ARA Cordoba (also written as Córdoba) was the second and last La Plata-class destroyer of the Argentine Navy. She was ordered in 1910 to keep pace with the Brazilian Navy and commissioned in 1912. She primarily operated as a scout and training ship for the next four decades. She was placed in reserve in 1947 and decommissioned in 1956.
Development and design In 1910, Argentina ordered a dozen torpedo boat destroyers in response to a major expansion of the Brazilian Navy. As the nation lacked a major shipbuilding industry, it ordered the ships from experienced foreign shipyards in Europe. Only the four built in Germany were ultimately operated by Argentina, with the order equally split between two shipyards. The pair ordered from Schichau-Werke in Elbing were known as the La Plata-class destroyers. The two destroyersLa Plata and Cordobahad an overall length of with a beam of and a maximum draught of . They displaced at normal load and at full load and carried a complement of 150. Propulsion was provided by two propellers powered by Curtis AEG steam turbines supplied by five Schulz-Thornycroft boilers, which produced and a maximum speed of . The destroyers carried of coal and of fuel oil, which enabled a range of at . Armament consisted of four caliber main guns, two anti-aircraft guns, and four torpedo tubes. The design featured three funnels and cost 124,360 per ship.
Service history Cordoba was launched in 1912 and commissioned on 8 July 1912. During speed trials, the ship reached a top speed of . She was named after the Argentine Córdoba Province and assigned the pennant number D-2. The destroyer arrived in Argentina three days before her commissioning, and was assigned to the Training Division and patrolled the Río de la Plata to train sailors slated to operate Rivadavia-class battleships that were under construction. In 1916, she was assigned to the Exploration Division () and operated as a scout, although World War I-related fuel shortages limited operations and she undertook only one voyage in 1917 and none in 1918. For the next three years, she went back out to sea for fleet-wide training exercises in Río de la Plata; this was interrupted in 1920 when the destroyer visited Concepción del Uruguay and Paraná to recognize the anniversary of Justo José de Urquiza's death. Between 1921 and 1927, she was decommissioned and modernized to burn fuel oil and equipped with British torpedo launchers, among other changes. Returned to service in 1928, she spent the next two decades operating in the Río de la Plata with several fleets. In 1947, she was placed in reserve and decommissioned on 10 January 1956 to be scrapped.
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