The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships designed and constructed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the Chilean Navy.
The ships, which resembled the Royal Navy's Iron Duke class, were intended to be Chile's entries to the South American dreadnought race. However, both were purchased by the Royal Navy prior to completion for use in the First World War. Only one, (), was finished as a battleship; (), was converted to an aircraft carrier. Under their Chilean names, they honored Admirals (Almirantes) Juan José Latorre and Thomas Cochrane; they took their British names from what was then a dominion of Canada and a traditional ship name in the Royal Navy.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Chile was engaged in an intense naval competition with its neighbor Argentina. This ended peacefully in 1902, but less than a decade later Argentina responded to Brazil's order for two dreadnoughts with two of its own. The Chilean congress responded by allocating money for its own dreadnoughts, which were ordered from the United Kingdom despite a strong push from the American government for the contracts, probably due to Chile's traditionally strong ties with the British.
Almirante Latorre, which was closer to completion than its sister, was bought in 1914 and commissioned into British service as HMS Canada in October 1915. The ship spent its wartime service with the Grand Fleet, seeing action in the Battle of Jutland. After the war, HMS Canada was put into reserve before being sold back to Chile in 1920 as Almirante Latorre. The crew of the battleship instigated a naval mutiny in 1931. After several years of inactivity, the ship underwent a major refit in the United Kingdom in 1937, later allowing it to patrol Chile's coast during the Second World War. After a boiler room fire and a short stint as a prison ship, Almirante Latorre was scrapped in 1959. After Almirante Cochrane was purchased by the British in 1918, it was decided to convert the ship into an aircraft carrier. After numerous delays, Almirante Cochrane was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Eagle in February 1924. It served in the Mediterranean Fleet and on the China Station in the inter-war period, and operated in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during the Second World War before being sunk in August 1942 during Operation Pedestal.
Background
Argentine–Chilean boundary dispute
Conflicting Argentine and Chilean claims to Patagonia, a geographic region in the southernmost portion of South America, went back to the 1840s. In 1872 and again in 1878, Chilean warships seized merchant ships which had been licensed to operate in the disputed area by Argentina. An Argentine warship did the same to an American ship in 1877. These actions nearly led to war in November 1878, when Argentina dispatched a squadron of warships to the Santa Cruz River. Chile responded with the same, and war was only avoided when the Fierro–Sarratea treaty was hastily signed. Both countries were distracted in the next few years by Argentina's internal military operations against the indigenous population and Chile's War of the Pacific (Guerra del Pacífico) against Bolivia and Peru, but by 1890 a full-fledged naval arms race was underway between the two.Scheina, Naval History, 45–46.Garrett, "Beagle Channel," 85–87.
Both sides began ordering warships from the United Kingdom. Chile added £3,129,500 in 1887 to the budget for its fleet, which was centered on two 1870s central battery ironclads, and , and a protected cruiser. The battleship , two protected cruisers, and two torpedo boats were ordered, and their keels were laid in 1890. Argentina responded soon after with an order for two battleships, and . The race continued through the 1890s, even after the Chilean Civil War of 1891. The two countries alternated cruiser orders between 1890 and 1895, each ship marking a small increase in capabilities from the ship previous. The Argentines upped the ante in July 1895 by buying an armored cruiser, , from Italy. Chile responded by ordering its own armored cruiser, , and six torpedo boats; Argentina quickly ordered another cruiser from Italy and later bought two more.Scheina, Naval History, 45–49, 297–298, 347.
The race abated somewhat after a boundary dispute in the Puna de Atacama region was successfully mediated by the American ambassador to Argentina, William Paine Lord, in 1899, but more ships were ordered by Argentina and Chile in 1901. Argentina ordered two armored cruisers from Italy, and Chile replied with orders for two pre-dreadnought battleships. Argentina continued by signing letters of intent with Italian engineering company Ansaldo in May 1901 to buy two larger battleships.Scheina, Naval History, 49–50.
The growing dispute disturbed the British government, who had extensive commercial interests in the area. Through their minister to Chile, they mediated negotiations between the two countries. These were successfully concluded on 28 May 1902 with three pacts, Pactos de Mayo. The third limited the naval armaments of both countries; both were barred from acquiring any further warships for five years without giving the other an eighteen months' advance notice. The United Kingdom purchased the two Chilean battleships, while Japan took over the order for the two Argentine armored cruisers; the two Argentine battleships were never ordered. Two Argentine cruisers and Chile's Capitán Prat were demilitarized.Scheina, Naval History, 49–52.
