Deodoro-class coastal defense ship

The Deodoro class were two French-designed and built coastal defense battleships built for the Brazilian Navy in the late 1890s. Upon their completion, Scientific American called them small vessels of a type "built only for second-rate naval powers," but also noted that it was a "wonder" that "so much armor and armament could be carried" on a ship of its size.[1] Still, they were the only modern armored Brazilian warships from their commissioning until the arrival of two dreadnoughts in 1910.[2]

Class overview
Name:	Deodoro class
Builders:	Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée, La Seyne, France
Operators:	Brazilian Navy
Preceded by:	Javary class
Succeeded by:	None
Built:	1898-1899
In service:	1900-1936
Completed:	2
Retired:	2
General characteristics
Type:	Coastal defence battleship
Displacement:	3,162 tons standard
Length:	81.5 meters
Beam:	14.4 meters
Draught:	4.19 meters
Propulsion:	2 shaft triple expansion engines 8 Lagrafel d'Allest boilers 3,400 ihp (2,500 kW)
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	200
Armament:	2 × Armstrong 9.2 inch, 45 caliber guns in 2 single turrets 4 x 4.7 inch, 50 caliber guns 6 x 6-pounder (57mm) Hotchkiss guns 2 x 17.7 (450mm) torpedo tubes mounted on the beam
Armour:	Belt: 350 - 150mm Deck: 45mm Casemate: 75 mm (3.0 in) Turret face: 220 mm (8.7 in)
Notes:	In 1912 both vessels were modernized with 8 Babcock & Wilcox oil-firing boilers replacing the coal-fired boilers. 400t of oil were carried.

The ships had a low freeboard and long superstructures with single-gun main turrets arranged at each end. Their secondary batteries were also mounted at each end of the superstructure, albeit in casemates in each corner. All used British Armstrong guns.[3]

In 1912, both ships were overhauled with new propulsion and armament.[2] In 1924, Brazil sold Marshal Deodoro to the Mexican Navy.[4] She served for another 14 years, primarily as a training vessel.

Deodoro-class coast-defense ships

• Deodoro (sold to Mexico and commissioned as the Anáhuac)
• Floriano (scrapped)

References

1. "The New Brazilian Armorclad 'Marshal Deodoro'". Scientific American. 82 (12): 184. 24 March 1900.
2. Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 407. ISBN 0-87021-907-3. OCLC 12119866.
3. Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger; Kolesnik, Eugene, eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships: 1860–1905. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. pp. 403–04. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4. OCLC 4775646.
4. The New International Year Book. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1925. p. 505.

External links