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Bahia-class cruiser built for the Brazilian Navy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rio Grande do Sul was a Bahia-class cruiser built for the Brazilian Navy in 1909–10.
![]() Rio Grande do Sul sometime after its mid-1920s modernization, as indicated by the third funnel.[1] | |
History | |
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Name | Rio Grande Do Sul |
Namesake | The Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul |
Builder | Armstrong Whitworth[1] |
Yard number | 810[2] |
Laid down | 30 August 1907 |
Launched | 20 April 1909 |
Commissioned | 14 May 1910 |
Decommissioned | 1948 |
Fate | Scrapped |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Bahia-class cruiser |
Displacement | 3,100 tonnes (3,050 long tons; 3,420 short tons)[1][3] |
Length | |
Beam | 11.89–11.91 m (39.0–39.1 ft)[3] |
Draft | |
Propulsion |
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Speed | |
Endurance | |
Complement | 320[4] to 357[3] |
Armament |
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Armor |
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Notes | Specifications given are prior to the 1925–26 modernization. |
Rio Grande do Sul was part of a large 1904 naval building program by Brazil.[5][6] Also planned as part of this were the two Minas Geraes-class dreadnoughts, ten Pará-class destroyers, three submarines and a submarine tender.[6][7] With a design that borrowed heavily from the British Adventure-class scout cruisers,[1] Rio Grande do Sul's keel was laid in 1907 in Armstrong Whitworth's Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne yard.[1] Construction took about a year and a half, and she was launched on 20 April 1909 with Madame A. M. Gomez Ferraz being the sponsor on behalf of Her Excellency Senhora Dr. Carlos Barbosa.[8] As a class, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were the fastest cruisers in the world when they were commissioned,[1] and the first in the Brazilian Navy to utilize steam turbines for propulsion.[3]