Ships and balloons

Pará-class monitor

The turret ships that forced Humaitá.

Pará-class monitor
A Pará-class monitor off Humaitá. Reconstruction.
Origin
Arsenal de Marinha, Rio de Janeiro, 1866 to 1868
Displacement and length
500 t; 39 m
Armament
One Whitworth 70- or 120-pounder in a revolving turret
Freeboard
About 30 cm above the water
Crew
43 men

Six small monitors with armored wooden hulls, built for the Paraguay River. In the early hours of 19 February 1868, three of them forced Humaitá lashed to larger ironclads. A shot cut the lines of the Alagoas, which went on alone and withstood about two hours of fire.

‡ Disputed.Hits taken: about 200 on the Alagoas, according to one source.

Sources: “Pará-class monitor” and “Passage of Humaitá”, English Wikipedia; Naval Gazing, “Riverine Warfare in South America” (2019).

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