ARA Moreno

ARA Moreno's Story

By 1910, South American nations were engaged in a naval arms race, with each contender bent on outwitting a potential enemy. Such was the case between Brazil and Argentina, where Brazil ordered two powerful dreadnoughts from Britain.

In response, the Argentine government signed a contract with the United States for three ships of similar size, but budget constraints forced it to narrow its optimistic order to two. Thus, the Rivadavia class was born, with ARA Radavia as the lead ship and her only sister, ARA Moreno.

The ARA Moreno was designed by Fall River Shipbuilding, USA and built by New York Shipbuilding in Camden, NJ. Her keel was laid on July 9, 1910, and officially launched on September 23, 1911.

The Moreno was completed in March 1915, but her official delivery to the Argentine Navy was delayed until May of that year due to propulsion problems.

The ARA Moreno is a multi-tower design with two masts, two hoppers and Curtis gear turbines, driving three shafts and powered by 18 Babcock & Wilcox boilers (40,000 shaft horsepower rating). Her crew includes 1,130 sailors and officers necessary to operate many of her onboard systems. Displacement of 28,000 at standard load and 30,600 at full war load, the vessel has a barrel length of 270 ft 3 in, beam 96 ft 9 in and a draft of 27 ft 10 in. When dodging at 11 knots, she has an inherent range of 11,000 nautical miles.

Her top speed in ideal conditions is about 22.5 knots. She has two prominent structures on the sides, a large structure (with a bridge) in the front middle and a smaller structure aft. The two masts include the front lattice mast, which is above the rear mast near the second funnel.

As a dreadnought, the Moreno sacrificed armor protection for speed. The loss of armor was offset by a series of powerful guns centered on her 12 x 12 in (305 mm) main guns - these turrets were twin turrets, two in the forward compartment, two in the stern, and two in the ship About 12 x 6 in (152 mm) guns near the center are used for shorter range targets, as are 16 x 4 in (102 mm) guns. She also installed 2 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes to defend against potential surface threats.

Her armor protection includes a strip design up to 12 inches thick with 12 inches of protection above the turret and conning tower.

After serving in the Argentine Navy, ARA Moreno served in the 1st Division from 1915 to 1923 before being placed in the reserve. In 1924, she was sent to the United States for an overhaul that lasted until 1925 (ARA Rivadavia underwent a similar modernization during this period). Her propulsion was rebuilt to accept fuel oil (over coal), and her foremast was shortened.

The rear mast has been converted from the original pole-mounted design to a tripod configuration. A new rangefinder fire control system was installed to improve range accuracy. Her turrets have been fixed to increase her base rate of fire. The 4" gun batteries were removed and replaced with 4 x 3" (76 mm) guns and 4 x 3 pdr anti-aircraft guns. With the changes made, the engineers even managed to reduce the design displacement by around 1,000 tons and improve performance and handling to some extent.

After her return to the Argentine Navy in 1926, the ARA Moreno was used as a training ship before returning to the 1st Division and in due course promoted to the Battleship Division along with her sister.

In the 1930s, the ARA Moreno was deployed in local waters of South America, mainly as a diplomatic courier. She participated in the celebration of Brazil's independence in 1934 and was sent to tour Europe with ARA Rivadavia in 1937.

With the official start of World War II in 1939, the ship was recalled to home waters and deployed on the ground during the conflict - Argentina remained neutral throughout the war.

In the post-war years, technology and cost finally caught up with a decade-old design, forcing the ARA Moreno to be retired in 1949. Since then, she has been commissioned as a barracks/depot ship and then converted into a prison ship during the Revolucion Libertadora ("Liberation Revolution") in 1955.

As her days of official sailing came to an end, the ARA Moreno was sold to Yawata Steel in 1956, and her hull was shipped (via the Panama Canal) to Japan and eventually scrapped. ARA Rivadavia suffered a similar fate, it was sold to Italy in 1957 and scrapped.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Wing