Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre

Almirante Latorre, named after Juan José Latorre, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for theChilean Navy (Armada de Chile). She was the first of a planned two-ship class that would respond toearlier warship purchases by other South American countries. Construction began at Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, soon after the ship was ordered in November 1911, and was approaching completion when she was bought by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy for use in the First World War. Commissionedin September 1915, she served in the Grand Fleet asHMS Canada for the duration of the war and saw action during the Battle of Jutland.

Canada was repurchased by Chile in 1920. She took back her original name of Almirante Latorre, and served as Chile's flagship and frequently as presidential transport. She underwent a thorough modernization in the United Kingdom in 1929–31. In September 1931, crewmen aboard Almirante Latorreinstigated a mutiny, which the majority of the Chilean fleet quickly joined. After divisions developed between the mutineers, the rebellion fell apart and the ships were returned to government control. Almirante Latorre was put into reserve for a time in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, but she was in good enough condition to receive interest from the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was declined and the ship spent most of the Second World War on patrol for Chile. She was scrapped in Japan beginning in 1959.

Almirante Latorre's genesis can be traced to the numerous naval arms races between Chile and Argentina, which in turn were spawned by territorial disputes over their mutual borders in Patagonia andPuna de Atacama, along with control of the Beagle Channel. Naval races flared up in the 1890s and in 1902; the latter was eventually settled via British mediation. Provisions in the dispute-ending treaty imposed restrictions on both countries' navies. The United Kingdom's Royal Navy bought the twoConstitución-class pre-dreadnought battleships that were being built for Chile, and Argentina sold its twoRivadavia-class armored cruisers under construction in Italy to Japan.^[1][2]

After HMS Dreadnought was commissioned, Brazil decided in early 1907 to halt construction of three obsolescent pre-dreadnoughts in favor of two or three dreadnoughts.^[3] These ships, which were designed to carry the heaviest battleship armament in the world at the time,^[4] came as a shock to the navies of South America.^[3] Historian Robert Scheina commented that they "outclassed the entire [elderly] Argentinian fleet."^[5] Although debates raged in Argentina over whether it would be prudent to counter Brazil's purchase by acquiring their own expensive dreadnoughts, further border disputes—particularly near the River Plate with Brazil—decided the matter, and it ordered two Rivadavia-class battleships (no relation to the earlier cruisers) from the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in the United States.^[6][7] With its major rival acquiring dreadnoughts, Chile responded by asking for tenders from American and European countries that would give the country the most powerful battleships afloat.^[8]