The Corrientes-class destroyer was a series of four torpedo boat destroyers operated by the Argentine Navy in the early 20th century. Ordered in 1896 due to high tensions with Chile, the ships were completed by 1898. ARA Santa Fe sank in 1897, and the rest of the class remained in service until 1930.
Development and design During the 1890s, the Argentine Navy modernized and enlarged as tensions with Chile over a border dispute grew. Many of the new ships were ordered from British shipyards, who had been building Argentine warships for decades. Yarrow Shipbuilders built four torpedo boat destroyers between 1896 and 1898, known as the Corrientes-class. Unlike the shipyard's other exported torpedo boat destroyers, they featured one less boiler room and were ordered in 1896. The destroyers had a length between perpendiculars of , with a beam of and a mean draught of . They displaced at normal load and at full load, and carried a complement of 54. Propulsion was provided by two propellers powered by triple-expansion steam engines supplied by six Yarrow water-tube boilers, which produced and gave the ships a maximum speed of . The destroyers carried approximately of coal. Their boilers and machinery were protected by belt armour that ranged from to in thickness. The quick firing gun was mounted on the bow with three 3-pounder guns mounted on the centerline aft. A torpedo tube was fixed on the bow and a further two were on trainable mounts aft. The design also featured a turtledeck forecastle and three unevenly located funnels. Yarrow used the design as the basis for the Ikazuchi-class, the first destroyers built for Japan.
Service history Once in service, the destroyers had issues reaching and maintaining their top speed. On 19 April 1897, Santa Fe struck a reef and broke in two. The ship sank, but the crew was rescued by USS Yantic. The remaining three shipsCorrientes, Misiones, and Entre Riosremained in service and were decommissioned on 23 October 1930.
Ships in class +DataNameLaunchedFateARA Corrientes1896Decommissioned, 23 October 1930 ARA Misiones1897Decommissioned, 23 October 1930 ARA Entre Rios1896Decommissioned, 23 October 1930 ARA Santa Fe1896Sunk, 19 April 1897
References