The Destructor
In 1884, Villaamil was appointed Second Officer in the Ministry of the Navy. As such, he took the initiative of studying and designing a new class of warship intended to fight the then-new torpedo boats.
Once he reached his conclusions on the subject, he obtained the agreement of the Minister of the Navy, Manuel Pezuela, and selected the British shipyards of James & George Thompson, in Clydebank to build the new vessel, beginning in late 1885.
Villaamil was assigned to Great Britain to supervise the works and study the operating procedures of the British naval dockyards, as well as the new Engineers corps. On January 19, 1887, the Destructor, the first torpedo boat destroyer, was formally handed over to the Spanish Navy, with great expectations from the European naval community.
On the 24 the ship, which had reached 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h) in the trials, weighed anchor in Falmouth, bounded for Vigo, with Villaamil in command. Twenty-four hours later, she reached the Spanish coast, making 18 knots (33 km/h) through a stormy Bay of Biscay.
In one day the doubts about the ship seaworthiness were answered forever, and her designer and commander had every reason to feel proud. As a consequence of the success of the Destructor, Villaamil's professional reputation grew, both in Spain and abroad.
Read more about this topic: Fernando Villaamil