ARA Bahía Buen Suceso
| History | |
|---|---|
| Argentina | |
| Name | Bahía Buen Suceso |
| Builder | Halifax Shipbuilding Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| Yard number | 17 |
| Commissioned | 1950 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | Sunk, 21 October 1982 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class & type | Bahía Aguirre class |
| Type | Transport |
| Tonnage | 3,834 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length | 102.48 m (336 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 14.36 m (47 ft 1 in) |
| Draught | 5.64 m (18 ft 6 in) |
| Propulsion | 2 × Nordberg 5-cylinder 3,750 hp (2,796 kW) diesel engines, 2 shafts |
| Speed | 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) |
| Capacity | 100 passengers |
| Crew | 46 |
| Service record | |
| Part of | Argentine Navy, Naval Transport Service |
| Operations | Falklands War |
ARA Bahía Buen Suceso (B-6) was a Bahía Aguirre-class 5,000-ton fleet transport that served in the Argentine Navy from 1950 to 1982. She took part in the Falklands War as a logistics ship tasked with resupplying the Argentine garrisons scattered around the Falkland Islands. Captured by British forces on 15 June after running aground at Fox Bay, she sank in deep waters while being used as target practice by the Royal Navy on 21 October 1982.
History
The ship was constructed by Halifax Shipbuilding Limited at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and commissioned in June 1950 for service under the Transporte Navales command. In 1958 she carried the crew of the new aircraft carrier ARA Independencia to the United Kingdom. The vessel participated in numerous Antarctic supply missions. In October 1966, she transported the passengers, crew and hijackers of Aerolineas Argentinas DC-4 LV-AGG from the Falkland Islands to Ushuaia. The aircraft had been hijacked by a group of Argentine nationalists and flown to the islands three days earlier.[2]
On 10 March 1969 she made a trip to Europe, visiting cities such as Genova, Bruges, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Portsmouth, Edinburgh, and Dublin. The purpose of the trip was to carry wheat to Europe and bring military items to Argentina. While sailing through the English Channel, she collided with the tanker Asprella and was repaired at the Ferrol shipyard in Vigo, Spain.
Bahía Buen Suceso was often hired out to commercial companies, usually on coastal runs down to southern Argentina and also an annual summer tourist voyage to the Argentinian research bases in Antarctica.[3] In 1972 she began regular service between the continent and the Falkland Islands.[4]
Falklands War
The ship landed scrap-metal workers on South Georgia on 19 March 1982.[3] Bahía Buen Suceso was one of the blockade runners during the Falklands War. She sailed from Stanley towards Falklands Sound on 29 April, before the first British attack. On 7 May, during a visual and radar surveillance mission while returning from Fox Bay,[5] the ship spotted the schooner Penelope, property of the Falkland Islands Company, at anchor along a pier in Speedwell Island. The small craft was seized and searched some hours later by naval commandos and taken over by an Argentine prize crew the following day.[6]
On 10 May 1982, while berthed in Fox Bay East on West Falkland, she was strafed by two Sea Harriers (XZ500 and ZA191) from HMS Hermes. As the ship was so close to a civilian settlement, the Harriers used their 30 mm cannons, damaging the ship's bridge and engine room, and setting on fire a paint store and workshop ashore. One of the Harriers was hit in the tail by a 7.62 mm round. Both aircraft returned safely to Hermes.[7][8]
After the attack the ship remained moored in Fox Bay East. During a storm she tore partially free from her moorings and her bow swung onto the beach. After the war Bahía Buen Suceso was towed to San Carlos Water by the tug Irishman. There, she was repeatedly used for target practice by British warships and Sea Harriers of 809 NAS. On 21 October 1982 her hull was taken out to deep water, where it was sunk with three torpedoes by the submarine HMS Onyx.[9]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "Transportes Navales : "Bahia Buen Suceso" 1950–1982". histarmar.com.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 26 January 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
- ^ "La historia de 18 jóvenes que secuestraron un avión para pisar Malvinas" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-02-08. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
- ^ a b Middlebrook, Martin (2003). Argentine Fight for the Falklands. Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 9781783032020.
Davidoff's working party which left Buenos Aires on II March 1982 sailed in the Bahía Buen Suceso; this was a transport ship of 5,000 tons, able to carry eighty passengers as well as cargo. It was owned by the Argentine Navy and was used as a naval transport when so required, but much of its time was spent on commercial charter work, its usual 'beat' being the long coastal run down to the extreme south of Argentina; the ship also made one voyage each summer taking tourists to visit the Argentine scientific bases in Antarctica. When the ship was hired out to Davidoff and sailed from Buenos Aires, its captain and crew were all members of the Argentine mercantile marines; there were no Argentine Navy personnel on board. The ship carried Davidoff's equipment and the forty-one civilian workers of his party; it also carried some general cargo for delivery to the Argentine port of Ushuaia on its return voyage. Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego, is the southernmost town in the world.
- ^ "Historia y Arqueologia Marítima – Bahia Buen Suceso". histarmar.com.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 19 November 2016.
- ^ Comisión de Análisis de Acciones de Combate (1983) Conclusiones - Fase IV: Componente Naval. Armada Argentina, p. 97 (In Spanish)
- ^ Mayorga, Horacio A. (1998). No Vencidos (in Spanish) (Planeta ed.). Buenos Aires. p. 313. ISBN 950-742-976-X.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "ARA Bahía Buen Suceso (Fox Bay attack summary)". BritishEmpire.co.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2025.
- ^ Morgan, David (2006). "Chapter 6". Hostile Skies. Phoenix. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-7538-2199-2.
as a hole from a 7.62 millimetre rifle bullet was found in his tail
- ^ Lovece, Julio Cesar (2021-10-21). "A 39 años del hundimiento del coloso de hierro del que dependía Ushuaia". Diario Prensa: Noticias de Tierra del Fuego (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-08-22.
Bibliography
- Hobson, Chris (2002). Falklands Air War. Midland Pub. ISBN 1-85780-126-1.
External links
- "History of the ship at Falklands War". El Apostadero Naval Malvinas (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 April 2018.
- Photos of the ship 1 (Archived 2009-10-24)
- Photos of the ship 2 (Archived 2009-10-24)
- Photos of the ship 3 (Archived 2009-10-24)
- Photos of the ship 4 (Archived 2009-10-24)