NRP Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque

The Afonso de Albuquerque (1935)

Ship data flag  Portugal Ship type Aviso class Afonso de Albuquerque class Callsign F470 Shipyard Hawthorn, Leslie , Hebburn Launch 1934 Commissioning May 28, 1934 Removal from the ship register December 18, 1961 Whereabouts destroyed in battle

Ship dimensions and crew length 99.6 m ( Lüa ) width 13.49 m Draft Max. 3.81 m displacement Construction: 1780 t maximum: 2435 t   crew 189-230

Machine system machine 2 Yarrow boilers 2 Parsons turbines Machine performance 8,000 PS (5,884 kW) Top speed 20 kn (37 km / h) propeller 2

Armament 4 × 120 mm cannons 2 × 76 mm cannons 4 × 76 mm anti-aircraft guns 2 × throwing devices for depth charges Transport capacity for 40 sea mines Capacity for one airplane (removed later)

The NRP Afonso de Albuquerque (F470) was a 1st class Aviso (avisos coloniais de 1ª classe) of the Portuguese Navy . It was named after the Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque . Together with her sister ship, the Bartolomeu Dias , she belonged to the Afonso de Albuquerque class, which was designed for use in the overseas provinces of Portugal . At ten knots, the ships had a range of 18,000 km. While the Afonso de Albuquerque was primarily intended for use in the Indian Ocean and East Asia, the Bartolomeu Dias was supposed to operate in the Atlantic . The ships should also support the armed forces on land during landing operations. Both ships were built in the British shipyard Hawthorne-Leslie in 1933 .

history

In 1936, the Portuguese dictatorship under António de Oliveira Salazar planned to use Portuguese war, transport and supply ships to support the nationalist putschists in the Spanish Civil War . The naval sergeant major, Francisco Horta, rebelled against this . Together with other sailors, he mutinied against the officers on September 8th and lifted anchor with the Afonso de Albuquerque and the destroyer Dao to fight Francisco Franco on the side of the Republic . At the mouth of the Tagus, the mutineers were attacked by Portuguese forces from the forts of Almada and Alto do Duque and had to give up. Francisco Horta was exiled to Portuguese Timor .

In 1942, the German submarine U 177 torpedoed the British troop transport Nova Scotia off the coast of Mozambique . Due to the Laconia order , Lieutenant Robert Gysae was not allowed to take any survivors on board, which is why the submarine commander (BdU) in neutral Portugal asked for sea rescue measures. A few days later, the Afonso de Albuquerque, under the command of Captain José Augusto Guereiro de Brito of Lourenço Marques , reached the scene and was able to save 192 people.

After the Second World War, the Afonso de Albuquerque was used like a frigate . In her callsign she received the identifier F470. At the H. Parry & Son shipyard in Almada , the number of flak was increased to eight.

Portuguese India 1961 (green)

From 1960, the Afonso de Albuquerque was in service with three other frigates and a number of patrol boats off Portuguese India . The frigate was understaffed. Only 190 crew were on board, rather than as envisaged in the war effort 230. On 18 December 1961, the occupied Republic of India in a surprise attack from 4am the Portuguese possessions Goa , Damão and Diu . The Afonso de Albuquerque was in the port of Mormugão near Goa when the Indian frigates INS Beas and INS Betwa and a mortar came into view at 9 a.m. At 11 a.m. the Indian air force bombed the port and airport, and at 12 p.m. the Indian ships began firing. In the course of the battle three more Indian ships were added. A frigate that was hit at 12:10 p.m. was replaced by a destroyer. At 12:15 p.m. the Afonso de Albuquerque suffered a hit that restricted fire control. The bridge was hit at 12:25 p.m. A seaman died and the commander, Captain António da Cunha Aragão, was seriously injured. At 12:25 p.m., another shell hit the boiler room amidships and suffered another hit on the starboard deck, causing the superstructure to catch fire. The first officer ordered the ship to be steered onto the beach. At 12:35 p.m. the Afonso de Albuquerque ran aground 150 m from the mouth of the Zuari , but continued to return fire. The ship was evacuated from 12:50 p.m. At 1:00 p.m., the Indian ships stopped firing as the burning Afonso de Albuquerque no longer posed a threat. Finally, the Afonso de Albuquerque set the white flag at 1:10 p.m. The wreck of the Afonso de Albuquerque was renamed Saravastri by the Indians , towed to Bombay and scrapped there. The guns were previously dismantled and some of them are now exhibited as booty. During the battle, the Afonso de Albuquerque fired between 350 and 400 rounds from its 120 mm guns. Two Indian frigates were hit. Five sailors died there and 13 others were injured.

The other Portuguese ships did not come into direct contact with the enemy.

More ships of this name

• Afonso de Albuquerque (1774), Nao
• Afonso de Albuquerque (1884), Aviso, in service until 1909

Web links

• The sinking of the Afonso de Albuquerque (Portuguese)

supporting documents

• Área militar with photos of Bartolomeu Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d}  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Área militar: Afonso de Albuquerque ( Memento of the original from April 12, 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. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Revista de Marinha: Três Navios Históricos
4. ^ John Pilger: Hidden Agendas , 2010, ISBN 1407086413 , p. 299.
5. ^ Uboat.net: Nova Scotia
6. ↑ Daily News and Analysis India: An illustrious history, December 4, 2009