La Plata and Catamarca class
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| La Plata and Catamarca class | |
 The ARA La Plata |
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| Overview | |
| Type | destroyer |
| units | 2 + 2 |
| Shipyard |
Schichau-Werke , Elbing |
| Keel laying | 1910 |
| Launch | 1910/1911 |
| delivery | 1912 |
| Decommissioning | January 1956 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
La Plata class: |
| length |
La Plata - or Catamarca -cl. |
| width |
9.0 or 8.2 m |
| Draft |
2.8 or 2.6 m |
| crew |
150 men |
| drive |
5 Thornycroft - Schulz - water tube boilers , |
| speed |
35 kn |
| Range |
3000 nm at 15 kn |
| Armament |
|
| Fuel supply |
290 tons of coal, 50 tons of oil |
| Schichau boats |
ARA La Plata , Cordoba |
| Germania boats |
ARA Catamarca , Jujuy |
| ordered at the same time |
Aetos class |
| similar | |
The La Plata and Catamarca classes designated four destroyers of the Argentine Navy that were delivered by German shipyards in 1912. They were among twelve large destroyers ordered by Argentina in Europe at the end of 1909. Only the four boats ordered in Germany were actually delivered to Argentina. Since Argentina remained neutral during the First World War and only entered the Second World War one month before the end of the war on the side of the Allies and there were also no major conflicts with the neighbors, the boats were never used for war purposes and were only removed from the fleet list in January 1956 .
Building history
In 1909, the Argentine Parliament approved the funds to procure twelve large destroyers in Europe as part of the ABC arms race (i.e. Argentina-Brazil-Chile). One construction contract each for four boats went to Great Britain, France and Germany, with two shipyards in each of the last two countries taking on the construction. All boats were about 90 m long and should run 32 knots with turbine propulsion. The propulsion systems were different. The uniform should be the armament with four 102 mm rapid-fire guns from American manufacture and four 533 mm torpedo tubes.
The contracts awarded to Germany went to the Germania shipyard in Kiel and the Schichau shipyard in Elbing . The boats ordered were larger than the boats previously delivered to the Imperial Navy by the shipyards . The boats of the two shipyards differed in their hull shape, technical details and outward appearance.
The La Plata and Córdoba supplied by Schichau displaced 1000 t and 1368 t with full equipment. They were 90 m long, 9 m wide and had a draft of 2.4 m. The newbuildings, begun in 1910, were launched around the turn of 1910/11 and entered service with the Argentine Navy on March 3 and June 8, 1912.
The Catamarca and Jujuy built by Germania displaced 995 and 1357 t respectively. At 88.1 m in length, they were slightly shorter, only 8.2 m wide and had a draft of 2.6 m. The newbuildings, which had also begun in 1910, were launched in January and March 1911 and entered service with the Argentine Navy in April 1912.
The drive of the boats of both shipyards was carried out with five Thornycroft -Schulz- water tube boilers (an oil furnace) having two Curtis - AEG - turbine sets with a maximum power of 28,000 horsepower drives which a maximum speed of 32 by two screws to the boot node (kn) gave . During the test drives, the boats sometimes reached over 34 knots. All were equipped with radio. Instead of the guaranteed 200 km range during the day and 400 km at night, the La Plata reached 1175 km and the boats in the final equipment in Kiel and Elbing could communicate regularly by radio (700 km).
Mission history
The ships, completed in 1912, were brought together to Argentina and arrived in Buenos Aires on July 5, 1912. The "Destructores" formed a joint squadron in the Argentine naval base Puerto Belgrano on July 8 and took part in the exercises of the Argentine fleet in the South Atlantic. However, they remained the only destroyers in the Argentine fleet from the pre-war contracts it had awarded. Argentina had refused to accept the boats built in Great Britain because they could not achieve the required speed, the boats built in France were also insufficiently speed-wise and remained at the shipyards for repairs. They were not finished until the outbreak of war in 1914 and then adopted by the French Navy as the Aventurier class . The English boats were sold to Greece in 1912 as the Aetos class , but in April 1913 replacement buildings in Germany were ordered from the Germania shipyard, which were taken over by the Imperial Navy in 1914 as the G 101 class .
From 1924 to 1927 the four boats were overhauled and modernized when new destroyers came in (see Mendoza class ). The drive system was converted to pure oil firing. The torpedo tubes and the light guns were replaced by English ones and two depth charges were also installed.
The planned replacement of the class by the last four ships of the Buenos Aires class in 1939 did not take place because of the outbreak of war in Europe. During the war, the boats were mainly used in the La Plata estuary. From 1950 they served as school boats. It was not until 1956 that the four boats were decommissioned and then scrapped in Argentina in the years to come.
The Argentine large destroyers started in 1910
The boats commissioned in Great Britain were all launched at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead between February and July 1911. The tests revealed deficiencies and the Argentine government refused to pay the asking price. In the end, she refused to accept the boats. With the mediation of the British government, the shipyard managed to sell the four boats to Greece on September 12, 1912 for £ 148,000, where they were named after wild animals. The boats were modernized in Great Britain in the 1920s. Three survived the Second World War, in which a boat was lost.
