Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre

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The Almirante Latorre (named after the Chilean Juan José Latorre Benavente) was a battleship which served with the Chilean Navy from after World War I through World War II into the late 1950s.

The Latorre was ordered from and built by the British shipyard of Armstrong Whitworth to a design of Armstrongs Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt. At the outbreak of World War I she was purchased by the British for service in the Royal Navy and completed as HMS Canada. Her sister ship the Almirante Cochrane was less far forward in construction, and was purchased at a lesser price in 1917 to be converted into an aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle. After the war, Latorre was delivered to Chile in 1921 for a price of one million pounds (about half her original cost) after refitting. Eagle was not repurchased. Latorre was well maintained in Chilean service, and after the outbreak of World War II, she even tendered an offer from the United States to purchase her. The offer was declined however.

Lack of modernization resulted in the range of the main batteries being poor, and her armor only gave protection roughly equivalent to World War II battlecruisers. Despite this, she was respected internationally, partially due to the reputation of the Chilean Navy.

She was the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland afloat, until scrapped in Japan in 1958.

[edit] Specifications

Built at Elswick, by Armstrong-Whitworth.

Laid down: November, 1911
Launched: November, 1913
Completed: September, 1915.

Displacement: 25,000 tons standard; about 32,000 tons fully loaded.
Length: 625 feet
beam: 92 feet 6 inch
draught: 33 feet maximum.
Armament:
- Ten 14 inch guns in 5 turrets
- Twelve 6 inch guns,
- Two 3 inch anti-aircraft guns,
- Four 3 pounder guns
- Four 21 inch Torpedo tubes (submerged).
Machinery:
- 21 Yarrow boilers.
- Low pressure Parsons and High pressure Brown-Curtis turbines.
- Fuel: coal and oil.
Performance:
- Power: 37,000 shp (39,247 shp during trials)
- Speed: 22.75 kt.