NAeL Minas Gerais
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NAeL[1] Minas Gerais is a former aircraft carrier of the Brazilian Navy.
She started out as HMS Vengeance, a Colossus-class vessel built by the United Kingdom during World War II. She was purchased by Brazil in 1956 for USD $9 million, and named after Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek's home state of Minas Gerais. He apparently made this decision as part of an effort to appease the Brazilian military (mainly from Navy and Air Force), although this was only one of many extravagant projects Kubitschek carried out (such as the establishment of the city of Brasília).
In her service years, due to jurisdiction problems with the Brazilian Air Force, the Navy could not operate fixed-wing aircraft and the S-2 Trackers were operated by the Air Force on behalf of the Navy. Nevertheless, Navy was able to fly helicopters.
The Argentine Navy used her to qualify and train naval aviators after her sister ship ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was confined to port due to engine problems.
She served for 42 years in the and was replaced by NAe São Paulo in 2000. Due to the high maintenance cost of two aircraft carriers and also the fact that she had capacity for just 12 modern jets[2], she was offered to the Argentine Navy but was rejected due to her poor condition and high restoration and maintenance costs. Downgraded to a helicopter support ship in 2001, she was finally decommissioned from the Brazilian Navy on 16 October 2001; she had been the final Colossus-class carrier in commission anywhere in the world.
In 2002 the 58 year old ship was auctioned, during the auction the Brazilian Navy received 12 offers from buyers, 9 of which wanted to scrap the ship immediately, asthe ship contained over 16 thousand tonnes of high quality steel. In the end on July 22 she was sold for USD $2 million to HK Jiexin Shipping, a Hong Kong company. The company claimed it would anchor her in Zhoushan, China, near Shanghai and convert her into a museum ship with shops and a bar.[3] However in October 2003, the bid was rescinded, and the Minas Gerais was set to be scrapped.
In 2002 a campaign under the name Save the Vengeance was started to acquire her as a museum ship, but was unable to secure funding.
The ship between 2002 and 2004 remained docked on Rio de Janeiro. She was finally towed from Brazil in February 2004 to Alang, India, where the ship Minas Gerais was broken up for scrap between the years 2004 and 2005.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Navio-Aeródromo Ligeiro, "Light Aircraft Carrier".
- ^ ISTOÉ Dinheiro
- ^ ISTOÉ Dinheiro
- ^ Minas Gerais
[edit] External links
- HMS Vengeance website - photos of transport and breakup
- Friends of HMS Vengeance Campaign
- NAeL Minas Gerais on Google Maps, when approaching the beaches at Alang, Gujarat, India to be scrapped
- The 'Vengeance' acquisition (Portuguese version only)
- NAeL Minas Gerais - Poder Naval OnLine (Portuguese version only)
