HMS Swiftsure (1903)
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HMS Swiftsure, originally known as Constitución, was the lead ship of the Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship was ordered by the Chilean Navy, but she was purchased by the United Kin
Swiftsure at anchor
Swiftsure at anchor after about 1908
Swiftsure firing on Ottoman positions while covering the landings at West Beach, Cape Helles, 25 April 1915.
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 Sout
HMS Swiftsure (1903)
…Swiftsure-class pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship was ordered by the Chilean Navy, but she was purchased by the United Kingdom as part of ending the Argentine–Chilean naval arms race. In British service, Swiftsure was initially assigned to the Home Fleet and Channel Fleets before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1909…
Libertad, seen here c. 1893, was laid down in 1890 as part of the developing naval arms race between Argentina and Chile
The protected cruiser Esmeralda, portrayed here by painter Edoardo de Martino, was purchased by the Chilean Navy in the 1880s to bolster its fleet