Almirante Latorre-class battleship

Almirante Latorre at anchor during a sea trial in 1921.
Class overview
Builders:	Armstrong Whitworth
Operators:	Chilean Navy  Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Capitán Prat
Succeeded by:	None
Built:	2 (1 converted to an aircraft carrier)
In commission:	1915–59
General characteristics
Displacement:	28,100 long tons (28,600 t) standard and 31,610 long tons (32,120 t)
Length:	661 ft (201 m) overall
Beam:	92 ft (28 m)
Draught:	29 ft (8.8 m)
Installed power:	37,000 shp (27,591 kW)
Propulsion:	21 Coal and oil-fired Yarrow boilers Low pressure Parsons and High pressure Brown-Curtis/Parsons steam turbines
Speed:	22.75 knots (42.13 km/h; 26.18 mph)
Range:	4,400 nmi (8,100 km; 5,100 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement:	1,167 (during the First World War)
Armament:	10 × 14 inch (355 mm)/45 caliber BL guns 16 × 6 in (152 mm) guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns 4 × 3-pounder guns 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armor:	Belt: 9 to 4 in (230 to 100 mm) Deck: 4 to 1 in (102 to 25 mm) Barbette: 10 to 4 in (250 to 100 mm) Turret face: 10 in (250 mm) Conning tower: 11 in (280 mm)

The Almirante Latorre class consisted of two super-dreadnought battleships designed by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the Chilean Navy. They were intended to be Chile's entries to the South American dreadnought race, but both were purchased by the Royal Navy prior to completion for use in the First World War. Only one, Almirante Latorre (HMS Canada), was finished as a battleship; Almirante Cochrane (HMS Eagle), 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 the dominion 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.