ARA Nueve de Julio (1892)
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| Career (Argentina) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nueve de Julio |
| Builder: | Armstrong/Elswick |
| Launched: | 1892 |
| Completed: | 1893 |
| Fate: | Discarded 1930 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | protected cruiser |
| Displacement: | 3600 tons |
| Length: | 354 ft (107.9 m) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13.4 m) |
| Draft: | 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2-shaft VTE, 14,500 ihp (10,800 kW), 8 cylindrical boilers, 350 to 750 tons coal |
| Speed: | 22.25 knots (25.60 mph; 41.21 km/h) |
| Complement: | 327 |
| Armament: | 4 × 6 in (150 mm) QF guns 8 × 4.7 in (120 mm) QF guns |
| Armour: | protected deck 4.5-3.5 in. slopes, 3.5-1.75 in. flat areas; glacis over engines 5 in., shields 2 in., CT 4 in. |
Nueve de Julio was a protected cruiser of the Argentine Navy. Nueve de Julio was designed by Philip Watts and was one of a series of fast protected cruisers built by Armstrong (Elswick, England) for export.[1] The ship was a second-class protected cruiser with quick-firing guns, in contrast to Argentina’s previous “Elswick” ship Veinticinco de Mayo which on a similar size hull mounted 8.2in main guns. Nueve de Julio was therefore similar to its predecessor Piemonte built for Italy, the first cruiser with an all-quick firing armament, and the following Elswick cruiser Yoshino built for Japan, which was the fastest ship in the First Sino-Japanese War and performed well in action. Nueve de Julio had a double bottom except in the boiler and engine rooms (where the hull was not deep enough) and the protective deck had a raised glacis over the engines. Originally the torpedo tubes would have been 14 in., the substitution of the larger type delayed construction.[1] Argentina and its rival Chile purchased a series of cruisers in a local naval arms race from the 1890s to 1902, in which Armstrong of Elswick sold ships to both sides, and Brazil too. Fortunately, there was never a conflict (geography would have made it difficult for either side to sustain a naval campaign along the opposing coastline beyond the tip of South America, or for that matter launch a land war across the mountains) and the warships were eventually retired and scrapped (Nueve de Julio in 1930).