Name NRP Dão Builder Lisbon Dockyard Decommissioned 5 January 1935 Length 98 m | Namesake Dão River Commissioned 27 July 1934 Launched 15 August 1934 Beam 9.5 m | |
Fate Stricken 29 November 1960 | ||
NRP Dão was an Douro-class destroyer of the Portuguese Navy. The ship was built in Lisbon Shipyard and completed in 1935. She remained in service until 1960, being refitted and re-armed several times and taking place in a coup attempt in 1936.
Contents
Construction and design
On 18 January 1933, a fifth destroyer of the Douro-class destroyer was ordered from Lisbon Shipyard, with machinery to be built by the British shipbuilder Yarrows. Portuguese Dictator Salazar gave a speech to commemorate the beginning of construction, thanking the navy minister for "choosing to name this unit of our fleet after the river that crosses my town." Dão was launched on 30 July 1934 and commissioned on 5 January 1935.
Dão was 323 feet (98.45 m) long overall and 307 feet (93.57 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 31 feet (9.45 m) and a draught of 11 feet (3.35 m). The ship displaced 1,219 long tons (1,239 t) standard and 1,563 long tons (1,588 t) full load. Three Yarrow boilers fitted with air pre-heaters and superheaters supplied steam at 400 pounds per square inch (2,800 kPa) to geared steam turbines, driving two propeller shafts and generating 33,000 shaft horsepower (25,000 kW), giving a speed of 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph).
Armament was similar to contemporary Royal Navy destroyers, with a gun armament of four 4.7-inch (119 mm) Vickers-Armstrong Mk G guns, and three 40 mm (2-pounder) 'pom-pom' anti-aircraft guns. Two quadruple banks of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes were carried, while two depth charge throwers and 12 depth charges constituted the ships' anti-submarine armament. Up to 20 mines could be carried. The ships complement was 147 officers and men.
1936 mutiny
On 9 September 1936 the crews of the aviso Afonso de Albuquerque and the Dão mutinied while anchored in Lisbon harbour. Opposed to the Salazar dictatorship's support of the Nationalists rebels against the pro-government Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, the sailors confined their officers and declared their solidarity with the Spanish Republic. As the ships were leaving the Tejo estuary they were fired upon by the batteries from the forts and both Afonso de Albuquerque and Dão received direct hits and were grounded. Some of the sailors were killed while trying to flee, but most of the sailors were arrested and sent to the penal colony of Terrafal in Cape Verde. After the mutiny was put down the government claimed that the sailors had prepared to sail to Spain in order to assist the Spanish Republic.