La recuperación del Patrimonio Naval Subacuáticotécnicas y metodología. El caso del naufragio del crucero Reina Regente (1895-2023)

Résumé

In 1895, a Spanish Navy ship was sailing between Tangier and Cadiz. She had been built in one of the best shipyards in the United Kingdom and was less than ten years old; her name was Reina Regente. On the 10th of March 1895, and in accordance with commander Villaamil's story, she was lost, and nothing from any of her 412 crew was to be heard again. After 128 years of an unproductive search by the Spanish Navy, the time has come to develop a methodology combining qualitative tools for text search, meteorological tools for storm study, constructive tools for ship stability analysis, and bibliometric with legal tools means to establish this new method. The methodology that we are going to follow is divided into three sections: First, the study of the ship to determine the relevant aspects of the ship, with the aim of determining its status, capabilities, and limitations; second, the study of the maritime accident to determine the causes and contributing factors of the accident, and third, given the limitations of not being able to carry out the fieldwork, the bibliographic study of underwater archeology with sonar that will help us answer our research question. The investigation of this thesis is limited to prospecting that helps to find the causes of the loss of the Reina Regente and the proposal of a new methodology for future campaigns, which will provide us with evidence. Therefore, it has a limit, and we cannot be pretentious by pretending to give the exact location of a shipwreck that has been searched for more than a century. To find the cruiser Reina Regente, one of the best units of the Spanish Navy of her time, is the objective of this work, and to establish a methodology that enables the recovery of the Spanish Navy's underwater heritage. This is a novel approach that focuses on new sonar technology rather than focusing on positions from old reports. The aim is to arouse new interest in the Spanish cruiser Reina Regente and offer a different and valuable insight into Spain's naval history.