by River Gunboats- An Illustrated Encyclopaedia (retail) (epub)
Melsztyn, Wanda and Kopernik
Launched:
1910 by Zieleniewsky Works in Krakau.
Dimensions:
Displ: 510 tons; L: 38m/124ft 8in; B: 4.7m/15ft 5in; 8.8m/28ft 10½in over paddleboxes; D: 0.54m/1ft 9in.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; Steam engines 108ihp.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 37mm Hotchkiss Model 1885 QF; 2 × 8mm MG/Machinery spaces 8mm; Deck and Conning tower 5mm.
The double-enders built for the K.u.K. in 1910. Note their sloping deck profile and the rudders fore and aft. (Drawn by Herbert Winkler, in Marine - Gestern, Heute, 1975 Vol 2)
Nadwislanin
Profile of Nadwislanin, powered by a 120ihp steam engine, and drawing 0.50m/1ft 7¾in. Armed with two 37mm Hotchkiss QF and two 8mm MG. (Drawn by Herbert Winkler, in Marine - Gestern, Heute, 1975 Vol 2)
Polonez (100ihp, draught 0.70m/2ft 3½in), Goplana (50ihp, draught 0.75m/2ft 9½in) and Neptun (60ihp, draught 0.55m/1ft 9½in).
POSTSCRIPT
During the last days of the First World War all surviving floating and operable units of the K.u.K. Donauflotille returned to their base barracks at Óbuda, a suburb of Budapest. There, on 6 November 1918, they were ceremonially paid off. The vessels were disarmed under the supervision of the Allied Control Commissions which operated in both Austria and Hungary. Thus ended a century-old branch of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces. On the eightieth anniversary, 6 November 1998, to celebrate their proud heritage, the Hungarians held a commemorative ceremony in front of the former Barracks of the Donauflotille. During the ceremony two commemorative plaques were unveiled.
BELGIUM
Belgian explorers and administrators in Central Africa were among the first users of the classic Yarrow type of stern-wheeler. On the lower Congo River the Belgian Force Publique maintained an armed steamer, the Hirondelle, with a 6-pounder (57mm) Nordenfelt gun. With the outbreak of the Great War other river steamers were armed.
CONFRONTATIONS ON THE SANGHA RIVER
On 3 August 1914, the German community of Kinshasa, together with several hundred Congolese recruits, set out on board the steamer Dongo to reach the German colony of Eastern Kamerun. Their intention was to link up with German Schutztruppen on the River Sangha, and then return to occupy Kinshasa and Brazzaville. However, French troops based in Brazzaville armed the steamer Albert Dolisie and set off in pursuit. Just three days later the Dongo was captured, and German plans thwarted.
The following month the French in Brazzaville asked for Belgian aid in neutralising the remaining German positions on the River Sangha. The Belgians armed a new paddle steamer, the PS Luxembourg, with one 3-pounder Nordenfelt QF gun and two 7.65mm machine guns. She sailed with a force of sixty Congolese troops, returning to Kinshasa with wounded men in early November, then finally led a force of six ships up the Sangha. German resistance was overcome just before Christmas.
LAKE TANGANYIKA
On Lake Tanganyika in 1914 the Belgians had a 90-ton 22.5m (73ft 9in) steamer, the Alexandre Delcommune, and were building a large vessel, the Baron Dhanis, of 700 tons. Both were capable of being armed as gunboats if necessary. On 6 August 1914 the Delcommune had been allowed to leave the German port of Kigoma due to confusion on the part of the German authorities as to whether the Belgian Congo would remain neutral.
The Germans aboard the newly-armed Hedwig von Wissmann spotted the Delcommune on 25 August, but the Belgian steamer was able to use her superior speed to escape. However, the Germans followed her to Mtoa and shelled her, forcing the Delcommune’s crew to beach her. She was again attacked on the night of 8/9 October, this time by a force which landed and placed explosive charges, causing slight damage. Finally on 23 October she was shelled once more by the Hedwig, by this time towing a pair of 8.8cm guns, and after receiving some thirty hits was severely damaged. The Delcommune would be repaired and armed, with a 12-pounder gun, under the new and appropriate name of Vengeur.
Alexandre Delcommune in her original pre-war form, with two funnels.
Baron Dhanis after the war.
