ARA Rivadavia
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History | |
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Name | Rivadavia |
Namesake | Bernardino Rivadavia |
Builder | Fore River Shipbuilding Company |
Laid down | 25 May 1910 |
Launched | 26 August 1911 |
Commissioned | 27 August 1914 |
Decommissioned | 1952 |
Fate | Sold to Italy for scrapping in 1957 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Rivadavia-class battleship |
Displacement | |
Length | |
Beam | 98 ft 4.5 in (29.985 m)[1] |
Draft | 27 ft 8.5 in (8.446 m)[1] |
Propulsion | |
Speed | 22.5 knots (25.9 mph; 41.7 km/h)[1] |
Range | |
Armament |
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Armor |
ARA Rivadavia (Spanish: [riβaˈðaβja]) was an Argentine battleship built during the South American dreadnought race. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia,[2] it was the lead ship of its class. Moreno was Rivadavia's only sister ship.
In 1907, the Brazilian government placed an order for two of the powerful new "dreadnought" warships as part of a larger naval construction program. Argentina quickly responded, as the Brazilian ships outclassed anything in the Argentine fleet. After an extended bidding process, contracts to design and build Rivadavia and Moreno were given to the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company. During their construction, there were rumors that the ships might be sold to a country engaged in the First World War, but both were commissioned into the Argentine Navy. Rivadavia underwent extensive refits in the United States in 1924 and 1925. The ship saw no active service during the Second World War, and its last cruise was made in 1946. Stricken from the naval register in 1957, Rivadavia was sold later that year and broken up for scrap starting in 1959.