Chacabuco (ship)

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The Chacabuco
The Chacabuco
Overview
Type Protected cruiser
Shipyard

Armstrong, Whitworth & Co ,
Low Walker , construction no. 663

Keel laying August 11, 1896 Speculative building
Launch 4th July 1898
Namesake the battle of Chacabuco
(February 12-14, 1817)
Commissioning January 1902
Decommissioning 1952
Technical specifications
displacement

4,160 tn.l.

length

118.2 m over everything,
109.7 m waterline

width

14.2 m

Draft

5.2 m

drive

8 cylinder boilers (4 double-ended),
2 4-cylinder triple expansion machines
10,000 PS , up to 15,750 PSi
2 screws

speed

22.92 kn ,

Armament

2 × 8 inches (203 mm) -L / 45- Armstrong Rapid Fire Guns
10 × 4.7 inches (120 mm) -L / 40- Armstrong Rapid Fire Guns
16 × 3 pounder Hotchkiss Rapid
Fire Guns 6 × 1 pounder Hotchkiss Rapid Fire Guns
5 × 45 cm torpedo tubes

Coal supply

350, maximum 1028 tn.l.

Armor
armored deck
command tower

Harvey system
37 to 114 mm
102 mm

Sister ship

Takasago , Japan

similar

Yoshino , Japan
Dom Carlos I , Portugal

The third Chacabuco the Chilean navy was a protected cruiser type Elswick , who in August 1896 as Spekulationsbau under the hull number 663 on the Low Walker Yard Company Armstrong, Mitchell & Co had begun. The ship was built according to the plans of Takasago , which had begun four months earlier at the same shipyard , which had been sold to Japan in July 1896 and completed in April 1898. When the new building was launched on July 4, 1898, there was still no buyer for it, so it was provisionally named Fourth of July . In May 1899 it was largely completed without the shipyard's sales efforts having been successful.

The new tensions between Argentina and Chile in 1901 a. a. the question of the delimitation in Patagonia led to further armament on both sides. In January Chile bought the practically completed cruiser, which was now named Chacabuco , and a destroyer that was also completed from Armstrong and ordered two ships of the line of the later Swiftsure class in Great Britain. Great Britain mediated the dispute between the two South American states and achieved the settlement of the dispute in two contracts in May and November 1902, whereupon both of them sold the planned new buildings.

The Chacabuco had already left for Chile at the end of April 1902. She remained in service with the Chilean Navy until 1952, making it the last Elswick cruiser in service worldwide.

Building history

The company Armstrong, Mitchell & Co built in 1896 not only on the military shipyard in Elswick, but after nearly ten years break even on the low-Walker shipyard again warships due to a lack of orders for civilian ships. In March, the construction of two coastal armored ships of the Harald Haarfagre class for Norway was taken over, and in April construction of an Elswick cruiser the size of the Yoshino, which was delivered to Japan in 1893, began as a speculative construction. Japan acquired this new building in July, which was completed as Takasago 1898. The sale immediately led to the laying of the keel of another speculative building with construction number 663 in August, although a sale to Japan was initially seen as possible. The shipyard was able to win two more cruiser orders in 1896. China ordered two slightly larger cruisers, one of which was started at Low Walker Yard in November, and Portugal ordered a cruiser of about the same size with some variations that was started at Elswick.

The construction of the unsold speculative building is said to have continued in day and night shifts, but the firm orders were then processed faster and the new building did not go to water until July 4, 1898, almost two years after construction began, with the provisional name Fourth of July . The name referred to the launch day and American Independence Day. Presumably the shipyard tried to sell the ship to the US Navy . Sales negotiations with the British Admiralty , Japan and Turkey were unsuccessful. Italy was only willing to pay a very low price, which the shipyard did not respond to. The cruiser, which was almost completed in early May 1899, remained unsold on the Tyne .

The tensions between Chile and Argentina that reappeared at the end of 1901 then led to the purchase of the finished cruiser by the Chilean Navy in January 1902, which - like the Argentine Navy - had three somewhat different cruisers of this type.

The successor models of the Yoshino constructed by Philip Watts displaced a little over 4,000 tn.l., were 118.2 m long and 14.2 m wide and had no copper cladding of the hull. Only the Chilean Blanco Encalada and the Argentine Buenos Aires and the two Chinese cruisers delivered before the Chacabuco were slightly larger variants of the Elswick cruiser . The four-cylinder triple expansion machines with four double-ended boilers and four simple cylinder boilers supplied by Humphrys & Tennant had an output of 10,000 PSi and, with artificial pull, up to 15,750 PSi on two screws.

