[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by fithah4

Found this article tonight and thought about your MOD!
http://www.hisutton.com/Brazilian-Navy-Sip-Ceara.html

The Surprising Secret Of This Brazilian Navy Ship From 1915 ~ 1946
Brazilian Navy's “Ceara” Submarine Tender

BraziliaCearas Specifications
Displacement: 3,500 tons light, 6,400 tons fully loaded
Length: 101.6 m
Beam: 15.7 m
Draught: 6.45 m (fully loaded)
Speed: 12-13 knots
Propulsion: 2 x 2,100 HP Diesel engines, 2 shafts

Armament: Modest weapons. Possibly 2 x 101.6 mm, 2 x 57mm 4 x Hotchkiss 3-pounder 'Armstrong', 2 x 7mm Hotchkiss machine guns. Reports vary
Complement: 89

The ship was designed and built in Italy in 1915 to support 3 'FF' type (Foca Class) submarines. These were also Italian and formed Brazil's first submarine force. Small and relatively fragile, they primarily provided training in Brazil.

FF Type (Foca Class) Submarine Specifications
Displacement: 160 tons surfaced, 260 tons submerged
Length: 46 m
Beam: 4.4 m
Draught: 4.4 m
Speed: 13.5 knots surfaced, 6.5 knots submerged
Propulsion: 2 Fiat 6cyl 700 hp diesel engines driving 2 electric motors, 2 shafts
Endurance: 1600 nm @ 8.5 knots surfaced, 100 nm @ 4 knots submerged
Armament: 2 x 450 torpedo tubes (some sources say 3)
Complement: 20
Operating Depth: 40 m

Ship’s Fate
Ceara’s service life, from 1917 until 1946, seems unremarkable. And although active on the Allied side in WW2, naturally this ship did not see combat. Yet its long service life meant that it far outlived the FF type submarines which it was designed to house. Subsequent Brazilian Navy submarines were larger and would not fit inside the hangar. So it is unclear whether the hangar was still useful (I suspect not). The design was however still noteworthy, a particularly well-equipped strategic asset

Thanks! Will have to take a look at that when I get home. South American countries like Brazil /Chile had some very good Dreadnought designs actually, like BB Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais....they were some of the first ships to be equipped with super firing main guns, an important innovation..for a time they were some of the best dreadnoughts in the world, although unfortunately Brazil did not have enough money to maintain them well....also, the battleships that became HMS Agincourt and HMS Canada were initially South American. The battleship Sao Paulo really fascinates me because not what happened to her...mas you may know, she was sold for scrap after WWll but went missing from her tow in 1951 in a storm..the huge battleship and her 8 man scrapping crew were never seen again. Sao Paulo's wreck site is one of the biggest mysteries in Naval History, and has not been located to date.