The Battleship that Mysteriously Vanished

You can support my channel on Patreon: / hiddenhistoryyt
Want U-Boat or Warship models? Go here: hiddenhistoryy...
Thanks for watching, remember to like & subscribe!
São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship of the Brazilian Navy. It was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo.
The British company Vickers constructed São Paulo, launching it on 19 April 1909. The ship was Ccommissioned into the Brazilian Navy on 12 July 1910. Soon after, it was involved in the Revolt of the Lash (Revolta de Chibata), in which crews on four Brazilian warships mutinied over poor pay and harsh punishments for even minor offenses. After entering the First World War, Brazil offered to send São Paulo and its sister Minas Geraes to Britain for service with the Grand Fleet, but Britain declined since both vessels were in poor condition and lacked the latest fire control technology. In June 1918, Brazil sent São Paulo to the United States for a full refit that was not completed until 7 January 1920, well after the war had ended. On 6 July 1922, São Paulo fired its guns in anger for the first time when it attacked a fort that had been taken during the Copacabana Fort revolt. Two years later, mutineers took control of the ship and sailed it to Montevideo in Uruguay, where they obtained asylum.
In the 1930s, São Paulo was passed over for modernization due to its poor condition-it could only reach a top speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), less than half its design speed. For the rest of its career, the ship was reduced to a reserve coastal defense role. When Brazil entered the Second World War, São Paulo sailed to Recife and remained there as the port's main defense for the duration of the war. Stricken in 1947, the dreadnought remained as a training vessel until 1951, when it was taken under tow to be scrapped in the United Kingdom. The tow lines broke during a strong gale on 6 November, when the ships were 150 nmi (280 km; 170 mi) north of the Azores, and São Paulo was lost.
Subscribe to our FREE daily WW2 newsletter: hiddenhistoryy...
If you liked this video, check out my other submarine videos: • Submarines/U-Boats
Want to learn more about Submarines? Click here: hiddenhistoryy...
Check out my book: www.amazon.com...
Join our Facebook Group: / hiddenhistoryyt
Follow on Instagram for history photos: @hiddenhistorybackup / hiddenhistorybackup
Follow us on Twitter: / hiddenhistoryyt @HiddenHistoryYT
If you feel that this content in some way infringes on your own content please reach out to [e-mail]
#warships #navy #brazil #battleship #history

[@TheBrettWay]

okay that ending was truly shocking.. I thought it was going to be some simple sinking but that literally gave me goosebumps.

[@HiddenHistoryYT]

So true Brett!

[@_rafael_9353]

I'm always happy when I see videos about our battleships Minas Gerais and São Paulo, I grew up listening to my grandfather's story about when he visited São Paulo in Rio de Janeiro when he was a child and was amazed by its size and that was one of the reasons he enlisted in the navy when he got older.

[@mgjmiller1995]

24:00 "A battleship is adrift." Probbaly not on most mariners' bingo cards regarding statements they hear over the radio😂

[@taproom113]

Very sad ending. Hopefully some day, her final resting spot can be determined and she and her crew can be properly honored. ^v^

[@neptunenavalmods4420]

I am sure she went down near where the tow was slipped; the tug boat logs would likely give a good idea. Unfortunately, there is probably not much public interest in "obscure" wrecks compared to ships like the Titanic.

[@sreed8570]

Of course Brazil had already been paid and had no intention of providing any evidence that might empower a court to require them to return the money. That's only common sense no matter now you slice it. That would be tantamount to a police officer asking YOU to provide the evidence so he could arrest you.

[@WardenWolf]

We still don't know the final resting place of USS Oklahoma, and no one has really looked for her, either.

[@harryricochet8134]

It was subsequently determined that all blame for the vessel's loss should be attributed to Donald Trump.🤣🤣🤣

[@jacquelinejohnson9447]

😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂 good one! Thanks!😅

[@chezsnailez]

One of things we've learned about a ship's greatest vulnerability when getting towed to the breakers were the propeller shafts and their lignite linings. The lignite, having decayed frin disuse will flood the stern until the ship becomes a single use submarine (much to the surprise of everyone still onboard).

[@lumberlikwidator8863]

I had read about the loss of São Paulo years ago in Alan Villier’s excellent book Posted Missing, but this video covered it much more detail. This was well written, researched and well told. Thanks for your fine work!

[@alexbenis4726]

That crazy design of having the spotting top after the fore funnel, great for roasting the crew up there!

[@jonsouth1545]

was quite common at the time in most situations it wasn't really an issue as it was high enough up that the exhaust of the ship went harmlessly underneath the spotting top but when many ships transitioned to oil assitsted coal burning and then oil burning the higher temperature of the exhaust meant it went up further before being dissapated and then it became a much bigger issue that had big effects on gunnery.

[@tedthesailor172]

I guess the crew came off-watch fully kippered...

[@neptunenavalmods4420]

Well done video. William Painter's son has made lots of internet posts about his father's last voyage; may his dad and crew RIP. A similar scrap tow tragedy began in my city (Portland) - freighter named "Star K" was laid up in Oregon and scrap-towed West with a runner crew like Sao Paulo - they were warned "Star K" would sink and sure enough she sank off Wake Island - only one man survived. Scrap tug (MV Sumi Maru) saw it sink, so it was not quite as mysterious as Sao Paulo. Ocean salvage will always be dangerous.

[@tedthesailor172]

Another fascinating story I've never heard before. Many thanks for sharing. I guess if a Battleship can vanish, anything can...

