ARA Capitan Prat (CA-1939)
The pair of Almirante Brown class cruisers had proved to be very compressed in service. Everything was tight for room. The five twin turrets took up a lot of length of hull, and what was left had the large propulsion plant crowded into it. Servicing the ships was difficult. The next and final class of heavy cruiser was the Capitan Prat class of four ships. The first pair were laid down in 1935 and the second pair in early 1937. Capitan Prat and Capitan Gurruchuga were the first pair completed in 1939. The second pair received the names Independencia and Libertad after the cancellation of the aircraft carriers that were to receive these names. They were to completed in 1940.
While a completely new class of ship, many elements of the previous class
were copied to the new vessels. Bridge, funnels, afterdeck, all looked similar.
Even the hull length was kept the same but the big change was the five twin
turrets were replaced with three triple turrets. A new mark of the 210mm gun was
provided for the new turrets, a 54 caliber unit, which became the SK210/54 1937
weapon. These were big ships, with plenty of armour and speed. Most of all they
felt spacious after the previous Prat class.
| Displacement | 15,800 std, 20,750 tons full load |
| Length | 653 ft |
| Breadth | 74 ft |
| Draught | 26 ft |
| Machinery | 3 shaft steam turbines 120,000shp |
| Speed | 32 knots |
| Armour | 5.9" side, 3.4" deck, 5.1/3.4" turrets |
| Armament |
9 x 8.2" (3x3) 16 x 88mm (8x2) 16 x 37mm (8x2) 16 x 20mm (1x4, 12x1) |
| Aircraft | 3 |
| Torpedoes | 6 x 21" (2x3) |
| Complement | 700 |
| Notes |
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I had two tries at drawing a 1939 heavy cruiser for Argentina. The 9 gun version
I have heavily modified for the new drawing.
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