The Brazilian Navy is the naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval operations.
The New Orleans class of protected cruisers of the United States Navy consisted of two ships which were building for the Brazilian Navy at Elswick, near Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, by Armstrong Whitworth. The Brazilian Navy had ordered four Elswick cruisers, but had already sold the first ship during construction to Chile as Ministro Zenteno. One ship was delivered to Brazil, named Almirante Barroso. The third ship was fitting out as Amazonas, and the fourth was on order as Almirante Abreu.
São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship of the Brazilian Navy. It was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo.
Aquidabã, anglicized to Aquidaban, was a Brazilian ironclad battleship built in the mid-1880s. The ship participated in two naval revolts; during the second she was sunk by a government torpedo boat. After being refloated, Aquidabã was sent to (Germany) for repairs and modernization. During a routine cruise in 1906, the ship's ammunition magazines exploded, which caused the vessel to sink rapidly with a great loss of life.
The Bahia class was a pair of scout cruisers built for Brazil by Armstrong Whitworth in the United Kingdom, based on a design that borrowed heavily from the British Adventure-class scout cruisers. The class comprised the lead ship Bahia and her sister Rio Grande do Sul, along with a canceled third ship, Ceara. Both were named after states of Brazil. As a class, they were the fastest cruisers in the world when commissioned, and the first in the Brazilian Navy to use steam turbines for propulsion.
The Brazilian ironclad Tamandaré was an armored gunboat built for the Imperial Brazilian Navy during the Paraguayan War in the mid-1860s. She bombarded the Paraguayan fortifications blocking access up the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers as well as bombarding Paraguayan positions in support of the Imperial Brazilian Army. The ship participated in the Passage of Humaitá in February 1868 and was badly damaged. After Tamandaré was repaired she provided fire support for the army for the rest of the war, aside from bombarding Paraguayan capital of Asunción once. The ship was assigned to the Mato Grosso Flotilla after the war. Tamandaré was decommissioned in 1879 and scrapped afterwards.
Almirante Tamandaré was a protected cruiser operated by the Brazilian Navy from 1897 to 1915. The construction of the cruiser was the result of Brazil's effort to develop a large steel ship, but the country had no experience with this type of ship, and the project resulted in an unreliable vessel.
The Brazilian ironclad Sete de Setembro was a wooden-hulled armored frigate built for the Imperial Brazilian Navy during the Paraguayan War in the late 1860s. Construction was delayed by a debate over her armament and she was not completed until 1874, by which time the ship was essentially obsolete. Sete de Setembro was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in the 1880s and captured by the rebels during the Fleet Revolt of 1893–94. She sank after she caught fire when the government forces recaptured her in late 1893.
The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships designed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the Chilean Navy. They were intended to be Chile's entries to the South American dreadnought race, but both were purchased by the Royal Navy prior to completion for use in the First World War. Only one, Almirante Latorre (HMS Canada), was finished as a battleship; Almirante Cochrane (HMS Eagle), was converted to an aircraft carrier. Under their Chilean names, they honored Admirals (Almirantes) Juan José Latorre and Thomas Cochrane; they took their British names from what was then a dominion of Canada and a traditional ship name in the Royal Navy.
Two Minas Geraes-class battleships were built for the Brazilian Navy in the early twentieth century. Named Minas Geraes and São Paulo, these "dreadnought" warships were intended to be Brazil's first step towards becoming an international power, and they consequently initiated a South American naval arms race.
ARA Almirante Brown was a central battery ironclad of the Argentine Navy built in the 1880s by Samuda Brothers in London. Almirante Brown displaced 4,200 long tons (4,300 t) and had a top speed of 14 knots. The ship was protected by a belt of nine-inch (230 mm) steel-faced armor and she carried a main battery of eight breech-loading guns. She was among the first major warships in the world to use steel armor, and remained the largest vessel in the Argentine fleet for over 15 years. Almirante Brown had a peaceful career in the fleet during the 1880s and 1890s. By the 1920s, she was reduced to a coastal defense ship, and remained in service until the early 1930s. She was stricken from the naval register in November 1932 and sold for scrapping.
A naval arms race among Argentina, Brazil, and Chile—the wealthiest and most powerful countries in South America—began in the early twentieth century when the Brazilian government ordered three dreadnoughts, formidable battleships whose capabilities far outstripped older vessels in the world's navies.
O'Higgins was a Chilean armoured cruiser. O'Higgins was built by the British shipbuilder Armstrong to the design of Philip Watts, and served with the Chilean Navy between 1898 and 1933.
The Furor class was a type of destroyers of the Spanish Navy, similar to the units of the A class, or 27 knotters, of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1896 by the then Minister of the Navy Admiral Beranger after the success of the design by Fernando Villaamil of the warship Destructor, which had given name to a whole typology of vessels.
Tymbira was a torpedo cruiser operated by the Brazilian Navy, belonging to the Tupi-class along with Tamoio and Tupi. During the First World War it patrolled the Brazilian coast. It was dismissed from service on 30 November 1917.
Benjamin Constant was a training ship that belonged to the Benjamin Constant-class of the Brazilian Navy. It was the first ship in the Navy to be named after Brazilian military officer Benjamin Constant and the first to be designed as a purpose-built training ship. Built in 1891 and launched in 1892, it had a 32-year long career, making dozens of instruction trips, and also securing Brazilian possession of Trindade Island. It had the nicknames "Garça Branca" and "Beijoca" (Smack). The ship was discharged from service on 22 February 1926. Its hull was destroyed by a fire in 1938. It was dismantled in 1949.
Tamoio was a torpedo cruiser operated by the Brazilian Navy, belonging to the Tupi class along with Tupi and Tymbira. The vessel was one of three from the so-called "White Division", on a mission to transport Brazilian president Campos Sales to Argentina in 1900. The ship was decommissioned in 1916.
Solimões was an armored monitor operated by the Imperial Brazilian Navy. The warship was built at the French shipyard Forges et chantiers de la Méditrranée and launched to sea in 1875, being commissioned on April 23 of that year. She was the most powerful ship of the navy at the time of her incorporation. Solimões had four 254-millimeter (10.0 in) cannons and armor reaching up to 305 millimeters (12.0 in) on the gun turrets. The ship was expected to have good navigation capabilities on the high seas, but had little agility in maneuvering and could not operate in rough seas due to her low side. These characteristics forced the ship to always sail close to shore. The Solimões was part of the Evolution Fleet in 1884, composed of the best ships in the fleet.
Almirante Barroso was a cruiser operated by the Imperial Brazilian Navy and later the Brazilian Navy from 1882 to 1893. Its name is a tribute to Brazilian admiral Francisco Manuel Barroso da Silva, the Baron of Amazonas. Its construction began in 1880 at the Rio de Janeiro Navy Arsenal, being launched into the sea in 1882. The ship was a demonstration of the potential of the Brazilian naval industry at the time, built with a combination of wood and steel.
Iniciadora was a gunboat operated by the Imperial Brazilian Navy, later the Brazilian Navy after 1889. The gunboat was the first Brazilian experiment in building iron-hulled warships. The design, by naval engineer João Cândido Brazil, was based on the plans for the British gunboats HMS Medina and HMS Medway. After her incorporation in 1885, she was sent to the Mato Grosso Flotilla. In February 1892, she was initially involved in the separatist insurrection in the state of Mato Grosso on the rebels' side, but the crew surrendered to the loyalists in May of the same year. She was retired in 1907.
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