[@markpaul-ym5wg]

Thank you very much HIDDEN HISTORY.Interesting story.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

November is one of the worst times to sail the North Atlantic. They should've departed in a more favorable weather season. Brazil should have scrapped and kept all that hi-grade steel; they would have made more money that way in the long run. All that being said, she was a beautiful Dreadnought. Even more so if she had been maintained. Salute Brazil and the South American Dreadnought Race!

[@ryanjourney9607]

I really want to watch this video but I can’t deal with listening to a terrible AI narrator.

[@Shockwave-ob2tx]

You could try closed captioning

[@UncleJoeLITE]

15:02 Small technical clarification: a 'dead tow' will still be heavily ballasted. In addition to regular ballast, there are huge oil tanks scattered around low in the ship. If there's no plan to reuse the ship, extra ballast can be put there. Last thing they did back in the day was dumping metal & rocks low in the bilges. That's oversimplified, battleships are very heavy anyway & there's a trade-off between tow load & stability, but hope it clarifies a bit.

[@chrissycarr1618]

Interesting story, but such a sad ending for this ship.

[@daveanderson3805]

Guess that the old girl didn't want to go to the breakers yard.

[@bostonrailfan2427]

misleading title…nothing mysterious about the situation, it happened multiple times before and after to ships bigger and smaller than it

[@seanbigay1042]

IMHO a humiliating end to a humiliating life.

[@Meczyk]

Warning - there is no mystery here.

[@johncook3817]

Very interesting video!

[@yours2injesus2]

HOW SAD

[@user-bo5dl9hr8k]

Wow, AI does a really bad job of pronouncing Portuguese.

[@marksaunders1789]

Who really cares pathetic thing to cry abt

[@RebeccaCampbell1969]

One thing ... Warship Dreadnought Battlecruiser And Battleship, a different class. Why YT contributions (today) keep mixing up each class... I can forgive British last century propagandists, i mean authors... but today? Warship means a ship of war... Battleship means a class type Super Battleship is a different one, like carrier and super carrier Thanks for talking about SA's navy's and their conflicts.... A/B/C (Argentina/Brazil/Chile)

[@troysemrau3654]

A battleship is a battleship regardless of class. You can break them down as predreadnaught, dreadnaught, and Super dreadnaught, but they are still all battleships. The term battleship refers to a type, not a class of ship.

[@TigerDominic-uh1dv]

Thanks I Love History 😊

[@raymondromanos1479]

Where the hell is Greenic? Do you mean Greenwich?

[@rjmun580]

He said Greenock. It's on the Clyde and was a major shipbuilding town.

[@raymondromanos1479]

@@rjmun580 thanks, didn't know that.

[@UncleJoeLITE]

She was a beautiful ship, but as ex-navy, that 2-tier crewing bs gives me no respect for their officers or NCOs. I cleaned many, many toilets & other crap as a Midshipman & "volunteered" to do sh*tty stuff as a SBLT, to prove to the men I wouldn't order anything I wouldn't do myself. "Leaders eat last." ⚓🇦🇺. Cheers from Canberra.

[@johncarlson3061]

So where did it sink? The tows had to have a rough estimate of location? Has anyone found the wreck site? Seems crazy to think that with modern technology the site hasn't been discovered.

[@johnbarnes6832]

Lengths of cable are measured in feet or meters, not fathoms. Fathom is a measurement of depth that pertains to water.

[@keithrimmer3]

Not so unfortunately ship's cable is in fathoms

[@johnbarnes6832]

@@keithrimmer3 Thanks, in my reading of things nautical I never came across that, it's a good day when one learns something new.

[@jacksprat9172]

@@johnbarnes6832 Same here John, quite surprising. Now I'll have to find out where fathom comes from!

[@jeffbybee5207]

​@@jacksprat9172 fathom about 6 feet is the width of hands out streached . Thus grab a rope and streach arms wide and thats a fathom

[@joebfnl1079]

a thought. she probabley went on her beams end and got hit with a rouge wave.

[@neptunenavalmods4420]

Probably right, a rogue wave could have easily knocked the wooden plugs to the casemate guns out. Hull openings for casemate guns were a big design flaw in older ships - they also caused the USS San Diego to sink fast after being mined in 1918.

[@indridcold8433]

There was a destroyer that disappeared asxvbms reappeared. The vessel's name was the U.S.S. Eldridge.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

I'm hoping this is a joke.

[@seti48]

What's with all the revolts in Brazil?

[@chezsnailez]

Caffeine jitters?

[@seti48]

@@chezsnailez They are a big coffee supplier.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

I believe they've been unstable at the top since they deposed the Imperial family and had the rubber industry stolen out from under them by the UK.

[@michaeldeering5907]

repeat ans repeat again if u need to fill time. sheesh

[@raymondromanos1479]

Get a real voice and do proper research.

[@Dilley_G45]

Yes

[@brianjones7660]

Literally, I worked in radio for a decade doing voiceovers and I could do this far better and no one would be mocking the announcer like everyone does on the channel….what does it gain them?😮

[@rdallas81]

​@@brianjones7660it gets your comments for the algorithm 😂😂

[@Ettrick8]

Insurance job?

[@HiddenHistoryYT]

Want to support the Channel? Go here: www.patreon.com/HiddenHistoryYT Want U-Boat or Warship models? Go here: hiddenhistoryyt.myshopify.com Join our FREE Daily WW2 Newsletter: hiddenhistoryyt.beehiiv.com/subscribe