''Piauí '' was a

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

of the

Brazilian Navy The Brazilian Navy () is the navy, naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval warfare, naval operations. The navy was involved in War of Independence of Brazil#Naval action, Brazil's war of independence ...

, serving from 1909 to 1944. She was named after the Brazilian state of

Piauí Piauí ( ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piauí has the shortest coastline of any coas ...

Description and Construction

In 1904 Brazil adopted an ambitious plan to renovate and modernize its Navy. The Naval Renovation Program was negotiated and enacted in December 1904 and envisioned acquisition of large number of vessels, including a dozen destroyers. In 1906 the program was modified reducing the total number of destroyers to ten. These ships became known as destroyers. The ship had an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of . She was powered by 2 triple expansion reciprocating steam engines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of and gave a maximum design speed of . During the trials the contract speed was exceeded, and the vessel was clocked at . Steam for the turbines was provided by two double-ended

Yarrow boiler Yarrow boilers are an important class of high-pressure water-tube boilers. They were developed by Yarrow Shipbuilders, Yarrow & Co. (London), Shipbuilders and Engineers and were widely used on ships, particularly warships. The Yarrow boiler desi ...

s. ''Piauí'' carried a maximum of of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

that gave her a range of approximately at . The ship mounted two guns in single mounts. In addition, four 47 mm (3pdr) cannons in single mounts were deployed at the time of launching. Upon completion of sea trials, ''Piauí'' was officially delivered to the Brazilian government on December 21, 1908, with Captain Pedro de Frontin serving as her commander. She left Yarrow's yard on December 28, and departed for Brazil on December 31. The destroyer reached Falmouth in the morning of January 2, 1909, spent three days there, leaving for

Vigo Vigo (, ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of province of Pontevedra, Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest ...

on January 5 and reaching it two days later. ''Piauí'' departed

on January 10 for

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

where she arrived on the same day. The destroyer left

on January 23 and reached

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

on January 25. On January 30 she sailed out from

for

Cabo Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

, arriving in St. Vicente on February 1. After spending four days in port, ''Piauí'' left St. Vicente on February 5, and successfully arrived in

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

shortly after 11:00 on February 10, 1909. At about 04:00 on February 14, 1909 the ship departed

for

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

where she arrived after a 21 hour journey.

References

Bibliography

* Gardiner, Robert and Randal Gray, eds. ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921''. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985. . . *
CT Piauhy - CT 3
" ''Navios De Guerra Brasileiros''. Accessed 27 August 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Piauí (1908) Pará-class destroyers (1908) 1908 ships Ships built in Glasgow