Bahia was the lead ship of a two-vessel class of cruisers built for Brazil by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. Crewmen mutinied in November 1910 aboard Bahia, , , and , beginning the four-day (Revolt of the Lash). Brazil's capital city of Rio de Janeiro was held hostage by the possibility of a naval bombardment, leading the government to give in to the rebel demands which included the abolition of flogging in the navy. During the First World War, Bahia and its sister ship were assigned to the (Naval Division in War Operations), the Brazilian Navy's main contribution in that conflict. The squadron was based in Sierra Leone and Dakar and escorted convoys through an area believed to be heavily patrolled by U-boats.
Bahia was extensively modernized in the mid-1920s. It received three new Brown–Curtis turbine engines and six new Thornycroft boilers, and it was converted from coal-burning to oil. The refit resulted in a striking aesthetic change, with the exhaust being trunked into three funnels instead of two. The armament was also modified, adding three Madsen autocannons, a Hotchkiss machine gun, and four torpedo tubes. In the 1930s, it served with government forces during multiple revolutions.
In the Second World War, Bahia was once again used as a convoy escort, sailing over in the span of about a year. On 4 July 1945, it was acting as a plane guard for transport aircraft flying from the Atlantic to Pacific theaters of war. Bahias gunners were firing at a kite for anti-aircraft practice when one aimed too low and hit depth charges stored near the stern of the ship, resulting in a massive explosion that incapacitated the ship and sank it within minutes. Only a few of the crew survived the blast, and fewer still were alive when their rafts were discovered days later.
Construction and commissioning
Bahia was part of a large 1904 naval building program by Brazil."Cruzador Bahia – C 12/C 2 " , Navios de Guerra Brasileiros. Retrieved 8 November 2012.Scheina, "Brazil," 403. Also planned as part of this were the two dreadnoughts, ten destroyers, three submarines and a submarine tender.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 37. With a design that borrowed heavily from the British scout cruisers,Scheina, "Brazil," 405. Bahias keel was laid on 19 August 1907 in Armstrong Whitworth's Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne yard.R.B. Haworth, "6103832 [Bahia]" (subscription required), Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 19 October 2009. Construction took about a year and a half, and she was launched on 20 January 1909 with Madame Altino Correia being the sponsor on behalf of Madame Dr. Araugo Pinho. The process of fitting out pushed its completion date to 2 March 1910, after which it sailed to Brazil and arrived in Recife on 6 May."Bahia (3°)" , Histórico de Navios; Serviço de Documentação da Marinha, Marinha do Brasil. Retrieved 27 January 2015. The new cruiser—the third ship of the Brazilian Navy to honor the state of Bahia—was commissioned into the navy shortly thereafter on 21 May 1910. As a class, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were the fastest cruisers in the world when they were commissioned, and the first in the Brazilian Navy to utilize steam turbines for propulsion.
Mutiny
Brazil's economy was suffering from a severe recession at the same time Bahia was commissioned.Smallman, Fear & Memory, 28. This economic hardship, the racism prevalent in all branches of the Brazilian armed forces, and the severe discipline enforced on all navy ships, spawned a mutiny known as the (Revolt of the Lash) among sailors on the most powerful ships.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 74.
Unhappy with the violent treatment they were receiving, black sailors on the dreadnought battleship began planning an uprising early in 1910, choosing João Cândido—an experienced sailor later known as the "Black Admiral"—as their leader. In mid-November, a sailor was sentenced to be flogged in front of his fellow sailors, even though the practice had been banned by law. The punishment was administered and continued even after the sailor fainted, infuriating the nascent mutineers. Although they were not ready and could not revolt immediately, they quickened their preparations and rebelled on 21 November, earlier than originally planned. They killed several officers and the captain of Minas Geraes, while other officers were forced off the ship. The revolt quickly expanded to the battleship , the elderly coastal defense ship , and Bahia. While joining the revolt, the crew of the scout cruiser murdered one of their officers. During this time, discipline on the rebelling ships was not relaxed; daily drills were conducted and Felisberto ordered all liquor to be thrown overboard.
The crews of the torpedo boats remained loyal to the government, and army troops moved to the presidential palace and the coastline, but neither group could stop the mutineers. The fact that many who manned Rio de Janeiro's harbor defenses were sympathetic to the mutineers' cause, coupled with chance that the capital might be bombarded by the mutinous ships, forced the National Congress of Brazil to give in to the rebels' demands. These included the abolition of flogging, improved living conditions, and the granting of amnesty to all mutineers. The government also issued official pardons and a statement of regret; its submission resulted in the rebellion's end on 26 November, when control of the four ships was handed back to the navy.
