by Germà Coendersi
1/350 Spanish torpedo boat destroyer Furor (Iron Shipwright)
Spanish torpedo boat destroyer Furor, 1898
Modified Iron Shipwright's USS Hopkins, 1/350 scale
The torpedo boat destroyers Furor and Pluton were the last two Spanish vessels out of Santiago Harbor on July 3, 1898. Their unprotected hulls soon came under heavy attack by the armed yacht USS Gloucester and the battleships Indiana and Iowa and were sunk. Captain Villaamil, who a decade earlier had conceived the Destructor (arguably the world's first torpedo boat destroyer) commanded the little squadron from the Furor amd went down with it.
This model is a very heavily modified Iron Shipwright's USS Hopkins DD-07.
The differences between both ships are enormous, to begin with in
dimensions, which I fixed by cutting over a centimeter of the hull aft.
The main other changes I did were:
The USS Hopkins kit proved very versatile and would lend itself to conversion into most of the turtleback decked torpedo boat destroyers of the 1890's. Most of the original parts could be used after some cuting and sanding.
The major sources I used were drawings and photographs in the sources below. Details about the ship and its history can also be found there: * Coello Lillo, Juan Luis (2001): Buques de la Armada española a través de la fotografía (1849-1900). Ministerio de Defensa. * Aguilera, Alfredo & Vicente Elias. (1972): Buques de Guerra Españoles (1885-1971). 2nd Edition. Editorial San Martín. * Lyon, David (2001): The first destroyers. Caxton Editions.
Two of the photos show Furor and Hopkins together and give an idea of the extent of the modifications. Yet another photo shows Furor escorting the Spanish cruiser Cristóbal Colón.
