Armada de Chile: Protected Cruiser built 1881-84, sold to Japan 1894 The Chilean cruiser Esmeralda is certainly less famous for its short service of ten years in the Chilean Navy and more as a major prototype, the world’s first protected cruiser as recoignized by most naval historians. This cruiser type introduced a new type of … Read more
Peruvian Unprotected Cruiser (1880) Armada do Peru (1880-1937): Lima (Socrates), Callao (Diogenes)* Lima was the lead ship a planned two-ship unprotected cruisers class of the Armada do Peru (Peruvian Navy) but she ended its sole member as her sister was old to Japan and ended in the USN. Original name was Socrates. She was laid … Read more
Armada de Chile – ACS O’Higgins, Capitan Prat 1951-1983/91 The O’Higgins class cruisers were the former USS Brookyn (lead class vessel) and USS Nashville, sold to Chile under MDAP in January 1951 and in service until the 1980s. They answered similar acquisition the same year by Brazil (Barroso) and Argentina with the Belgrano class, of … Read more
Armada de Chile – Armoured Cruiser, 1894-1958 CNS O’Higgins, was Chile’s largest cruiser before the cold war. The thunderstuck of Argentina ordering two Italian armored cruisers at the last minute stunned the Chileans, which ordered in turn by April 1896 to Vickers Armstrong Yard a cruiser specifically tailored to answer the Italian ships. She was … Read more
Armada de Chile – 1894-96 CNS Ministro Zenteno (1894). Another landmark of the Chile-Argentina naval arms race. Before even Argentina ordered by surprise the first two Garibaldi class armoured cruisers, Chile obtained also by surprise in 1895 yet another protected cruiser from Vickers Armstrong Yards. After 21 de Mayo, 9 de Julio, Blanco Encalada and … Read more
Chile (1892-1938) Concluding this month with the Chile-Argentina naval arms race's Chilean answer: Blanco Encalada. She was, like Esmeralda, a British-built protected cruiser made to answer to the Nueve de Julio and Venteicinco de Mayo. Based on the Yoshino design, she was far better armed than the Argentinian cruisers, with no less than two 8-in … Read more
Armada de Chile (1889-1942): Pdt. Errazuriz, Pdt. Pinto The Presidente Pinto (Or Errazuriz class) were two protected cruisers ordered in 1887 along a battleship under a naval program by President Balmaceda of Chile, to FCM (La Seyne Yard, Toulon). They were under completion during the civil war in Chile between the loyalists and the Iquique … Read more
Battleship Capitán Prat Armada de Chile (1889-1942) The first modern Chilean Ironclad: Capitán Prat was one of the reasons behind the Chile-Argentina 1890s naval arms race. Built in France in 1889-91, this first steel-hulled ironclad of the Chilean Navy was also the world’s first battleship equipped with an electrical system. Typical of French battleships of … Read more
Armada de Chile – 1897-1902 The longest-living cruiser of South America Chacabuco was a 1890s British-designed protected cruiser by Philip Watts at Elswick in 1897, and a sister shp to the Japanese Takasago. She was modernized during WW2 and had a fairly long career until 1952. In fact she was still around in 1959, pending … Read more
Armada de Chile – 1895-1930 The largest Chilean cruiser of WW1: Esmeralda – The previous Cruiser Esmeralda, a 1884 British-built ship was soled to Japan on 5 february 1895 to Japan, and became the Izumi, participating to the Battle of Tushima. Before that, in 1891, the Chilean admiralty was embroiled into a vivid naval rivalry … Read more