After this sale, Argentina ordered four new boats in Germany, all of which were to be built at the Germania shipyard.
The “French” boats were also launched in 1911 at Dyle et Bacalan in Bordeaux and Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne in Nantes . However, her final equipment was delayed considerably, although the Mendoza had already completed her speed tests in September 1912. The buyer probably had doubts whether the consumption values would allow a safe crossing of the Atlantic. The boats, which were still in France at the beginning of the war in 1914, were taken over by the French Navy in August 1914 and entered service with French weapons.
| Surname | then | Shipyard | displacement | Launch | in service | Final fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cordoba | Schichau | 875/1368 t | 11.1910 | June 8, 1912 | July 1912 in Argentina , January 1956 deleted | |
| La Plata | Schichau | 01.1911 | 3.03.1912 | July 1912 Argentina, January 1956 deleted | ||
| Catamarca | Germania shipyard | 995/1357 tons | 01.1911 | 04.1912 | July 1912 Argentina, January 1956 deleted | |
| Jujuy | Germania shipyard | 4.03.1911 | 04.1912 | July 1912 Argentina, January 1956 deleted | ||
| San Luis | Aetos | Cammell Laird | 980/1175 tons | 02/02/1911 | 06.1912 | 1912 to Greece, deleted in 1946 |
| Santa Fe | Ierax | Cammell Laird | 03/15/1911 | 09.1912 | 1912 to Greece, deleted in 1946 | |
| Tucuman | Panther | Cammell Laird | 04/26/1911 | 09.1912 | 1912 sunk to Greece on May 15, 1941 | |
| Santiago | Leon | Cammell Laird | 07/15/1911 | 09.1912 | 1912 to Greece, deleted in 1946 | |
| Mendoza | Aventurians | AC de Bretagne | 930/1250 tons | 02/18/1911 | 09.1914 | Confiscated by France in 1914, deleted in 1938 |
| Rioja | Opiniâtre | AC de Bretagne | 1911 | 09.1914 | 1914 France, deleted in 1933 | |
| Salta | Intrépide | Dyle and Bacalan | 09/25/1911 | 11.1914 | 1914 France, deleted in 1937 | |
| San Juan | Téméraire | Dyle and Bacalan | December 8, 1911 | 11.1914 | 1914 France, deleted in 1936 |
Replacement order to the Germania shipyard
After the agreement with Great Britain, Argentina ordered four more ships from the Germania shipyard in Kiel, which were to be named after the previous Great Britain order. With a size of 1,116 ts, the new boats were 95.3 m long, 9.5 m wide and had a draft of 3.8 m. With turbines made by the shipyard and pure oil firing, the boats should develop up to 28,000 hp and reach a top speed of 33.5 knots. Four 102 mm cannons were again provided as armament. The torpedo armament was to be reinforced and, in addition to the two twin torpedo tubes on the stern, two individual tubes were to be installed further forward. A facility for 24 sea mines should also be prepared on the boats. When the First World War broke out, none of the new boats had yet been launched. They were confiscated by the German Reich and taken over as the Large Torpedo Boat 14a with the identifications G 101 – G 104 , but were also officially designated as destroyers in some cases. They were launched between August 12 and November 28, 1914 and were in service with the Imperial Fleet between March 4 and June 5, 1915.
All four boats were interned in Scapa Flow from November 22, 1918 and were self-sunk there on June 21, 1919, which only failed with G 102 . Awarded loot to the US Navy in 1920, the G 102 was sunk on July 13, 1921 as a target ship for bombing at Cape Henry . The other three boats were lifted in the winter of 1925/26 and then scrapped.
literature
- Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. ISBN 1-85170-378-0 .
- Weyer's pocket book of the war fleets 1941/42. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich, 1941.
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers of World War 2. Cassell Publishing, 1988, ISBN 1-85409-521-8 .
- Guillermo J. Montehengo: An Argentinian Naval Buildup in the Disarmament Era. In Warship 2002-2003, Conway's Maritime press.
Web links
- The torpedo cruisers “Catamarca” and “Jujuy” of the Argentine Navy
- Destroyer of La Plata class on navypedia (accessed June 4, 2012)
- EXPLORADOR-TORPEDERO "LA PLATA" D-4 - 1912 on histarmar.com.ar (accessed January 30, 2015)
- The Cordoba on histarmar.com.ar (accessed June 3, 2012)
- "JUJUY" D-3 on histarmar.com.ar (accessed January 30, 2015)
- "CATAMARCA" D-1 on histarmar.com.ar (accessed January 30, 2015)
- La Plata class on L. Kosour, ww2@warshipsww2.eu, (accessed June 5, 2012)
- La Plata - side view on blueprints (accessed June 14, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Telefunken-Zeitung No. 7/1912, p. 23 ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
