The history of military technology is extremely rarely reduced to only one tactical and technical characteristics and often combines whole layers from other spheres of this science: here are stories about simple human lives, and the interweaving of different events and histories of different states, and features of the development of industry, and much other. As a result, sometimes technically untenable ideas were carried out at the highest quality level, but alas, more often it was the other way around - wonderful projects created by literate, if not even brilliant people, did not show themselves in practice due to disgusting execution in practice. The very lives of such designers, due to the small achievements of their offspring, went into the shadows and became little known to the general public, although they themselves deserved to take a place next to other, much more famous people of their era. The story of these people often ended with some kind of tragedy - Siegfried Popper died under the wheels of a tram, Vladimir Baranovsky, while still young (at that time he was only 32 years old), also died while testing unitary shots for his own rapid-fire cannon … Sometimes such a tragic end of history had minor consequences, as was the case with Popper, and sometimes the death of one talented designer actually put an end to the successful development of certain areas in a particular country. José Gonzalez Ontoria, a scientist, designer and artilleryman of the Spanish Armada, who will be discussed in this article, is another striking example of such an inconsistency of human life in the field of the history of military technology.
Don Jose Gonzalez Ontoria
Jose Gonzalez Ontoria was born on July 21, 1840, in the city of Sanlucar de Barrameda, in the province of Cadiz in southern Spain. When baptized, he received the full name José Maria de la Paz Antonio, but, like most progressive Spaniards of the time, he never used it. His parents, Don Antonio Gonzalez Angel and Dona Maria de la Paz Ontoria Tesanos, were of noble birth, but not rich in finances. But the parents of young Jose had other wealth - love (8 children were born in the marriage), intelligence and concern for the fate of their children. Noticing early on his son's certain talents in the field of exact sciences, his father decided to get him admitted to the Naval College of San Fernando, which, according to the rules of that time, was not an easy task. [1]… Consideration of the issue took two years - from 1849 to 1851, but, in the end, 11-year-old Jose still got a place in college, and began to receive education. I could not find the details of his life in the next few years, there is only an awkward reference to the fact that Ontoria was forced to leave Armada and study for a while, but then returned and graduated from college in 1858 with honors, with the rank of midshipman, and then immediately was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant (subteniente), and entered the Academy of the Royal Armada Artillery Corps, which he successfully completed in 1860. At the same time, both his teachers and peers noted Jose's high intelligence, ability for artillery work and exact sciences, balanced accurate analysis. For all these qualities and, I quote, "unsurpassed academic success", he became not only well-known in the circles of Spanish artillerymen, but also received the position of assistant professor at the academy. By that time he was only 20 years old.
However, the young officer did not manage to become a teacher on a permanent basis - Ontoria believed that Spain was lagging behind other world powers in artillery, with which his superiors also agreed. As a result, the lieutenant went as an observer to the Spanish artillery factories, where he directly got acquainted with the technologies for the production of guns and powder. Only in 1861 he returned to the academy as a teacher, but again for a short time. Becoming a senior lecturer at the academy in 1863, he later made two major business trips to the United States, where the Civil War was going on at that time, during which the artillery business developed by leaps and bounds. There he paid attention to everything - the production of guns and ammunition, metallurgy, gunpowder, machine tools, theoretical research on the topic of artillery and all other areas that were somehow connected with guns. His detailed reports on what he saw were appreciated at the highest level - upon returning from a second business trip, in 1865, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Carlos III, one of the highest state awards at that time. Returning to teaching for a while, he already in 1866 became a member of the permanent commission of the Armada, which worked at the artillery plant in Trubia, where he worked until 1869, completing the next stage of his life as the head of the commission. Over the years, he further strengthened his knowledge of the theory and practice of artillery in terms of production, and also began for the first time to design cannons of his own design. It was during these years of optimism that he achieved an important victory on the personal front by marrying Dona Maria de la Concepcion Fernandez de Ladreda and Miranda in 1867. The work also contributed to his career growth - having received the rank of captain in 1862 and colonel in 1869, he was appointed head of the artillery park in Ferrol, where he manufactured his first 254-mm cannon using the technology of American Rodman. But even here one of the leading artillerymen of Spain did not stay long - in 1872, at the age of 32, he was appointed to the Special Artillery Junta (Council) of the Armada. From that moment on, he is not just a theoretician, but also a practitioner, acting as one of those people who are responsible for the development of artillery in all of Spain. In the course of his work in this position, he tested a number of new designs of weapons and laid the foundation for his future 1879 system. However, the completion of this work was not without acquaintance with foreign experience - and together with the junta, he visited the leading countries of Europe in 1878, getting acquainted with the artillery of France, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Austria and Italy. Thus, in Spain, they began to develop a new generation of guns, combining almost all world experience and choosing the best solutions for this. But to what extent did the commission headed by Jose Ontoria do it?
