ARA Isla de los Estados

ARA Isla de los Estados was an Argentine Navy supply ship sunk during the Falklands War.

History
Name: Isla de los Estados
Namesake: Isla de los Estados
Builder: Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera, Gijón, Spain
Yard number: 122
Launched: 1975, as Trans-Bética
In service: 22 December 1980
Fate: Sunk, 11 May 1982
General characteristics [1]
Type: Cargo ship
Tonnage: 3,900 GRT
Length: 81.4 m (267 ft 1 in)
Beam: 13.4 m (44 ft 0 in)
Draught: 4.5 m (14 ft 9 in)
Propulsion: Diesel engine, single screw
Speed: 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 27
Service record
Part of: Argentine Navy, Naval Transport Service
Operations: Operation Rosario

Ship history

The 3,900 ton ship was built in 1975 by the Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera in Gijón, Spain, as Trans-Bética. She was acquired by the Argentine Navy, renamed after the island east of Tierra del Fuego, and commissioned into the Naval Transport Service on 22 December 1980, being used to maintain a regular transport service between the Falkland Islands and the mainland.[1]

Falklands war

On 28 March 1982 she sailed from Puerto Deseado to participate in Operation Rosario in the Falkland Islands, arriving on 4 April, three days after the initial landings, to provide transport around the archipelago.[1]

The ship, among many other things, transported troops to occupy Darwin, Goose Green and Fox Bay.

Between 15 and 17 April she sowed mines in the waters surrounding Stanley. These mines had been carried by the ARA Bahia Buen Suceso.

Sinking

Isla de los Estados was sunk by HMS Alacrity during the first hours of 11 May 1982 in a surface action north of the Swan Islands in Falkland Sound. Alacrity engaged Isla de los Estados with her 4.5-inch gun. The Argentine transport blew up after several hits ignited her cargo of jet fuel and ammunition.[2] Only two of the 24 men aboard survived; 15 crew members and seven servicemen (from all three armed forces plus the coast guard) were killed or missing.[1]

See also

References
  1. "Historia y Arqueologia Marítima". histarmar.com.ar (in Spanish). 2011. Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  2. Mayorga, Horacio A.: No Vencidos. Ed. Planeta, Buenos Aires, 1998, page 320. ISBN 950-742-976-X (in Spanish)

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