ARA Granville (P-33)

ARA Granville (P-33) is a Drummond-class corvette of the Argentine Navy named after Guillermo Enrique Granville, who fought in the 1827 Battle of Juncal against Brazil.

she was based at Mar del Plata, and had for many years been conducting fishery patrol duties in the Argentine exclusive economic zone where she captured several trawlers.

According to reports in November 2012 the Drummond class "hardly sail because of lack of resources for operational expenses". As of 2020, only Granville was reported to be operational, having undergone a refit in mid-2019, with the other ships of the class in reserve.

Service history
The first two ships of the Drummond-class corvette were built in 1977 in France for the South African Navy. The sale was embargoed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 during sea trials, and the ships were sold to Argentina instead. A third ship was ordered and entered service as ARA Granville on 22 June 1981, in time for the Falklands War the following year. There are minor differences in equipment fit compared to her sisters, for instance Granville has French Degaie decoys rather than the British Corvus chaff launchers.

On 28 March 1982 she sailed with her sister ARA Drummond and took up station northeast of Port Stanley to cover the main amphibious landings on 2 April. After the attack she operated north of the Falklands with her sister ships as Task Group 79.4, hoping to catch ships detached from the British task force. On 29 April the corvettes were trailed by the submarine HMS Splendid (S106) while she was looking for the Argentine aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, but they managed to outrun the British submarine.

Granville carried the P-3 pennant number until the introduction of the Espora-class corvettes in 1985, when she became P-33. In 1994, Granville and her sisters participated in Operation Uphold Democracy, the United Nations blockade of Haiti. During this time, she was based at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico.

According to British reports, in 1995 Granville harassed a number of trawlers around the Falklands and confronted and illuminated the British forward repair ship RFA Diligence with her radar.