Veinticinco de Mayo-class cruiser
Argentinian Cruiser ARA 25 de Mayo
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| Class overview | |
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| Builders: | OTO, Livorno |
| Operators: |
 Argentine Navy
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| In commission: | 1931 - 1961 |
| Planned: | 3 |
| Cancelled: | 1 |
| Retired: | 2 |
| General characteristics ARA Veinticinco de Mayo | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 171 m (561 ft 0 in) |
| Beam: | 17.82 m (58 ft 6 in) |
| Draught: | 4.66 m (15 ft 3 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 shaft Parsons turbines, 6 oil-fired boilers, 85,000 hp (63,000 kW) |
| Speed: | 32 knots (59 km/h) |
| Range: | 8,030 nautical miles (14,870 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Complement: | 780 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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| Aircraft carried: | 2 × Grumman J2F Duck aircraft |
| Aviation facilities: | Catapult launcher |
The two Veinticinco de Mayo-class heavy cruisers served in the Argentine Navy through World War II. They were the only post-Washington Naval Treaty heavy cruisers built for a South American Navy. Both ships of the class were built in Italy by the OTO company, and commissioned into the Argentine Navy in 1931.
The Veinticinco de Mayo design was derived from the Italian Trento class, identifiable by the closely paired main guns, similar to the last batches of the Condottieri-class cruisers. The ships were smaller than the original, and carried significantly less armour. They had a clean and simple design, with a length-width ratio of almost 10:1. Three twin turrets were mounted with an elevation of 46 degrees for firing.
They were not the first Argentinian cruiser class bought in Italy, as four Giuseppe Garibaldi-class armoured cruisers were brought into service 30 years before.
The main 190 mm (7.5 inch) guns were designed especially for this class for greater stability (the Trento class carried 203 mm (8 inch) guns). This could have been a quite powerful gun, but no documents about its characteristics are available in Italian or Argentinian archives. The guns had single mounts to simplify construction, and could fire a 90 kg (200 lb) shell up to 23 kilometres (25,000 yd). Despite this reduction in size and weight, they were still too heavy, so the number of turrets were reduced from four to three. In most respects the resulting vessel was similar in profile to the British York class.
The secondary armament was also a new design, similar to standard 100–102 mm guns of the time. It consisted of twelve 102 mm (4 inch) DP guns, firing a 13.5 kg (30 lb) shell, all in twin mounts. This was an unusual arrangement for Italian heavy cruisers, which generally carried sixteen of these weapons. However to counter the additional weight, gun shields were removed, which adversely affected their operability in bad weather conditions.
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Wikipedia