Alexandre Delcommune after being rebuilt, with presumably at least a new or repaired boiler, with now just one funnel. She is armed with a 12-pounder gun, so here she is now known as Vengeur.
Mosselback (‘Dix-Tonnes’)
Stung into responding, the Belgians sent by rail to the lake a 10-ton armoured motor launch, 14m (45ft 11in) long. Renamed the Mosselback, she was manned by one officer and six men. Mosselback was armed with 47mm (3-pounder) and 57mm (6-pounder) Nordenfelt guns, but these severely overloaded her, and the Belgians had to remove some armour plating and reinforce her structure, reducing her designed speed. In July 1915 observers on shore noted the approach of the German Kingani, and the Mosselback sortied to engage her. Outgunned, the Kingani retreated, and the Belgian launch was not fast enough to catch her.
Mosselback, originally known as the ‘Dix-Tonnes’, armed with a 47mm and a 57mm gun. Note the Netta in the background. (Photo Belgian Army Museum)
Netta
The second Belgian motor boat to arrive was the Netta, which was launched on the lake on 22 December 1915, just in time to participate in the action in which the Hedwig was sunk.
Netta was designed by Engineer Delseaux. Built in 1914 she was intended for use as a postal carrier between Leopoldville and Stanleyville, but with the German domination of Lake Tanganyika she was sent there and armed. It was discovered that she was too lightly built to carry the planned 57mm gun, so she first went into action using only her 37mm Pom-Pom and two Colt machine guns. Netta was designated as a torpedo boat, since she was fitted with two side launch cradles for 17.7in Whitehead torpedoes, but she did not carry torpedoes in her actions on the lake.
Torpedo boat Netta on Lake Tanganyika. Note the side cradles for 17.7in (450mm) torpedoes, the reason for her designation. (From an old postcard)
On 28 July 1916 the Netta, under the command of Lieutenant Leenaers, came across the German armed steamer Wami at Bukele, where the latter vessel was discharging Askaris and stores. Leenaers attacked, scoring several hits, and the Germans scuttled the Wami. Interestingly a report of this action mentions the Graf von Götzen as the Netta’s victim, but she had been scuttled at Kigoma two days earlier.
Launched:
1914, by Desaulx, Boom. Relaunched on Lake Tanganyika 22 December 1915.
Dimensions:
Displ: 16 tons; L: 18m/59ft.
Crew:
Typically 1 officer + 9 men (and a RN liaison officer).
Power/Speed:
Triple screws; 3 × 100bhp Mesnay petrol engines/19 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 47mm (6-pounder) QF Nordenfelt; 1 × 37mm Pom-Pom; 2 × 7.65mm Colt MG.
As a footnote, the Belgians made strenuous efforts to fortify the mouth of the Lukanga, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, against German aggression, installing 47mm and 77mm guns, plus a 100mm howitzer from Fort Shinkakasa (at the mouth of the Congo River). Finally they transported to the lake two 160mm guns under armoured cupolas which were previously mounted in the Fort. Even the Graf von Götzen would have stood little chance against these armoured guns.
LAKE KIVU
Paul Renkin
Acting on reports of a German gunboat on Lake Kivu, the Goetz, which in fact was a small launch owned by a missionary society, in 1916 the Belgians launched a small gunboat of their own, the Paul Renkin. 14m (45ft 11in) long and weighing 10 tons. She was armed with a 37mm Pom-Pom and two Colt 7.65mm ‘Potato Digger’ machine guns. Her armament can be seen on the lake shore in the photo opposite.
Paul Renkin ready to be launched. Note the joints of the hull sections. (Photo Belgian Army Museum)
Paul Renkin’s armament lined up on the shore, presumably for a demonstration of her firepower. (From an old postcard)
RHINE FLOTILLA
Between 1919 and 1925, the Belgian Navy operated a Rhine Flotilla, which was responsible for controlling a 180km (112 miles) str
etch of the river from the Dutch border south-eastwards.
V-1, one of nine ex-German light river patrol launches left behind by the German forces in Belgian ports, notably Antwerp, in 1918, and used on the Rhine 1919–25. (Photo Belgian Army Museum)
Launches V-1 to V-9
Launched:
1914–18.
Dimensions:
Displ: 16 tons; L: 15m/49ft 2½in.
