On 29 April 1898, Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete of the Spanish Navy steamed out of the Cape Verde Islands with a fleet of four armored cruisers and three destroyers. His destination: the West Indies, to defend Spain’s empire there against the United States. Hampered by a number of deficiencies, the fleet struggled into the harbor at Santiago de Cuba. Already there was the the Reina Mercedes, an unarmored cruiser capable of propulsion under sail and steam. Built in Cartagena, in 1887, she had become the station ship at Santiago in 1892. By 1898, she was in such a poor state of repair that her armament was largely removed for use as shore batteries.

Her part in the 3 July 1898 Battle of Santiago de Cuba was little more than to absorb shellfire and to act as an obstruction to navigation. The Spanish had hoped to tow her into the harbor’s entrance channel and sink her, denying access to U.S. ships. Even in that, she was not entirely successful; she sank in the shallows, and the channel was left open. “Yet it was not entirely useless,” Spanish Lieutenant Jose Muller y Tejeiro, second in command of the naval forces in Santiago would remark, “since the enemy could not take possession of her, as she is all riddled by bullets which she received that night, and I do not believe she can ever again be used.”

But the lieutenant was wrong. Over the course of her 70-year life, the Reina Mercedes would serve not one but two navies, and become a fixture (in more than one sense) at the U.S. Naval Academy.

After the hostilities with Spain had ceased, the U.S. Navy seized the Reina Mercedes with the intention of turning her into a training ship. She was raised from the bottom in March, 1899 and towed first to Norfolk for repairs, and later to the Portsmouth Navy Yard for refitting. There, she was converted instead into a receiving ship. Rechristened the USS Reina Mercedes in 1905, she was towed to Newport, Rhode Island, replacing the U.S.S. Constellation there for that purpose.

In 1912, she returned to Norfolk for another refit and then was sent to Annapolis, Maryland, to replace the USS Hartford, Admiral David Farragut’s flagship during the Battle of Mobile Bay, and the USS Santee, a sailing frigate-cum-barracks and training ship that sank at her moorings after a half-century at the Academy.

From 1912 until 1957, with several exceptions when she was towed to Norfolk for overhaul, the Reina Mercedes (designated IX-25 in 1920) served continuously as the station ship at Annapolis. For a brief time in 1920, when the Spanish battleship Alfonso XIII made a port call at Annapolis, she flew the flag of Spain as a gesture of goodwill. The Reina Mercedes eventually earned the nickname “the fastest ship in the Navy,” owing to her being tied “fast” to her berth at the Naval Academy and rarely ever moving.

For a number of years, the Reina Mercedes acted as a sort of brig for Naval Academy midshipmen. Those punished for serious infractions of regulations were confined on board the ship for periods of a week to a month or more, attending drills but sleeping in hammocks and taking their meals on board. This punishment was abolished in 1940 in favor of restricting midshipmen to their rooms in Bancroft Hall.

After 1940, the ship was used as living quarters for unmarried enlisted personnel assigned to the Naval Academy and for the ship’s captain—who was also the commanding officer of the Naval Station, Severn River Naval Command—and his family. The most famous of these commanders was William F. “Bull” Halsey.

The ship was fitted out rather luxuriously during her time at the Academy. One Marine remembered the polished linoleum floors. Coming aboard, he remembered that

“a visitor walks up a gangplank overhung with the inimitable white of Navy canvas. The entrance is flanked by two beautiful carvings made from the original hatches of the Reina. Upon reaching the quarterdeck, which was hung with flags and fragments of famous old ships, the visitor turned into the hall. . . . . Jutting straight up through the center of the hallway was the mainmast of the ship, to which are attached port and starboard lanterns, affording both light and decorative effect. The main deck held three bedrooms, two baths, the dining room, den, and galley. Perching off the dining room and den were little Spanish balconies. On the next deck were two master bedrooms, bath, dressing room . . . converted into a sewing room and a 40×30 foot lounge. This is the room where much living and all entertaining is done. At the stern end of the immense room was the original steering wheel of the Reina. Deck No. 3 was the ‘penthouse’ of the quarters, consisting of a small lounge and sundeck.”

But luxury had to give way to reality. Necessary repairs were estimated to be so costly that the Reina Mercedes was ordered to be broken up. She was struck from the Naval Register on 6 September 1957. Decommissioned on 6 November, she was towed to Baltimore and scrapped. http://credit-n.ru/zaymyi-next.html займ без отказа