Spanish cruiser Rapido (1889)

Rapido with Camara's squadron at Port Said in 1898.
History
Name:	Rapido
Builder:	Laird Brothers Birkenhead (later: Cammell Laird Shipbuilders)
Yard number:	V0564
Completed:	1889
Acquired:	1898
Fate:	Returned to mercantile service 1898; scrapped 1907
Notes:	In mercantile service as SS Columbia 1889–1898 and 1898–1904; in Russian Navy service as auxiliary cruiser Terek 1904–1905
General characteristics
Type:	Auxiliary cruiser

Rapido was a merchant ship requisitioned for use as an auxiliary cruiser by the Spanish Navy in 1898 during the Spanish–American War.

Rapido was built in 1889 as a passenger ship and was in commercial service as SS Columbia with the Hamburg America Line when the Spanish Navy purchased her for Spanish–American War service as an auxiliary cruiser in 1898. Armed and renamed Rapido, she became part of the relief expedition for the Philippines commanded by Rear Admiral Manuel de Camara and charged with destroying the United States Navy Asiatic Squadron of Commodore George Dewey there, as well as with delivering 4,000 Spanish Army troops to reinforce the Philippines. Camara's squadron—consisting of battleship Pelayo, armored cruiser Emperador Carlos V, auxiliary cruiser Patriota, destroyers Audaz, Osado, and Proserpina, and transports Buenos Aires, Panay, Alfonso XII, and Antonio Lopez, and four colliers as well as Rapido—sortied from Cadiz on 16 June 1898.