Crew:
Typically 1 officer + 9 men (and a RN liaison officer)
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 200bhp petrol engines/16 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 37mm Pom-Pom; MG.
In addition to Launches V-1 to V-9, the Rhine Flotilla possessed several tugboats, a couple of barges, and a passenger steamer, the Undine. All of the latter vessels were commanded by Belgians but run by their original German crews. However, at the end of the war the river vessels were in bad shape due to a lack of maintenance, and were not all in service at any one time.
Benga
After 1945, the Belgian Navy Rhine Flotilla was re-established. One of the patrol vessels they used was the Benga, an air-sea rescue launch of the ‘Miami’ type, one of only sixteen of the high-powered Model 168, built in the USA in 1943. She later sank at her moorings on the Rhine!
Launched:
1943, by Miami Shipbuilding Corporation, Florida.
Dimensions:
Displ: 23 tons; L: 19m/63ft; B: 4.1m/13ft 5in; D: 1.4m/4ft 7in.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 1,250bhp Packard 4M-2500 marine petrol engines/48 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × twin .50 cal MG.
The Belgian Navy’s 11th Flotilla co-operated with the Royal Navy, allocating officers to the British ex-Raumboot for training, and on occasions taking over the craft under the Belgian flag.
Benga.
RN HMS Kestrel flying the Belgian ensign. (Photo A. Keters)
BOLIVIA
Ever since the War of the Pacific back in 1879–84, when Bolivia lost her access to the Pacific and the rich territories on the coast to Chile, the Bolivian Navy has been landlocked. That is not to say it no longer exists. After many years surviving as a part of the Army, in 1963 the River and Lake Force was formed with four patrol boats transferred by the United States. It became the Fuerza Naval Boliviana three years later, and finally in 1981 became formally known as the Armada Boliviana. Today the Bolivian Navy preserves Bolivia’s naval heritage, hoping continually to obtain from its neighbours to the West a revived access to the sea.
Around the turn of the nineteenth century, Bolivia possessed three military launches on the Amazon, but two of them were lost to the Brazilians during the conflict over the Acre territory, rich in gold and especially rubber.
Armed Launch V-01 Tahuamanu
Tahuamanu was built in Germany for the Suarez Company as the Iris, then to enable her to travel up the Amazon through Brazilian waters she was temporarily rechristened Mae d’Agua. The company offered her to the Bolivian Army as a gunboat and military transport. She took part in the conflict with Brazil over the Acre, defended Manuripi against the Peruvians, and briefly put in an appearance on the Paraguay River during the Chaco War of 1932–5, until the appearance of Humaitá and Paraguay forced her to withdraw. She is preserved as a tourist attraction and a memorial to past conflicts.
Launched:
1898 by R. Holtz, Hamburg.
Dimensions:
Displ: 50 tons; L: 18m/59ft; B: 3.8m/12ft 5½in; D: 1.5m/4ft 11in.
Crew:
12 + up to 100 Marines.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 48ihp compound steam engines.
Guns/Armour:
1 × small QF (probably 47mm); 1 × 7.92mm Maxim MG.
Fate:
Preserved as memorial.
Tahuamanu as preserved today as a monument in Parque Mirador La Costanera. (Photo by Caminante Nocturno, on Website www.panoramio.com/user/1114454?with_photo_id=6189672)
Launch Alonso
Built by Military Shipyard No 1 at Conija, Alonso took part in the Acre campaign, but fell in with Brazilian gunboat Solimðes and was captured, becoming the Brazilian Rui Barbosa.
Armed Launch Rio Afua
Built by Military Shipyard No 1 at Conija, Rio Afua was armed with a small QF gun, probably a 37mm Hotchkiss. During the Acre campaign she ferried the 108 soldiers who routed the rebel José Olacido de Castro. In 1903 she was captured by Brazilian forces, and became the Brazilian Independencia.
ARMADA BOLIVIANA
Acting as a police force against narcotics traffickers and smugglers, alongside their presence on the rivers Río Beni, Río Madre de Dios, Río Mamoré, and Río Paraguay, Bolivian patrol craft have a base on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. Of necessity their patrol vessels are of modest size.
ARB Santa Cruz de la Sierra – PR 51
PR-51 was supplied in 1985 by the United States. She operates on the Paraguay River.
