HMS Canada (1913)

HMS "Canada" was a battleship, sometimes identified as a member of the "Iron Duke" class originally ordered by the government of Chile as "Valparaiso". Before launching, the ship's name was changed in honour of Juan José Latorre Benavente. Incomplete at the outbreak of the First World War, she was purchased by the British government in September 1914, completed and re-named HMS "Canada". After the war she was refitted and sold to Chile and served from 1921 as the "Almirante Latorre"

Her original secondary armament was to be twenty-two 4.7- inch guns. This was changed to sixteen 6- inch, then reduced to twelve 6-inch. In design she was somewhat similar to the "Iron Duke" class, but slightly larger and mounted 14-inch guns instead of the 13.5-inch guns carried by the "Iron Dukes". Also, unlike the "Iron Dukes" her two funnels were not of the same dimension -- the sternmost being considerably wider than the foremost. This plus her very lofty bridge structure gave her an oddly asymmetrical elegance.

History

HMS "Canada" was part of the Grand Fleet's Fourth Battle Squadron and took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Thereafter she was in the First Battle Squadron. After the end of the war from 1919 into 1920 she was refitted at Devonport dockyard before she was resold to Chile as the "Almirante Latorre". A modernization program allowed her to survive until 1959. In September 1931, her crew participated in a mutiny, protesting pay cuts.

She was one of the last World War I battleships afloat when she was sold in 1958 and scrapped in Japan in 1959. There she was a source of fittings for the repair of the museum ship, the "Mikasa". The "Mikasa" had also been built in a British shipyard, but even though "Canada" was built 10 years later, it still shared many components with the "Mikasa".

At the time she was bought, her sister ship, the "Almirante Cochrane", was also purchased for the Royal Navy. She was less complete than the "Almirante Latorre", and was never completed as a battleship. Instead, she lay incomplete on the slip from 1914 to 1917, when she was purchased and completed as HMS "Eagle", one of the first aircraft carriers. As "Eagle" she served in World War II and was sunk in the Mediterranean while escorting one of the Malta convoys.

ee also

*List of battleships of the Royal Navy

References

*Jane's Fighting Ships.