modern Soviet submarines. I see them more as training ships filling the gap while waiting for better times. Anyway, not a bad service she gave because Dedalo operated Harriers from her original wood deck. The same from which Hellcats operated in the Pacific War. A respectable lady, a piece of history.
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France flew F4U Corsairs out of Lafayette in Suez, 1956 and beyond (1964 !) as the Sea Venoms could not safely fly out of any carriers before the Clems.
 
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Found an old collected file about an air capable hybrid battleship design for the Armada. Seems a British design from 20s or early 30s. The link points to a thread from 2008 where no mention about this design is found. A mystery to be solved, maybe I should consider sign in there.
 

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Los portaaviones españoles by Busquets/Campanera/Coello. Aldaba Ediciones 1994 page 67

Official plans from Proyecto 65 CVE

Probably available one day form the link at post #12
 

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Antonio said:
Found an old collected file about an air capable hybrid battleship design for the Armada. Seems a British design from 20s or early 30s. The link points to a thread from 2008 where no mention about this design is found. A mystery to be solved, maybe I should consider sign in there.
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No, that was an Italian proposal for Italy, nothing to do with Spain. The late Stefano Sappino shared it with me but apart from the info on the drawing no other data was available.
It was a mix of Battleship, carrier and torpedo-boat carrier (MAS - Motoscafo Armato Silurante - torpedo-armed motorboat)
Here it is with the original high resolution:
Italian BBCV.png
 

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