The ARA Ships: 1862-75

In the period 1859-62, the navies of the main powers began to incorporate armored ships, while naval artillery was progressively increased in caliber and power to be able to penetrate the wrought iron plates that protected the vital parts of these ships. At the outbreak of the Paraguayan War, the ARA only had 19 ships, few of which were steamships. The largest of these was the Guardia Nacional, a 520-ton side-wheel passenger ship. In fact, the ARA did not have purpose-built warships, but packages (correillos) and river vessels armed with a few antiquated cannons and totally devoid of any protection. The only units of any importance acquired in these years were side-wheel steamships, such as the Colonel Espora (552 tons.) and the Colonel Rosetti (772 tons.) These were joined in mid-1867 by General Brown, but these ships like other ships in the fleet, mere passenger ships armed with few cannons and without the slightest protection. (1)

In comparison, the Brazilian navy, which at that time was the largest in Latin America, had 45 warships, of which 35 were steam-powered, and had incorporated 14 armored ships of various designs, including several of the type Monitor. The ARA would not possess true warships until the 1870s, when the National Congress appropriated $2.6 million for a modest naval re-equipment program. The vessels provided under this program were the monitors
the Andes and El Plata, the corvette-gunboats Paraná and Uruguay, as well as four bombers, and a couple of warning ships. These ships, collectively called “La Escuadra de Sarmiento” arrived in the country during 1874-75 and were the first to be specifically designed to meet the conditions required by the ARA: that is, river vessels for service in the tributaries of the Río de la Plata at a time when a war against Brazil seemed imminent. When Sarmiento was Argentine minister in Washington, shortly after the civil war in that country ended, the man from San Juan followed with great interest the introduction of new military equipment and materials. His keen intellect was attracted to the use of “floating torpedoes”, as anti-ship mines were called in those days. These “floating torpedoes” had been used with excellent results by the Confederate States in their efforts to counteract the blockade of their port and coasts by Union ships. We should not be surprised by the fact that when Sarmiento assumed the presidency of the Republic Argentina, the ARA hired several former Confederate naval officers to lead the ARA Torpedo Division. This navy unit was established in the place where the Naval Museum of the Nation is today, on the Lujan River, in the Paraná Delta (2)

The Torpedo Division consisted of the ARA Fulminante, an explosives and torpedo depot ship, as well as several steam launches equipped with boom torpedoes. The Argentine naval strategy of those times gave capital importance to the possibility of a naval attack by Brazil. Monitors and shallow-draft river vessels could operate without difficulties in the rivers of the Plata Basin, while the channels leading to Buenos Aires would be protected by a network of “floating torpedoes” and the canyons of Martín García Island ( 3).

Photographs

1) Monitor ARA El Plata c. 1890-note the sailors on deck and a Gatling gun in artillery carriage, which as in the U.S. Navy and other navies of that time it was used to repel torpedo boats or as a support weapon for landing troops. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch

2) ARA Los Andes Monitor, 1905-note one of the two 120 mm Armstrong guns installed in the 1890s. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch. The ship seen in the background is an ARA lightship.

3) Monitors ARA Los Andes and ARA El Plata at the Río Santiago Naval Base c. 1900-1901. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch

3) ARA Uruguay-painting that shows her on her trip to the South Pole, 1903
Observe in photos no.1 and no.2 the excellent state of maintenance of these ships

Monitor: Los Andes, El Plata
Displacement: 1,677 tons
Length: 56.6 m
Beam: 13.4 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Artillery (original) 2 x 280 mm Armstrong mounted on the armored tower
2 x 47mm Armstrong on deck
4 x 37mm Hotchkiss
Armor: 160 mm belt
Main Tower: 255 mm
Machines: 2 x 750 Hp
Compound system, two propellers.
Coal: 120 tons
Maximum speed: 10 knots, service speed 9 knots

Corvette Gunship Paraná, Uruguay
Displacement: 550 tons
Length: 46.3 m
Beam: 7.63 m
Draft: 3.20m
Armament (original)
4 x 177 Armstrong mounted on Vavasseur iron gun carriages.
Machines: 1 x 475 Compund that powered
A Bevis type propeller
Speed: (sail and steam) 11 knots

Bomber ships Bermejo, Constitución, Pilcomayo, República
Displacement: 416 tons
Length: 32.3 m
Beam: 9.19 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Armament: 1 x 280 mm Armstrong in center line, 2 x 80 mm Armstrong
Maximum speed: 9 knots. (4)

Notes

1) Burzio, Armada Nacional.,pag.99-100, Rauch, op cit, pag.116-117
2) Burzio Armada Nacional, pag.100, Rauch, op cit, pag.117-118
3) Burzio, Humberto H, Historia del Torpedo y sus buques en la Armada Argentina (Departamento de Estudios Históricos Navales, Serie B, No. 12 (Buenos Aires, 1968) pag.19-24,80-89, Rauch , op cit, pag.120-129
4) Las características de estos buques provienen en conjunto de Burzio, Armada Nacional, pg.100, y Arguindeguy, Apuntes Sobre los Buques, III: 1122-131, 1238-1245.