The main armament of the two cruisers was two single 203 mm L / 45 Elswick guns behind protective shields, which were used in twin turrets on the armored cruisers built at the same time for the Japanese Navy, a cannon newly developed for export by Armstrong's gun factory. The same applied to the ten 120 mm L / 40 guns on the sides.

In the light artillery for torpedo boat defense, the Chacabuco differed from its Japanese sister ship with 16 three-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss rapid-fire guns and six 37 mm one-pounders. The torpedo armament was identical with five 45 cm torpedo tubes (rigid bow tube and four movable broadside tubes).

Mission history

The cruiser now called Chacabuco left the Tyne estuary on April 29, 1902 to be brought in by the Chilean crew. The destroyer Capitan Thompson acquired from Armstrong was also tested. The first order of the newly acquired cruiser was to take part in the fleet inspection on the occasion of the coronation of the British King Edward VII , for which the Chacabuco arrived in Spithead on June 23 . Shortly before, the very similar Portuguese cruiser Dom Carlos I had arrived with the Portuguese crown prince and one day later the sister ship Takasago arrived from Japan with the armored cruiser Asama .

The destroyer Capitán Thomson

Due to the king's illness, the show was postponed and the Chacabuco followed an association launched on June 17, 1902 from Plymouth to Chile with the purchased transporters Rancagua and Maipo and the destroyers Captain Thompson , Captain Merino Jarpa and Captain O'Brien (the latter from Laird Brothers , all 1902, 350 tons left, 30 kn). On August 10, the association reached South America with the Chacabuco near Cabo Frio .

In January 1908 the Chacabuco was sent to meet the American Atlantic fleet to guide it through the waterways around Tierra del Fuego. The so-called Great White Fleet was on its first leg with 16 ships of the line from the American east coast to the Pacific coast and reached Punta Arenas on February 1st , the southernmost city in the world at that time, where it was last accompanied by an Argentinian cruiser squadron of four ships and by Chacabuco, who arrived in time , was received on board with the American ambassador Hicks, who then piloted the American ships into the open Pacific. Before that, they waited for an American destroyer division, which arrived on the 5th and initially accompanied the large ships. She then sought her way closer to the coast to the north. Before Valpareíso, the Esmeralda joined the association, which was then led into the bay of Valpareíso by the Chacabuco and five Chilean destroyers on February 14, and for the Chilean President Montt , who took the parade of the association from the Chilean training ship General Baquedano , with everyone Ship salute shot.

In December 1909 the machinery of the Chacabuco was checked and reached a speed of 24.75 kn for three hours. In June 1912, the cruiser then took part in the naval parade for the coronation of King George V , for which 188 warships were assembled at Spithead. Among the 18 foreign visitors were other Elswick cruisers with the Brazilian Buenos Aires , the Chinese Hai Chi and the Turkish Hamidiye .

modernization

The start of the war in Europe in 1939 prevented the purchase of modern warships, so the Chilean Navy decided to modernize the Chacabuco , which had not been in active service since 1935, because of its well-preserved machinery. It received a modern bridge house, redesigned chimneys and only one pole mast. The armament was changed to six 6 inch L / 50 cannons and ten 20 mm anti-aircraft guns. Thus, in Chile in the arsenal came from Talcahuano converted Chacabuco on 24 December in 1941 into service. The ship reached a speed of 18 knots and served as a training and command ship for lighter units in the following years. In 1952 the Chacabuco left the service of the Chilean Navy for good.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brook, p. 91
  2. ↑ description of Elswick-8 "-Geschützes (Engl.)
  3. ↑ Description of the Elswick 4.7 "gun .
  4. ↑ Rancagua ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), 1898 Swan Hunter, 3802 GRT, 137.4 m, 12 kn
  5. ↑ Maipo ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), 1901 Thompson, 3186 BRT, 118.9 m, 10 kn
  6. ↑ Captain Thompson ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Captain Merino Jarpa ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Captain O'Brien ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) all three destroyer variants of the "30 knotter" B class destroyer (1913) of the Royal Navy

literature

  • Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend 1999, ISBN 0-905617-89-4 .
  • Roger Chesneau, Eugène M. Koleśnik, NJM Campbell: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md. 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 .
  • Maria Teresa Parker de Bassi: Cruiser Dresden: Odyssey of No Return. Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-7822-0591-X .

Web links