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The Sao Paulo was a dreadnought battleship launched in 1909, designed and built by the British company Armstrong Whitworth for the
Brazilian Navy, along with her twin Minas Geraes. Until that moment Brazil had hoisted its flag only on minor ships such as river boats
and coastguards. The original design was based in a pre-dreadnought battleship and it had to be adapted to the heavy armament introduced
by the HMS Dreadnought. The ships of the Minas Geraes class shared with that ship a relatively weak armor and the inconvenience of the
fore mast being placed after the fore funnel, thus receiving the observation post notable amounts of smoke during certain wind conditions.
The distribution of the main armament, which mixed centerlined, superimposed and echelon side turrets, allowed for a great firepower and
flexibility, for ten guns could be fired on each band and eight on the front and rear. The propulsion was entrusted to piston steam engines
for Brazil lacked the means to effectuate the maintenance of turbines, but this gave these ships an excellent operational range and their
speed was still on par with that of other contemporary battleships. The drawing shows the Sao Paulo as she was in 1917, after her reparation
in United States.
Both ships of the class spent the largest part of their existence docked, and despite not having taken part in any notable war event, they
had a troubled existence marked by revolutions. Despite being often held in bad maintenance, these ships still were in service during the
Second World War after being refitted two times in the interwar period. Decommissioned in 1947, the Sao Paulo served as school ship until
1951. In November of the same year she resulted sunk during a storm when being towed towards England to be scrapped. On the other hand the
Minas Geraes was scrapped in 1954.
Class: Minas Geraes (2 units - Minas Geraes, Sao Paulo)
Type: Battleship
Length: 165.8 meters
Beam: 25.3 meters
Draught: 8.3 meters
Displacement (standard): 19105 tonnes
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, triple-expansion steam engines, 18 x coal boiler Babcock and Wilcox, 23500 horsepower
Speed: 21.5 knots (39.8 kilometers/hour)
Range: 8400 nautical miles (15540 kilometers) at 10 knots
Fuel: 813-2398 tonnes of coal
Complement: 900
Armament: 12 x 305-millimeter 45-caliber cannon, 22 x 120-millimeter cannon, 8 x 47-millimeter cannon
Armor: 102-229 millimeters in belt, 102 millimeters in ends, 32 millimeters in upper deck, 51 millimeters in main deck,
25 millimeters in lower deck, 229 millimeters in barbettes, 203-305 millimeters in main turrets, 51-305 millimeters in conning tower
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