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Anthony Alvear
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Naval museum Valparaiso-Chile

December 26, 2017 · in News · 14 · 2K

Here I show some photographs of the naval museum of Valparaiso-Chile, with the largest model of Latin America, the battleship BB-01 Almirante Latorre, in scale 1/20, measuring almost 10 meters long, I hope you enjoy them.

regards

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99 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. Quite an impressive array of models...especially that Battleship. Thanks.

    • Thanks Craig, the model of the Battleship Latorre, was made by the prominent naval model maker Alfredo Urrutia, who with great effort, managed to make it in almost 2 years

  2. Thanks for sharing Anthony!
    The countries of Latin America have interesting naval histories and many people don't know, that there was a naval arms race between Chile, Argentine and Brazil during the first half of the 20th century.
    Seems I shall have to go across the Atlantic, to visit some naval museums in these countries.
    I was hoping to see a model of the former Swedish cruiser Göta Lejon, that served in the Chilean Navy, also under the name of Almirante Latorre.

    • Thanks Ulf, it would be interesting if you came by these lands and especially to the naval museum of Valparaiso.

      With respect to the arms race of the early twentieth century, effectively Chile, Argentina and Brazil sent to build battleships, although Chile, receiving late Latorre, after being requisitioned by the Royal Navy to fight in the First World War, could have the most powerful of the South American continent.

      El Gota Lejon, was the second ship to receive the name of Latorre, and was active from 1971, until 1984, when it was decommissioned, unfortunately there is no model of the ship in the museum.

  3. Really nice presentation, enjoyed the view.

  4. In 1977 I was serving on board the US Capodanno, FF 1093. My first cruise was Unitas XVII. I was 18 then and about all that I can remember of Valaparaiso was a young lady named Rosa. Fortunately The command saw fit to send young Paul on a couple tours and a luncheon on one of their light cruisers. I don't recall if that museum was open that time or maybe it came along in later years but I am very thankful that you shared this with us because it brings back a lot of memories to an old man of a much younger time. I am sorry to say that I may have missed out on such a fine display of historical nautica.

    • Thank you for sharing your experiences Paul, indeed the museum was in those years, but not in the conditions in which it is today ..The first naval museum of the Chilean Navy was created on April 30, 1915 and it operated aboard the armored Huáscar that was deeply hidden in Talcahuano.

      On April 30, 1917, the Navy ordered that all the elements exhibited in the Huáscar be transferred to the Arturo Prat Naval School located in the Artillery Hill of Valparaíso where it operated until 1928, when space problems in the dependencies of the Naval School was transferred to the first floor of the Silva Palma barracks, located in the same Artillery hill, a place difficult for the public to access, so at the end of the forties it was moved to a building located in the Valparaíso Park, Italy. Full center of the city.

      At the end of 1959 a fire affected the Museum but fortunately not its collections, as a result of the accident was transferred to the castle Wulff on the coastal edge of the city of Viña del Mar, being reopened in the month of September 1960. There it remained until October 1986, when its closure was arranged due to the difficulty of the conservation of the collections and special facilities were installed in the building of the former Naval School on the Artillery Hill of Valparaíso, which was opened to the public on May 23, 1988. .

      The transfer to the Artillery Hill building signified the beginning of a new stage of expansion of the Museum. In December 1990 the Naval Auditorium became operational, then on November 10, 1997 the offices of the modern Archives and Historical Library of the Navy were inaugurated and in 2011 the institution was renamed the National Maritime Museum, becoming the Technical Direction of the Other Museums of the Navy: Iquique, Talcahuano, Ninhue and Punta Arenas.

      here I leave the link of the website
      http://www.museonaval.cl/

  5. Amazing works on display... Thanks for sharing these with us. Very impressive museum.

  6. I love that museum. The Latorre is incredible amazing! I actually went there on my birthday as my auto-gift.

  7. Greetings, Anthony! Thanks for sharing the great pictures of the wonderful ships. I've only been to one museum that had an extensive collection of ship models, the old Museum of Transport in Glasgow, Scotland. They had a few more models but I don't recall ANY as big as the battleship Latorre! That is a masterpiece of detail. While I know aircraft pretty well, my knowledge of ships is pretty slim, but the shape of the underside of the Latorre looks very interesting ... it's almost flat compared to others. Fascinating!

    • Thanks for your words jeff, the model of the Battleship Latorre is very big, is the most largest in Latin America, measuring almost 10 meters length. The underside is quite flat, since being based on the Iron Duke model, with some modifications, should have improved stability and greater firepower for their 14-inch guns, unfortunately this magnificent ship was not kept as a museum, and was sold to the Mitsubishi heavy insdustries to be scrapped, although several of its parts were used to restore the ship of the Japanese Imperial Navy Mikasa, which today is a museum in the city of Yokosuka in Japan.

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