Brazilian Destroyer Classes

-Ordered under the 1900 fleet program, these 8 destroyers formed the backbone of the Brazilian Imperial destroyer fleet for several years before an effective replacement. They were effectively torpedo boats, christened as destroyers for propaganda reasons more than anything, being armed with the same guns and torpedoes as the fleets torpedo boats (which were, ironically, longer than the "destroyers") They stood at roughly 60 meters in length, displacing roughly 500 tons. They carried a main battery of two 3-inch M1898 guns, along with a pair of swiveling 18-inch single tube torpedo sets. Their top speed was 25 knots, delivered from 4 narrow-tube coal-fired boilers providing steam to a pair of vertical triple expansion engines. After trials, several mostly minor flaws were found. They looked as they do above for the overwhelming majority of their service lives, which is after their 1906 refit. The bridge was considered exposed and lack of effective communication gear was evident. Thus the entire class was refitted at the Imperial Naval Arsenal in Rio De Janeiro with an enclosed bridge and wireless radio sets and aerials. They also received folding-down railings to either side of the torpedo sets. 1/2 of the class was placed in reserve in 1913, as new destroyers came off the slipways, but were re-activated for the First World War, over the course of which 5 were lost. They mostly served as coastal patrol and convoy defense vessels, due to their obsolescence. Two were torpedoed and sunk by U-Boats, while another two ran aground during a storm and broke up on the rocks off the South-East Coast of Brazil. The final casualty caught fire at the dockyard and sank at it's moorings, written off as a constructive total loss and towed to the scrapyard. The last 3 were de-activated and sold to scrap companies at the end of the war. 



-The last vertical triple-expansion-powered class of destroyers built for the Imperial Navy, these 12 ships were also the most numerous destroyer class yet commissioned. The designers took into consideration lessons learned on the Curitiba-class, including being built with an enclosed bridge from the start. It was much longer and slimmer than the preceding class, and much more heavily armed. They carried a pair of 4-inch BL QF guns imported from Britain, along with two twin-tube 21-inch torpedo sets set on amidships swiveling mounts. A 3-inch gun was carried on top of the aft deck-house, mostly as a saluting gun but also for short-range firing missions. It was later replaced with a 2-pounder semiautomatic gun. All were commissioned in 1907-08, and served quietly until the First World War. 4 were lost in the war, the Araguaia received fame for its role in a battle against a German cruiser squadron. Along with two British cruisers and a British destroyer and 3 other Brazilian destroyers, she engaged two German armored cruisers and a protected cruiser. Araguaia's captain broke formation at full speed and charged the enemy, receiving 14 shell hits from 105-mm and 150-mm guns before stopping and exploding. She did, however, manage to launch two torpedoes before she blew up, both of which hit the German armored cruiser Blucher's broadside. Her coal bunkers flooded and she began to list to port, while taking 26 heavy shell hits and dozens of other smaller ones, some going through her deck and exploding the 150-mm magazines. She was torn in half and destroyed by the resulting detonation. The German protected cruiser Irene was struck by 14 4-inch shells and 8 6-inch shells, which set her ablaze while she was still afloat. 60 crewmen burned to death, the rest killed when the ship's bow was blown off by a forward ammunition detonation. The last armored cruiser escaped but ran aground several hours later, her remaining crew taken off-ship by allied vessels. The remaining destroyers were sold at auction to scrapyards during the 1920's, when the country could no longer afford to keep up a large fleet. 



-Ordered as a successor to the Porto-class, the Sao Paulos were the nations largest, most beautiful, and fastest destroyers thus far. They were also the first turbine-driven ships, with 6 x Belleville narrow-tube boilers providing steam to a pair of unlicensed Parsons turbine copies. They had roughly the same superstructure and weapon arrangement as the preceding class, with the same armament as well. They were good for 29 knots, the fastest warships in the South Atlantic. They had been planned with 5-inch main guns but these were replaced with 4-inch guns before they could even be manufactured. This was done to standardize caliber with the preceding class, and to utilize already-existing stocks of guns and ammunition. 6 were built and commissioned from 1908-1910, all going on to serve with the fleet in World War One. Two were sent to the North Sea, where they proved surprisingly seaworthy in the rough conditions, and engaged several German ships over the course of their service in Europe. Porto and Mariz e Barros were sent to the Danish coast on a patrol, where they encountered two German torpedo boats and an armed trawler. They closed to engage the enemy, who rushed them with torpedo boats as the trawler steamed towards the shelter of a small island channel. The torpedo boats were riddled with 4 and 3-inch shells and one suffered a high-pressure pipe burst in the boiler room, boiling a sailor alive and killing engines to 1/2 speed. The other boat had its forward gun blown overboard and it's funnel ripped apart by shell hits. The trawler ran aground attempting to escape, and the passing destroyers set it afire with 4 heavy shell hits, and it exploded into a huge fireball.