Veinticinco de Mayo (ship, 1888)
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 The Veinticinco de Mayo in 1901 |
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| Overview | |
| Type | Protected cruiser |
| Shipyard |
Armstrong, Mitchell & Co , Elswick , BauNr. 541 |
| Keel laying | June 18, 1888 |
| Launch | May 5, 1890 |
| delivery | May 17, 1891 |
| Namesake | the argentinian national holiday |
| Commissioning | September 3, 1891 |
| Decommissioning | 1921 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
3,500 t |
| length |
107.9 m over everything |
| width |
13.1 m |
| Draft |
5.0 m |
| crew |
344 men |
| drive |
8 double-ended cylinder boilers , |
| speed |
21 kn , max. 22.34 kn |
| Range |
5025 nm at 11 kn |
| Armament |
2 × 210 mm Krupp cannons |
| Coal supply |
300 ts, max. 600 ts |
| Armored deck |
113 to 127 mm |
| other Argentine Elswick cruisers |
Nueve de Julio |
The protected cruiser Veinticinco de Mayo the Argentine Navy was the first cruiser to them in Armstrong, Mitchell & Co acquired. With three new cruisers until 1896, Argentina was one of the strongest users of the so-called Elswick cruiser , before it primarily turned to the procurement of armored cruisers of the Garibaldi class from Italian production. The Veinticinco de Mayo was one of the largest for delivery in 1891 and until then fastest of the British shipyard delivered ship. It was considered an improvement on the Piemonte delivered to Italy in 1889 . In 1916 the Veinticinco de Mayo was canceled and canceled in the following years.
Building history
The Veinticinco de Mayo was of Argentina in the UK by Ambassador Luis Domínguez bought in September 1889 in Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. at a price of 260,000 pounds, when under President Miguel Juárez Celman tensions with Chile because of the design of the border treaty of 1881 increased . It was started as a speculative building by the shipyard and building number 541 in June 1888. It was offered to Chile for purchase in July 1889 but was eventually bought by a possible opponent Argentina. Apparently a smooth deck cruiser, it actually had a foredeck that reached to the front mast and a raised poop , the external impression was created by the protective walls between the side guns. It had two chimneys and two masts, which received a battle marse and made an auxiliary sails possible. With a length of 107.9 m, it was the longest ship built by the Elswick shipyard until then. The steel hull had a trained ram. Her two steam engines also delivered the highest power of an Elswick cruiser to date with 8500 hp with natural pull and gave her a top speed of 22.3 knots.
The Veinticinco de Mayo received two 210 mm L / 40 Krupp cannons as main armament, which were set up individually as a bow and rear gun behind protective shields. In addition, there were four 120 mm Armstrong cannons on each side in somewhat projecting positions, also behind protective shields. Twelve 47-mm and 37-mm rapid-fire hotchkiss cannons , which Armstrong manufactured under license, were distributed on the upper deck and eight Maxim machine guns were installed in the combat marshes of the two masts. The armament was supplemented by three torpedo tubes, which were installed above the water in the bow and on the side. Later three more torpedo tubes are said to have been installed. Initially, the ship carried two steam boats, which could also be used as torpedo boats with a tube in the bow.
The Veinticinco de Mayo had a curved armored deck up to 127 mm thick, the curvature of which was strongest between the two masts.
It was launched on May 5, 1890 under the name Necochea and was renamed Veinticinco de Mayo after the Argentine national holiday in memory of the May Revolution of 1810 before it was completed . She was the tenth ship in the Argentine Navy to bear this name. On November 24, 1890, the cruiser passed its speed tests off the mouth of the Tynes . On May 17, 1891, it was taken over by Argentina. The captain was Ceferino Ramirez , who until then had been the Argentine construction supervisory officer.
Mission history
The Veinticinco de Mayo left England on July 29, 1891 under Ceferino Ramirez with a crew of only 83 men (instead of 344), from whom it was transferred to Buenos Aires via Portland , Las Palmas , São Vicente (Cape Verde) and Rio de Janeiro , where she arrived on August 27, 1891.
On September 3, frigate captain Martín Rivadavia took command. The cruiser stayed off Buenos Aires until December and then ran fully equipped to the Patagonian coast to stop illegal trading activities there. He brought up three guano ships and a Uruguayan seal hunter and brought them to Buenos Aires as prizes.
In 1892 the cruiser returned to the Río de la Plata , took part in maneuvers of the fleet, visited Montevideo and from July 6th belonged to the squadron under Daniel de Solier , which took part in the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America in Spain should and, in addition to the Veinticinco de Mayo, consisted of the ironclad Almirante Brown and the torpedo boat destroyer Rosales . In a heavy storm, the unit was separated and the Rosales badly damaged, so that the commander decided to abandon the destroyer on July 10, 200 nautical miles from Cabo Polonio . Only one of the lifeboats reached the coast of Uruguay. 50 sailors died in the shipwreck. The circumstances of the sinking were heavily discussed in public. Because of the persistent bad weather, the reunited Veinticinco de Mayo and Almirante Brown made an unscheduled call to the Brazilian port of Bahia before reaching Cádiz via Sao Vicente (Cape Verde) on August 2nd , from where they went to Huelva on August 3rd Watching a replica of the Santa María caravel leave with an international fleet.
