Everything about Nael Minas Gerais totally explained
NAeL Minas Gerais is a former
aircraft carrier of the
Brazilian Navy.
She started out as
HMS Vengeance, a
Colossus-class vessel built by the
United Kingdom during
World War II. She was purchased by Brazil in 1956 for USD $9 million, and named after Brazilian President
Juscelino Kubitschek's home state of
Minas Gerais. He apparently made this decision as part of an effort to appease the Brazilian military (mainly from Navy and Air Force), although this was only one of many extravagant projects Kubitschek carried out (such as the establishment of the city of
Brasília).
In her service years, due to jurisdiction problems with the
Brazilian Air Force, the Navy couldn't operate
fixed-wing aircraft and the
S-2 Trackers were operated by the Air Force on behalf of the Navy. Nevertheless, Navy was able to fly helicopters.
The
Argentine Navy used her to qualify and train naval aviators after her sister ship
ARA Veinticinco de Mayo was confined to port due to engine problems.
She served for 42 years in the and was replaced by
NAe São Paulo in 2000. Due to the high maintenance cost of two aircraft carriers and also the fact that she'd capacity for just 12 modern jets, she was offered to the
Argentine Navy but was rejected due to her poor condition and high restoration and maintenance costs. Downgraded to a helicopter support ship in 2001, she was finally decommissioned from the Brazilian Navy on
16 October 2001; she'd been the final
Colossus-class carrier in commission anywhere in the world.
In 2002 the 58 year old ship was auctioned, during the auction the
Brazilian Navy received 12 offers from buyers, 9 of which wanted to scrap the ship immediately, asthe ship contained over 16 thousand tonnes of high quality
steel. In the end on July 22 she was sold for USD $2 million to
HK Jiexin Shipping, a
Hong Kong company. The company claimed it would anchor her in
Zhoushan,
China, near
Shanghai and convert her into a
museum ship with shops and a bar. However in October 2003, the bid was rescinded, and the
Minas Gerais was set to be scrapped.
In 2002 a campaign under the name Save the Vengeance was started to acquire her as a museum ship, but was unable to secure funding.
The ship between 2002 and 2004 remained docked on
Rio de Janeiro. She was finally towed from
Brazil in February 2004 to
Alang,
India, where the ship Minas Gerais was broken up for scrap between the years 2004 and 2005.
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