Ontoria Cannons
Under the simple name Modelo 1879, in fact, there is a whole system of decisions that predetermined the further development of Spanish artillery in the coming years. During his theoretical research, Colonel Ontoria came to conclusions that are relevant for our time: it is not only the quality of weapons that decides, but also the quantity, i.e. saturation of the Armada with new models, which means that the tools must be not only perfect, but also quite cheap. At the same time, in addition to modernizing production, it was also required to reduce costs on other items of supplying the fleet with weapons, and Ontoria proposed to carry out the broadest standardization and unification of elements of guns, ammunition and other rearmament. In Spain, a clear line of calibers was now approved for the Armada - 7, 9, 12, 16, 18 and 20 centimeters, later they were added to calibers 14, 24, 28 and 32 centimeters, and the 18 centimeters caliber, on the contrary, was excluded from this system, and did not find distribution. All guns had to be made using the latest technology, from steel, iron or cast iron, there was a complete abandonment of bronze, which was one of the main materials for the manufacture of guns in Spain before gaining popularity due to its low cost. In the process of establishing production, the tools gradually became entirely steel. Ammunition was also standardized - both for old and new guns of similar calibers, the same shells were now used, which significantly reduced the range of ammunition produced, simplified supply and made production cheaper. The ammunition itself was introduced with the latest design, with a lead sheath and copper belts. Not the last advantage of the Spanish cannons was to be loaded from the treasury, which looked especially advantageous against the background of the fact that the fleet of the "Lady of the Seas" continued to use muzzle-loaded cannons. Outwardly, the Ontoria guns were similar to the Armstrong guns with a piston breech and a "bottle" breech, but at the same time they were made according to Krupp technologies, i.e. had a fastened, rather than wire or solid-cast barrel. The inner steel pipe had a small parabolic thread, which was also a fairly advanced solution - in the world, coarse-cutting of the trunks was still widely used. Particular attention was paid to the quality of propellants - Ontoria already at the end of the 1870s realized that the future was in improving the quality of explosives and propellants, which meant that it was in the interests of Spain to take care of this issue now. Finally, in the era of still "short" guns, with a small barrel length of 20-30 calibers, the colonel proposed making artillery systems with a barrel length of 35 calibers or more, which became fashionable in Europe only in the second half of the 1880s. All these ideas for their time were so advanced, promised such great benefits that the system was immediately "put into circulation", and a large-scale restructuring of the Spanish gun industry began.
This process was by no means easy. It was necessary to find funds for the restructuring of industry, the necessary cadres of managers and workers, order machines, conduct a number of important practical tests, and most importantly, monitor the quality of work. Don Jose Ontoria since 1879 forgot about a quiet life, spending all the time on the road, and personally supervising the production of new guns and the modernization of industry. Due to certain delays in setting up production, it was only in the early 1880s that its guns began to be accepted into service and entered the fleet. At the same time, the new tools were subjected to rigorous tests and were actively compared with analogues, for which Ontoria constantly found funds. The results of all his efforts were not long in coming - for example, the 16-cm cannon of the 1881 model of the year in its weight category for 6-7-inch guns turned out to be the best in the world at the time of testing, with a high muzzle velocity, excellent shells and good armor penetration for its caliber. Tested already at the end of the 1880s, the 28-cm Ontoria cannon at the muzzle pierced 66-cm steel-iron armor plate, which was very good results. Similar successes have followed every tried and tested tool of the Ontoria system. The outstanding performance of other calibers was also consistently reaffirmed, giving Spanish naval officers proud to claim that they now possess the best cannons in the world and extolled their "cannon king", Don José Gonzalez Ontorio. The designer himself did not calm down, and in addition to constantly monitoring the production process and testing, he also carried out large-scale popular science work, publishing his own works on the development of naval artillery, which were highly valued in Europe at one time. Yes, now this fact is practically forgotten, but the works of the Spaniard colonel really enjoyed success in other European countries, they were found progressive and modern. The popularity of Ontoria became such that already in 1880 he earned his second Naval Cross. [2], for an exemplary production process, and in 1881 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general of the Marine Corps, and this was followed by a series of letters of congratulations not only from Spanish officers, but also from foreigners. In 