ARA Presidente Sarmiento

ARA Presidente Sarmiento is a museum ship in Argentina, originally built as a training ship for the Argentine Navy and named after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the seventh President of Argentina. She is considered to be the last intact cruising training ship from the 1890s.[1]

For the film of the same name, see Fragata Sarmiento (film).

History
Argentina
Name: Presidente Sarmiento
Namesake: Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
Builder: Laird Brothers, Birkenhead, England
Launched: 1897
In service: 1897
Out of service: 1961
Status: Museum Ship in Buenos Aires, Argentina
General characteristics
Class and type: Sail training ship
Displacement: 2,750 metric tonnes
Length: 81 m (266 ft)
Beam: 13.11 m (43.0 ft)
Draught: 5.64 m (18.5 ft)
Propulsion: Steam, 3-cylinder compound, 1,000 hp (750 kW), ship rig

History

The ship was originally built for the Argentine Naval Academy. ARA Presidente Sarmiento made thirty seven annual training cruises including six circumnavigations of the globe. The ship was retired as a seagoing vessel in 1938, but continued to serve without sails on Argentine rivers around 1950 and as a stationary training ship until 1961.

She is now maintained in her original 1898 appearance as a museum ship in Puerto Madero near downtown Buenos Aires.

Propulsion and auxiliaries

Engine

In addition to its sailing rig this ship includes a large triple expansion steam engine supplied by two coal-fired boilers exhausting through the rear stack. An additional auxiliary boiler exhausting through the forward stack provides steam for other than propulsion, including two engines driving electrical generators on the main deck (below the weather deck).

Fuel

A single coal bunker is positioned between the main and auxiliary boiler rooms

Steering
Helm

A three-wheel chain drive allows up to six helmsmen to control the rudder. Such a crew of operators was not always required due to the inclusion of an electric servo-drive for normal operation but was useful for the training of cadets.

Armament

Artillery

Four five inch mounts are positioned amidships, two on each side, with additional smaller weapons. Documentation on the ship shows these having had some armor, but the present installations are bare.

Torpedoes

A single torpedo scuttle using gravity expulsion exited at the bow. The scuttle has been removed and the exit port welded shut, but in the current museum configuration a torpedo is suspended in a position on the main deck ready to enter the former scuttle entrance. Additional torpedo storage is provided below this main deck.

Historic images
  • 1873 image of the ship's namesake
  • 1909 image of the ship
  • Capitan A. Brana and staff, Hamburg, 1923
  • Cadets honor guests, Bremerhaven, 1931
  • Publication allusive to its fiftieth anniversary, 1947

See also

References

Notes
  1. Brouwer, Norman J. (1999). The international register of historic ships. London: Chatham Pub. ISBN 0-930248-11-2.
  2. "1965 Argentina 5 Peso". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2011-01-31.

Bibliography
  • Eger, Christopher L. (2012). "Hudson-Fulton Naval Celebration, Part I". Warship International. XLIX (2): 123–151. ISSN 0043-0374.
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