First World War
In the opening years of the First World War, the Brazilian Navy was sent out to patrol the South Atlantic with French, British and American naval units, although its ships were not supposed to engage any threat outside territorial waters as Brazil was not at war with the Central Powers.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 35, 37–38. The country also tried to ensure that it remained totally neutral; Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul were sent to Santos in August 1914 to enforce neutrality laws when it was reported that the German raider was lying in wait off that port for British and American merchant ships."Warships off Argentina," The New York Times, 7 August 1914, 7. Brazil joined the Entente and declared war on the Central Powers on 26 October 1917.
On 21 December 1917, the Brazilian Navy—at the behest of the British—formed a small naval force with the intent of sending it to the other side of the Atlantic.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 38. On 30 January 1918, Bahia was made the flagship of the newly organized (Naval Division in War Operations, abbreviated as DNOG), under the command of Rear Admiral Pedro de Frontin. The other ships assigned to the squadron were Bahias sister Rio Grande do Sul, destroyers , , and , tender , and tugboat Laurindo Pita.
The DNOG sailed for the British colony of Sierra Leone on 31 July. Since other allied countries helped with logistics, little was provided by Brazil aside from the ships themselves and the men crewing them. Despite the threat of a U-boat attack, they were forced to stop several times so Belmonte could transfer necessities such as coal and water to the other ships. They reached Freetown safely on 9 August and remained in the port until 23 August when they departed for Dakar. While on this section of the voyage, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio Grande do Norte, Belmonte and Laurindo Pita spotted an apparent torpedo heading for Belmonte, but it missed. Rio Grande do Norte then fired several shots and depth-charged what the force believed to be a U-boat.Scheina, Latin Americas Wars, 39. While the official Brazilian history of the ship definitively claims to have sunk a submarine, author Robert Scheina notes that this action was never confirmed, and works published about U-boat losses in the war do not agree.Scheina, Latin America's Wars, 396. During the so-called Battle of the Porpoises the cruiser killed several porpoises it mistook for an U-boat.Daróz Carlos Roberto Carvalho. O Brasil Na Primeira Guerra Mundial : A Longa Travessia. São Paulo: Editora Contexto; 2016.
After arriving in Dakar on 26 August, the DNOG was tasked with patrolling a triangle with corners at Dakar, Cape Verde and Gibraltar; the Allies believed that this area was rife with U-boats waiting for convoys to pass through. As such, the Brazilian unit's mission was to patrol for mines laid by German minelaying submarines and to make sure that convoys passing through would be safe. Complications arose when both Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul had problems with their condensers, a matter which was made much worse by the hot, tropical climate in which the ships were serving.
In early September, the squadron was struck by the Spanish flu pandemic. The contagion began aboard Bahia, spread to the other ships of the squadron and remained present for seven weeks. At one point, 95% of some of the ships' crews were infected; 103 died overseas, and 250 died in Brazil after returning there. On 3 November, Bahia, three of the four destroyers, and the tugboat were sent to Gibraltar for operations in the Mediterranean Sea. They arrived on 9 or 10 November,"Israel ," Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History & Heritage Command/Navy Department. escorted by the American destroyer , but the fighting ceased on the 11th when the Armistice with Germany was signed. Sometime in early 1919, Bahia, accompanied by four destroyers, voyaged to Portsmouth, England; they then traveled across the English Channel to Cherbourg, arriving there on 15 February."Brazilian Warships at Cherbourg," The New York Times, 16 February 1919, 23. The commander of the squadron, Admiral Pedro de Frontin, met with the Maritime Prefect prior to the commencement of "social events"; these lasted until 23 February, when the ships moved to Toulon and de Frontin journeyed overland to Paris. The DNOG was dissolved on 25 August 1919.
Modernization and inter-war years
In 1925–26, Bahia underwent significant modernization. The original five turbines were replaced by three Brown–Curtis turbines, while the original ten boilers were replaced by six Thornycroft oil-burning boilers, which necessitated the addition of a third funnel. The former coal bunkers, along with some of the space freed up by the decrease in boilers, were converted to hold of oil. These modifications resulted in Bahias top speed increasing to . All of the boats on board were replaced, and three Madsen guns, a Hotchkiss machine gun, and four torpedo tubes were added to give the ship a defense against aircraft and more power against surface ships, respectively. Still, in 1930 The New York Times labeled Bahia and the other warships in Brazil's navy as "obsolete" and noted that nearly all were "older than the ages considered effective by powers signatory to the Washington and London Naval Treaties.""Brazil Navy Composed of 28 Obsolete Ships," The New York Times, 7 October 1930, 3.