Deodoro-class coastal defense ship
The Deodoro class were two French-designed and built coastal defense battleships built for the Brazilian Navy in the late 1890s. Upon their completion, Scientific American called them small vessels of a type "built only for second-rate naval powers," but also noted that it was a "wonder" that "so much armor and armament could be carried" on a ship of its size.[1] Still, they were the only modern armored Brazilian warships from their commissioning until the arrival of two dreadnoughts in 1910.[2]
Class overview | |
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Name: | Deodoro class |
Builders: | Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne, France |
Operators: |
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Preceded by: | Javary class |
Succeeded by: | None |
Built: | 1898-1899 |
In service: | 1900-1936 |
Completed: | 2 |
Retired: | 2 |
General characteristics | |
Type: | Coastal defence battleship |
Displacement: | 3,162 tons standard |
Length: | 81.5 meters |
Beam: | 14.4 meters |
Draught: | 4.19 meters |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 15 knots (28 km/h) |
Complement: | 200 |
Armament: |
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Armour: |
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Notes: | In 1912 both vessels were modernized with 8 Babcock & Wilcox oil-firing boilers replacing the coal-fired boilers. 400t of oil were carried. |
The ships had a low freeboard and long superstructures with single-gun main turrets arranged at each end. Their secondary batteries were also mounted at each end of the superstructure, albeit in casemates in each corner. All used British Armstrong guns.[3]
In 1912, both ships were overhauled with new propulsion and armament.[2] In 1924, Brazil sold Marshal Deodoro to the Mexican Navy.[4] She served for another 14 years, primarily as a training vessel.
Deodoro-class coast-defense ships
References
- "The New Brazilian Armorclad 'Marshal Deodoro'". Scientific American. 82 (12): 184. 24 March 1900.
- Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 407. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. OCLC 12119866.
- Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene, eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 403–04. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4. OCLC 4775646.
- The New International Year Book. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1925. p. 505.