Spanish battleship Pelayo

Pelayo was a Spanish Navy battleship in commission from 1888 to 1924. She was Spain's first battleship and the most powerful unit of the Spanish Navy at the time she entered service. As a capital ship of unique design and capabilities and the only Spanish battleship to enter service prior to the dreadnought España in 1914, Pelayo posed a problem for the Spanish Navy, which had difficulty finding a tactical role for her. In her early years, however, she gained great popularity as she played a significant role in representing the Spanish Navy at important naval and international events. She supported Spanish operations during the First Melillan campaign in 1893–1894. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, she took part in an abortive sortie to the Philippines, but returned to Spain without seeing action in the war. She later fired her guns in anger for the first time during the Second Melillan campaign in 1909, and she subsequently participated in the Kert campaign in 1911 and 1912 and in bombardments of the coast of Spanish Morocco in 1913.

Pelayo was named for Pelagius of Asturias (ca. 685–737), a nobleman who founded the Kingdom of Asturias and is credited with initiating the Reconquista, the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, traditionally dated to have begun with the Battle of Covadonga (c. 718 or 722).