ARA ''Presidente Sarmiento'' is a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

in Argentina, originally built as a

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house class ...

for the

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; ). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Argentine Army, Army and the Argentine ...

and named after

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the '' Generation of 1837'', who had a great influence on 19th-century Argent ...

, the seventh

President of Argentina The president of Argentina, officially known as the president of the Argentine Nation, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under Constitution of Argentina, the national constitution, the president is also the Head of go ...

. It is considered to be the last intact cruising

from the 1890s.

History

The ship was originally built for the Argentine Naval Academy. ARA ''Presidente Sarmiento'' made thirty seven annual training cruises including six

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

s of the globe. The ship was retired as a seagoing vessel in 1938, but continued to serve without sails on Argentine rivers around 1950 and as a stationary training ship until 1961. It is now maintained in its original 1898 appearance as a museum ship in

Puerto Madero Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a Barrios and Communes of Buenos Aires, ''barrio'' of Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Central Business District, Central Business District. Occup ...

near downtown

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Propulsion and auxiliaries

Rigging

Engine

In addition to its sailing rig this ship includes a large triple expansion steam engine supplied by two coal-fired boilers exhausting through the rear stack. An additional auxiliary boiler exhausting through the forward stack provides steam for other than propulsion, including two engines driving electrical generators on the main deck (below the weather deck).

Fuel

A single coal bunker is positioned between the main and auxiliary boiler rooms

Steering

A three-wheel chain drive allows up to six helmsmen to control the rudder. Such a crew of operators was not always required due to the inclusion of an electric servo-drive for normal operation but was useful for the training of cadets.

Armament

Artillery

Four

Armstrong gun An Armstrong gun was a type of rifled breech-loading field and heavy artillery piece designed by Sir William Armstrong. It was first manufactured in England starting in 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. ...

mounts are positioned amidships, two on each side, with additional smaller weapons. The museum information indicates those as 5-inch pieces, but

Norman Friedman Norman Friedman (born 1946) is an American author, analyst, strategist, and historian. He has written over 30 books and numerous articles on naval and other military matters, has worked for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, and has appeared on tel ...

identifies those as 120-mm L45 Elswick Pattern Y. Documentation on the ship shows these having had some armor, but the present installations are bare.

Torpedoes

A single torpedo scuttle using gravity expulsion exited at the bow. The scuttle has been removed and the exit port welded shut, but in the current museum configuration a torpedo is suspended in a position on the main deck ready to enter the former scuttle entrance. Additional torpedo storage is provided below this main deck.

Historic images

File:Sarmiento (1873).jpg, 1873 image of the ship's namesake File:Presidente Sarmiento 1909.jpg, 1909 image of the ship File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00126%2C_Hamburg%2C_Argentinisches_Schulschiff.jpg, Capitan A. Brana and staff, Hamburg, 1923 File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-12316,_Bremerhafen,_Argentinisches_Schulschiff,_Kadetten.jpg, Cadets honor guests, Bremerhaven, 1931 File:Biblioteca del Senado de la Provincia - 49 - Cincuentenario de la Fragata Sarmiento.jpg, Publication allusive to its fiftieth anniversary, 1947

Museum

It is moored in

close to the Bicentennial Plaza and is now the ARA ''Presidente Sarmiento'' Frigate Museum.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

Google Maps location of the ''Presidente Sarmiento''
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Google translation of above
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presidente Sarmiento Ships built on the River Mersey 1897 ships Training ships of the Argentine Navy Tall ships of Argentina Museum ships in Argentina Full-rigged ships Museums in Buenos Aires Naval museums National Historic Monuments of Argentina Auxiliary cruisers Argentina–United Kingdom military relations