From there, the Argentine squadron continued to Genoa , as a planned visit to the French war port of Toulon was canceled due to an outbreak of cholera in Marseille . The Argentine ships arrived in Genoa on September 7th and the Veinticinco de Mayo went on to La Spezia , where an overhaul was taking place. On November 15, the previous chief officer Irigaray took over command of the cruiser, as the commander traveled to Newcastle upon Tyne to take over the new Elswick cruiser Nueve de Julio and via New York (participation in Columbus celebration) to Argentina to convict. The Veinticinco de Mayo began the return journey via Sao Vicente on December 7th. After meeting with the Argentinian Punta Piedras , Rio de Janeiro was visited on December 30 , before the cruiser returned to Buenos Aires on January 4, 1893.
On May 7, 1893, the frigate captain Atilio S. Barilari took command of the cruiser, who was also in command of naval training. The cruiser was not involved in the revolution of the year as it was docked in Montevideo for repairs. In 1894 he belonged to the 2nd division of the fleet. An attempt by China to acquire the ship was rejected. The financially very attractive Chinese offer at the beginning of the intensification of the conflict with Japan, which went beyond the actual construction costs, finally included both Elswick cruisers and the armored ship Almirante Brown . In 1895 the cruiser made a trip to Cape Town with the fourth year cadets , including St. Helena and Pernambuco on the return trip . In total, she covered 12,000 nm on this voyage. In December there was another change of command when the ship was in reserve in the arsenal.
In 1896 the cruiser was part of the 1st Division of the operational squadron, which also included the new cruiser Nueve de Julio , the coastal armored ship Libertad , the torpedo cannon boat Patria and the armored ship Almirante Brown . The division ran to Mar del Plata , Puerto Belgrano and up to Golfo Nuevo near Puerto Madryn on January 13th and returned to Buenos Aires on February 11th. On the way, all guns were fired, torpedo shots were trained and landings were also practiced.
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The Veinticinco de Mayo made another trip to Río de Janeiro from August 24th to October 23rd together with the Nueve de Julio , the cruiser Patagonia and the Almirante Brown . In 1897 and 1898 she was part of the school squadron and was mostly on the Rio de La Plata. In October 1898 she moved with other cruisers south to Punta Piedras . Between February and March 1899, the Veinticinco de Mayo moved to Ushuaia in order to be partially disarmed after their return. In 1900 she was re-equipped and served in the cruiser division. In 1901 she ran under frigate captain Juan Pablo Sáenz Valiente , who later became Minister of the Navy (1910 to 1916), for a hydrographic survey of Río Gallegos and the Bay of Seno de Última Esperanza , which intensified the conflict with Chile, which claimed the area for itself. The Chileans sent the cruiser Esmeralda to observe Argentine activity.
After returning from this mission, the cruiser was again active in the field of training and was partly also in the reserve. It was not until 1906 that the cruiser was fully equipped again as part of a new training department with the torpedo cruiser Patria and the coastal armored ships Libertad and Independencia , which began a voyage to Valparaíso in Chile in August . The association returned on October 20 and was dissolved in December 1906. The Veinticinco de Mayo was overhauled and continued to serve as a training ship for sailors and from 1908 for gunners. An accident occurred in 1908 that resulted in two deaths. In May and June 1909 she was involved in maneuvers in the South Atlantic and won a shooting competition held there.
In 1910 Argentina celebrated the 100th anniversary of its independence. The Navy again set up a second division, which also included the Veinticinco de Mayo , and which at the beginning of the year made a trip to Bahía San Blas , Isla Toba , Bahía del Oso Marino , Año Nuevo , Isla de los Estados , Ushuaia, Cape Horn and Puerto Madryn performed. The division then took part in the celebrations in Buenos Aires, which were attended by a number of foreign warships. After that, the cruiser stayed in the capital and served as a kind of guard ship. From 1912 onwards it was used again as a training ship and, together with the Almirante Brown, went on a cruise along the Argentine Atlantic coast in autumn 1913. From the end of the year it will serve as the basic training for newcomers for the incoming battleship Moreno .
In 1915 the cruiser made short trips on the Río de La Plata, but was mostly in the roadstead of Buenos Aires to ensure Argentina's neutrality during the First World War .
The final fate of the Veinticinco de Mayo
In 1915 the disarmament of the ship began, which in 1916 no longer made any voyages and was canceled on December 21, 1916 because the hull was in poor condition and only a service as a stationary training ship appeared possible. The used cruiser was hardly used and from 1921 only served as a coal store and was demolished until 1927.
More name bearers
The name Veinticinco de Mayo was given to two other ships of the Argentine Navy after the Elswick cruiser:
- the cruiser Veinticinco de Mayo (C-2), a scaled-down version of Italian heavy cruiser, which was in service with the Armada Argentina from 1931 to 1960 and formed a class with its sister ship Almirante Brown (C-1);
- the aircraft carrier Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2), the former Dutch Karel Doorman , or British Venerable of the Colossus class (1943) , which was in service with the Armada Argentina from 1969 to 1999.
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 .
- John Evelyn Moore: Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I. Military Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-517-03375-5 .
Web links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ironclad Almirante Brown , 1880 Samuda Brothers , 4300 ts, 14 kn
- ↑ Torpedo boat destroyer Rosales , 1889 Laird , 590 ts, 19.5 kn
- ^ Coastal armored ship Libertad , 1890 Laird, 2336 ts, 11 kn
- ↑ Torpedo cannon boat Patria , 1893 Laird, 1070 ts, 20.5 knots, similar to British Dryad class, replacement of the sunken Rosales
- ↑ Cruiser Patagonia , 1885 STTriest , 1442 ts, 14 kn
- ^ Coastal armored ship Independencia , 1890 Laird, 2336 ts, 11 kn