Meanwhile, beginning in the late 1880s, Brazil's navy fell into obsolescence after an 1889 revolution, which deposed Emperor Dom Pedro II, and an 1893 civil war.Topliss, "The Brazilian Dreadnoughts," 240.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 32. By the turn of the 20th century it was lagging behind the Chilean and Argentine navies in quality and total tonnage, despite Brazil having nearly three times the population of Argentina and almost five times the population of Chile.Scheina, "Brazil," 403.
Dreadnought arms race
By 1904, Brazil—the largest country in South America in both size and population—began to seriously consider upgrading its navy, which had fallen to third in total tonnage. Soaring demand for coffee and rubber brought an influx of tax revenue,Sondhaus, Naval Warfare, 216. used to begin a large naval building plan. The centerpiece of the new navy would be two dreadnoughts built by the United Kingdom. The order for these powerful ships, designed to carry the heaviest armament in the world at the time,"Germany may buy English warships," The New York Times, 1 August 1908, C8. shocked Argentina and Chile,Scheina, "Argentina," 400. causing them to cancel the 1902 armament-limiting pact with immediate effect. Alarmed, the American ambassador to Brazil sent a cablegram to his Department of State, warning them of the destabilizing effects that would occur if the situation devolved into a full naval arms race.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 32–33.
Argentina and other countries attempted to avert a full-scale naval arms race by offering to purchase one of the two dreadnoughts. Brazil refused Argentina's offer. After further tensions over the River Plate (Río de la Plata, literally "Silver River") area and inflammatory newspaper editorials favoring dreadnoughts, Argentina went ahead with a massive naval building plan. After a drawn-out bidding process among fifteen shipyards from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, Argentina ordered two dreadnoughts with an option for a third from the United States. They also ordered twelve destroyers from three nations in Europe. With its major rival acquiring so many modern vessels, Chile wanted to respond as early as February 1906,Hough, The Big Battleship, 23. but the country's naval plans were delayed by a major earthquake in 1906 and a financial depression in 1907 brought on by a drastic fall in the nitrate market.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 33–41.
Bidding, construction, and sale to the British On 6 July 1910, the National Congress of Chile passed a bill allocating funds for six destroyers, two submarines, and two large battleships, later named and ., Armada de Chile, archived 8 June 2008. Even before the decision was officially announced, the United Kingdom was widely viewed as the only country with a chance of landing the contract. The Chilean Navy had enjoyed a long-standing close relationship with its British counterpart, the Royal Navy, since the 1830s, when Chilean naval officers were given places on British ships to receive training and experience they could bring back to their country. This relationship had recently been cemented when a British naval mission was requested by Chile and sent in 1911.Scheina, Naval History, 138.
Still, the United States made a push to have the orders placed in an American shipyard. The American government sent Henry Prather Fletcher to be the new minister to Chile in September 1910. Fletcher had successfully implemented President William Howard Taft's "Dollar Diplomacy" policy in China. He met with resistance, which he attributed to lingering sentiment from the 1891 Baltimore Crisis: "My advances in the matter have not been met with frankness or encouragement and I feel a spirit of covert opposition. Under a very polite and courteous exterior there still exists a feeling of soreness towards us."Quoted in Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 41. The US naval attaché opined that, barring anything short of a revolution, the contracts would be given to the British. Indeed, the bidding process specified ships very close to the armament and armor mounted on recent British warships. Fletcher asked for an extension to the bidding process so that American shipbuilding firms could tailor proposals to these requirements, and this was granted.
During this time, Germany announced plans to send the battlecruiser on a South American cruise. As the ship was "widely advertised as the fastest and most powerful warship then afloat," the United States and United Kingdom felt its presence might give German companies an advantage in potential armament contracts, so they sent ships of their own. The United States sent the new battleship on a ten-week excursion to Brazil and Chile, carrying the body of the recently deceased Chilean minister, Anibal Cruz, to the United States; the British responded with an armored cruiser squadron. Delawares captain was ordered to give the Chileans full access to the vessel—the only exception being that he should not give full particulars of the new fire-control systemLivermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 41–42.—in an attempt by the Navy Department "to aid the shipbuilding interests of the country [United States] to make contracts for the building of men-of-war for foreign countries."Quoted in Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 42. As a further incentive, the US indicated its willingness to provide a $25 million loan to support the purchase of the ship.Livermore, "Battleship Diplomacy," 42.