''Esmeralda'' was developed as a custom design by naval architect
Philip Watts for the
Chilean Navy
The Chilean Navy ( es, Armada de Chile) is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces. It is under the Ministry of National Defense. Its headquarters are at Edificio Armada de Chile, Valparaiso.
History
Origins and the War ...
during the
Argentine–Chilean naval arms race
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the South American nations of Argentina and Chile engaged in an expensive naval arms race to ensure the other would not gain supremacy in the Southern Cone.
Although the Argentine and Chilean ...
.
Background and design
This ''Esmeralda'' was purchased in part with US$1,500,000 in funds garnered from the sale of an earlier
protected cruiser of the same name to Japan via Ecuador.
The new ship was defined by historian Adrian J. English as "the first armored cruiser to be built for any navy," and the contemporary ''
Naval Annual'' called it "one of the most powerful cruisers in the world." Another historian, Peter Brook, believes that the newer ''Esmeralda'' should be classified as a lesser "belted" cruiser due to design faults present after its conversion from a protected cruiser while under construction.
[Peter Brook, ''Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships, 1867–1927'' (Gravesend, UK: World Ship Society, 1999), 101–02.]
Service
On 18 December 1907, the ship brought troops from Valparaíso to Iquique to repress thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's north who were appealing for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions. This later developed into the
Santa María School massacre
The Santa María School massacre was a massacre of striking workers, mostly saltpeter works (nitrate) miners, along with wives and children, committed by the Chilean Army in Iquique, Chile on December 21, 1907. The number of victims is unde ...
.
''Esmeralda'' served in the Chilean Navy until 1930.
See also
*
South American dreadnought race
A naval arms race among Argentina, Brazil and Chile—the wealthiest and most powerful countries in South America—began in the early twentieth century when the Brazilian government ordered three dreadnoughts, formidable battleships whose ca ...
*
List of decommissioned ships of the Chilean Navy
The list of decommissioned ships of the Chilean Navy is mostly compiled from information given in the website of thChilean Navy It consists of over 500 ''historical units'' including ships of the Patria Vieja, prizes, fireships, armed merchant ...
Notes
References
* Brooke, Peter. ''Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867–1927''. Gravesend, UK: World Ship Society, 1999. .
* Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M. Kolesnik. ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905''. London: Conway's Maritime Press, 1979. .
External links
* Chilean Navy sit
Esmeralda (1895) retrieved on 17 December 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Esmeralda (1895)
Cruisers of the Chilean Navy
1896 ships