1882-1883, he left Spain altogether, and went on a large European tour, lecturing and publishing articles in various languages on the development of artillery, its production and the future of guns, the organization of production, and much more. In Great Britain, his knowledge and skills were highly appreciated - from a number of industrialists, very lucrative offers were received. Jose Gonzalez Ontoria was offered to become the manager and organizer of artillery production at a number of British factories, with a high salary, and almost complete carte blanche to conduct scientific research on the topic of artillery. Here the colonel also proved to be a patriot of his country - despite the fact that in Spain he did not enjoy such freedom of action, and received a noticeably lower salary, he refused to go into actual service to a foreign state, remaining to the end loyal to the Spanish crown, and an ardent patriot native Motherland. These were not the only invitations to Ontoria from abroad - apparently, after his trips to Europe, he received several invitations from different countries every year, but they were answered by a persistent refusal. Upon his return to Spain, he received new assignments, but also new honors - in 1887 he became a field marshal of the Marines. [3]and he became the highest ranking officer among the Spanish Marine Corps.
When dreams collide with reality
Alas, not everything was as cloudless as it seemed at first sight. Do not forget that Ontoria had to gain experience and knowledge in very difficult military-political conditions, especially in the 1870s, when the Third Carlist War was raging in Spain, and besides, there were also revolutions and unrest on the basis of the overthrow of Isabella II. a short period of republican rule, and the restoration of the monarchy by Alfonso XII. In such conditions, I had to survive myself and literally pull out funds for my own projects with my teeth. All this cost time and nerves, but the captain, and then the colonel, held out to the last. Only with the beginning of the reign of Alfonso XII, Ontoria was able to breathe freely, and almost immediately gave birth to Modelo 1879. As his popularity grew, he did not seek to rest on his laurels, and continued to work for exhaustion, sometimes devoting no more than 4 hours a day to sleep. In such conditions, he had problems with family life, about which, however, practically nothing is known, but much greater problems awaited him in 1884, upon his return from Europe.
As it turned out, the Spanish industry still could not pull out the required quality of the production of tools. Even before leaving for Europe, Ontoria had to come to terms with the involvement of imported components for its guns, and the 320-mm gun had so much alien at all that it is now considered Canet's gun, and not a Spanish gun. In addition, there were serious problems with the qualifications of the workforce at the factories. With great difficulty, spending an absolutely unimaginable amount of time and nerves to control the process, it was possible to establish more or less high-quality production at the plant in Trubia and in the arsenal of Cadiz, from where the "reference" Ontoria guns came out, showing outstanding characteristics in tests and surpassing many modern ones. foreign samples. However, these production capacities were small, and they were constantly loaded with more and more new orders, as a result of which the practice of transferring orders for the production of guns to private firms that did not have the necessary experience and qualified personnel began to spread more and more. So, the three battleships of the Infanta Maria Teresa class had to produce guns directly at the shipyard, which was built almost together with the ships themselves, and for the cruiser Emperador Carlos V, the guns were ordered from the Seville company Portilla and White, aka Portilla. White & Co, which had not previously been involved in the production of artillery, and the rest of its products were not of high quality. Only the products of the arsenal of Cadiz and Trubia somehow kept at a fairly high level, but it turned out to be trite too little against the general background - from the large ships of the Spanish fleet only on the battleship Pelayo guns were made by professionals, and even then - with great slowness. The way out could be to order the guns of this system abroad, but here the point of the requirements, which was quite understandable for the Spaniards, had an effect, according to which weapons were required to be produced only in Spain itself, which guaranteed the preservation of the spent funds within the state. As a result, possessing de jure the best artillery in the world at the beginning of the 1880s, the Spaniards entered the Spanish-American War of 1898 with almost unusable cannons. The guns produced by non-professionals turned out to be of disgusting quality, especially there were a lot of complaints about the piston valves, which could not close, or became unusable after a couple of shots. The situation was even worse with ammunition - in fact, Spain completely failed Ontoria's reforms in this area, since only those ammunition that were used in tests turned out to be of high quality, but the serial ones were so low quality that they could easily not fit the guns. All this happened