List of Battleships and Monitors of Spain - Pelayo

The only true "pre-Dreadnought" battleship of the Spanish Navy, Pelayo was a barbette ship, and was originally intended to be the first of a class of new battleships. Due to the Caroline Islands crisis and the design's lack of speed and endurance, however, it was decided to construct armoured cruisers of the Infanta Maria Teresa class instead.

Based on the design of the French Marceau class battleships, although the design was modified to reduce the ship's draft to allow for passage through the Suez Canal, she was originally completed with sails, although they were quickly removed. Reconstructed in 1897, she was rushed back into service for the Spanish-American War with the refit incomplete, and spent most of the conflict guarding the Spanish coast, apart from an abortive attempt to reinforce the Philippines as part of Admiral de Camara's squadron. Finally seeing combat in the shore bombardment role in the Second Rif War, Pelayo was refit again in 1910, but grounded badly in 1912, and after repairs spend the remainder of her service life as a gunnery training ship, until finally being stricken from the navy list in 1922 and scrapped in 1925.