Launched:
1985 by Hope/Progressive Shipbuilding of Houma, Louisiana.
Dimensions:
Displ: 46 tons; L: 21m/68ft 10in; B: 5.8m/19ft; D: 1.2m/3ft 11in.
Crew:
10.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × Detroit diesel engines/20 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × .50 cal Browning HMG.
Fate:
In service.
In addition to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, current Bolivian Patrol boats include Comandante Arandia (82 tons), Ingeniero Gumucho (70 tons), Almirante Grau (52 tons) and numerous smaller vessels of between 20 and 25 tons, several of which are based on Lake Titicaca.
PR-51 in 1996. (Photo Armada Boliviana)
BRAZIL
The Amazon has an estimated area of six million square kilometres (2.3 million square miles) shared by Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Venezuela, French Guiana and Suriname.
The Brazilians have traditionally retained a strong force of river warships on the Amazon. During the War of the Triple Alliance, it was a strong force of Brazilian river monitors on the Paraguay River which greatly contributed to the Allied victory.
The latest generation of Brazilian river patrol vessels will be the modern Colombian design chosen under the COTECMAR (Corporation for the Development of the Naval Maritime and Fluvial Industry) arrangement. For details, see COLOMBIA. This consolidates the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian efforts to unify patrolling the Amazon. Already at the time of writing the Brazilians have taken into service the first of the smaller LPR-40 patrol boats built in Colombia.
WAR OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE
During the late 1850s, in the lead-up to war, with disputes over the navigation rights on the Paraguay River, Brazil purchased fourteen screw-propelled river gunboats abroad and built two more in Brazilian yards.
The Battle of Riachuelo, which took place on 11 June 1865 just to the south of Corrientes on the Paraná River, was fought, and won, by a flotilla of ocean-going Brazilian warships: the flag-ship was the paddle-wheel frigate Amazonas (1,050 tons, 1 × 70-pounder Whitworth MLR + 5 × 68-pounder SB). The four corvettes were Belmonte and Paranaíba (602 tons, 1 × 70-pounder Whitworth MLR, respectively 3 × and 2 × 68-pounder SB + 4 × 32-pounder SB), Jequitinhonhá (647 tons, 2 × 68-pounder SB + 5 × 32-pounder SB) and Beberibé (637 tons, 1 × 68-pounder SB + 6 × 32-pounder SB). They were supported by four gunboats: Ipiranga (325 tons, 7 × 32-pounder SB), Araguarí (415 tons, 2 × 68-pounder + 2 × 32-pounder SB), Iguatemí (406 tons, 3 × 68-pounder + 2 × 32-pounder SB) and Mearim (415 tons, 3 × 68-pounder + 4 × 32-pounder SB). During the battle Paranaíba was boarded by Paraguayan troops and a fierce fight took place before they were ejected, and Jequitinhonhá ran aground and was set on fire to scuttle her, the only Brazilian ship lost in the battle. The Paraguayans for their part lost four warships and all their towed gun barges (chatas), and were never again able to challenge the Brazilian fleet’s hegemony on the rivers. On the
ir return following the battle, the Brazilian ships had to run past the Paraguayan gun batteries at Cuevas. Although every ship was hit, none were lost.
One aspect of the zones patrolled by Brazilian gunboats: the Rondônia negotiates tight bends in a densely-forested area. In other areas, the river system passes through savannah. (Photo La Defesa)
The Passage of Curupayti on 15 August 1867. The Brazilian flotilla passed through without serious difficulties. However, the fleet was then stalled before the defences of the fortifications of Humaitá and by the chain defence stretched across the river. (Illustration via Andreas von Mach)
Subsequent actions would be fought by purpose-built river ironclad gunboats, with either central batteries or rotating turrets.
The Battle of Curuzú on 2 September 1866 saw the dramatic loss of the gunboat Rio de Janeiro. She was one of five Brazilian river gunboats bombarding the Paraguayan batteries at Curuzú, to the south of Humaitá on the Paraguay River. On the second day, she drifted down onto four moored Paraguayan torpedoes (mines) and two of them exploded under her stern. Being of wooden construction with no internal watertight bulkheads, she sank rapidly, with the loss of her captain and more than fifty crew members. Rio de Janeiro would be the only Brazilian river gunboat sunk during the conflict.