![]() ![]() She has a gross tonnage of 3,872, a length of 350 ft. This ship and her sister vessel, the Ciudad de Buenos Aires, are among the largest and most luxurious operating on the River Plate they normally ply between the capitals of Uruguay and Argentina, Completed in 1915, the Ciudad de Montevideo was built at Birkenhead. The Ciudad de Montevideo seen at the great river port and Uruguayan capital. The Parana forms the boundary first between Brazil and Paraguay, and then between Argentina and Paraguay, after which it flows south through Argentina and then south- east into the River Plate.Ī NIGHT SCENE AT MONTEVIDEO. The next great river, the Parana, is formed by the confluence of the Rio Parana- panema and the Rio Paranahyba in Brazil. The most easterly of the rivers of the system, the Uruguay, rises in Brazil, and after a course of many miles forms the boundary first between Brazil and Argentina, and then between Uruguay and Argentina. Above these reaches the waterways are navigable for thousands of miles and are used by power- driven craft. ![]() The general direction is from north to south, and the waterways, in their lower reaches, are capable of taking ocean ships. The network is south of the ramifications of the Amazon and, although not so vast, is of much greater commercial value. Some of the headwaters almost touch those of the River Amazon. These rivers and their tributaries form an intricate network of navigable waterways extending from Buenos Aires into the heart of Brazil and almost to the Andes in Bolivia. The estuary is formed by the junction of the Rivers Parana and Uruguay, the former having a mighty tributary, the Paraguay. Montevideo, 123 miles distant, on the eastern shore, is the capital of Uruguay. Buenos Aires, with a population of 2,230,000, the largest city south of the Equator, and the capital of Argentina, lies on the western shore of the estuary, about 100 miles from the sea. The rivers tap one of the chief food- producing areas in the world and drain a basin of about 1,500,000 square miles. Nearly all the meat ships and a proportion of the grain ships are also liners. Upon the muddy and almost tideless waters of the estuary float the fleets of meat and grain ships which ply to most parts of the world. The name is applied also to the great cattle and grain producing republics of Argentina and Uruguay, and it covers as well the traffic that comes down the vast system of rivers that flow into the estuary from Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia. This is the wide, shallow estuary, about 150 miles long, which is the principal outlet for the trade of South America. THE Rio de la Plata is the Spanish name of what is known to English- speaking peoples as the River Plate. Small craft can go beyond Corumba up the River Cuyaba, a tributary of the Upper Paraguay River, as far as Cuyaba. Corumba is the commercial centre of the Brazilian State of Matto Grosso. This town is 1,618 miles above Buenos Aires and lies on the Paraguay River, one of the great tributaries of the River Plate. THE HIGHEST NAVIGABLE POINT to which power- driven ships of special type can proceed on the River Plate system is Corumba, shown above. But the German warship’s subsequent withdrawal to the neutral Uruguayan port of Montevideo, and its dramatic scuttling by its own crew on 17 December, turned the Battle of the River Plate into a major British victory – and a welcome morale boost for the Allied cause during the ‘Phoney War’ that followed the fall of Poland.Īchilles’ role in the battle was a special source of pride for New Zealanders, who welcomed the ship’s crew home at huge parades in Auckland and Wellington in early 1940.The great South American waterways which rise in the heart of the continent and find their outlet in the estuary serving the capitals of Argentina and Uruguay are of vital importance to the world’s food supplies All four vessels were damaged, with the British ships suffering 72 fatalities (including two New Zealanders) to the Graf Spee's 36. The 82-minute engagement between the Graf Spee and its three smaller British opponents – Achilles, Ajax and Exeter – was inconclusive. With the New Zealand ensign flying proudly from its mainmast – as battle loomed, a signalman had run aft with the ensign shouting ‘Make way for the Digger flag!’ – Achilles also became the first New Zealand warship to take part in a naval battle. on 13 December 1939, it became the first New Zealand unit to strike a blow at the enemy in the Second World War. When the cruiser HMS Achilles opened fire on the German ‘pocket battleship’ Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic at 6.21 a.m. ![]()
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