Brazilian destroyer Piauí (1908)

Piauí  was a Pará-class destroyer (1908) destroyer of the Brazilian Navy, serving from 1909 to 1944. She was named after the Brazilian state of Piauí.

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 Pará-class destroyer (1908) destroyers.

The ship had an overall length of 240 ft, a beam of 23.5 ft and a draught of 7+5/6 ft. She was powered by 2 triple expansion reciprocating steam engines, driving two shafts, which developed a total of 6563 ihp and gave a maximum design speed of 27 kn. During the trials the contract speed was exceeded, and the vessel was clocked at 27.21 kn. Steam for the turbines was provided by two double-ended Yarrow boilers. Piauí carried a maximum of 140 LT of coal that gave her a range of approximately 3700 nmi at 14 kn.

The ship mounted two 4 in 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 on January 5 and reaching it two days later. Piauí departed Vigo on January 10 for Lisbon where she arrived on the same day. The destroyer left Lisbon on January 23 and reached Las Palmas on January 25. On January 30 she sailed out from Las Palmas for Cabo Verde, 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 shortly after 11:00 on February 10, 1909. At about 04:00 on February 14, 1909 the ship departed Recife for Bahia where she arrived after a 21 hour journey.