in conditions of total cost savings. [4] - in particular, it was because Ontoria had to use cast iron in the design of its guns, which was cheaper than steel. Finally, time played its role - the time of the rapid development of science and technology, when in a couple of years everything new became old. Probably the best in the world in the year the project was created, in 1879, the Ontorian guns still looked great when they began mass production, in 1881-1883, but delays, the weakness of the Spanish industry, cost savings led to the fact that these guns appeared only at the end of the decade, when they already looked like quite ordinary artillery installations. And then, within a short time, three important changes took place - rapid-fire cannons, smokeless propelling powder and high explosives for high-explosive shells appeared. And the Ontoria cannons were completely outdated, barely hitting massively at the disposal of the officers and sailors of the Armada. They still tried to modernize these guns by other designers, transfer them to case loading, smokeless powder, increase the rate of fire, but all to no avail - again and again the low quality of production, cost savings and many other problems of Spain of that time affected the brainchild of Ontoria. the case turned out to be practically useless.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Don Jose Gonzalez Ontoria did not see the sad results of his labors. Already in 1887, he developed serious health problems. Sleepless nights, constant tension, huge efforts to knock out funding for their projects, family problems, the problems of the Spanish industry revealed, finally, the constant struggle with ministers who changed almost every year in the 1880s - all this undermined Don Ontoria from the inside, depleted the resources of his body and soul. Added to this was the fanatical diligence of the field marshal himself - even during hard work, he devoted a lot of time to self-education and writing various works, articles and analytics on his favorite topic, participated in the development of new artillery models, corresponded with his Spanish and foreign colleagues, and etc., and of course all this activity required additional time and effort. When, at the end of 1887, he was appointed Inspector General of Spain's artillery (including land artillery), he already suffered from insomnia, and soon mental problems began altogether. At the beginning of 1888, Don Jose Gonzalez Ontoria ended up in the Carabanchel psychiatric clinic in Madrid, where he died on June 14, 1889 from cerebral anemia, at the age of 49. According to the royal decree of March 12, 1891, it was decided to bury his remains in the Pantheon of the famous marines in Cadiz, but only on July 7, 1907, the honorary reburial of the body of the brigadier general and artillery inventor took place in this place. Nowadays about his contribution to the development of artillery, his popularity in the early 1880s throughout Europe was practically forgotten, but the Spaniards themselves remember their great compatriot - the one who brought Spanish artillery to a completely new level, making it for some time at least generally one of the most advanced in the world. And it is not Don Jose Gonzalez Ontoria's fault that almost all of his undertakings were poorly implemented, and served as one of the main reasons for the defeat of Spain in the war of 1898, when the Armada was armed with 326 guns of his system. The whole story of his life and work is the story of how even in a not the most advanced and prosperous state, advanced ideas can arise, and an instructive lesson for those who advocate austerity in armaments, while claiming to have any kind of active foreign policy and protection of their interests in the world.
Notes (edit)
1. As far as I know, for admission to universities in Spain at that time, certain recommendations were required, and in addition, the identity of each candidate for admission was considered by a special commission separately. This applied not only to military universities, but also to civilian ones - so, even art academies were extremely selective towards their students, not only ordinary people, but also the petty nobility often had little chance of being educated in such a place. However, here I can be very wrong.
2. It was not possible to find information about the receipt of the first one.
3. I did not quite understand what this means in the conditions of Spain. This is definitely not a rank, since until his death he remained a brigadier general (brigadier), but rather a position, something like the chief of all marines. At the same time, this is more of an honorary position than a functional one - Ontoria did not exercise practical command over the Spanish Marine Corps. The position of field marshal (literally Mariscal de Campo, marshal of the camp) in the entire history of Spain was carried by a very small number of people, which only confirms my assumption that the position of field marshal is rather a sign of honor.
4. While still claiming the status of a significant maritime power, Spain in the 1880s, especially after the death of Alfonso XII, spent much less on Armada than other maritime powers, and we are not talking about specific figures of funds spent, but about unit costs for the fleet in relation to the entire state budget.
