Bouchard-class minesweeper

The Bouchard-class minesweepers were a class of World War II warships, designed and built in Argentina as minesweepers, in service with the Argentine Navy from 1937 to the late 1960s. Three were transferred to the Paraguayan Navy and remained in service as of late 1990s. The class is named after Hippolyte Bouchard, an Argentine privateer who fought in the Independence War against Spain.

Design
The Bouchard class minesweepers were the first relatively large warships built in Argentina. They were intended to complement and eventually replace the Bathurst class ships purchased from Germany after World War I. They were designed in the early 1930s and laid down in 1935-1937.

The Bouchard class was based on the Bathurst class design, with diesel instead of steam engines and larger calibre (102mm Bethlehem-Vickers) main armament. However these ships had poor stability, which eventually led to the loss of the Fournier in 1949.

The following warship class designed and constructed in Argentina was part of a program to build another four larger mine warfare ships during the Second World War, combining the roles of minelayer and minesweeper; however two of them (Murature and King) were completed as patrol ships and the others (Piedrabuena and Azopardo) as antisubmarine frigates.

Service history
The Bouchard class was designed in the early 1930s and the ships were laid down in 1935-1937 in three shipyards: Río Santiago, Hansen & Puccini, Sánchez & Cía. They were commissioned by the Argentine Navy in the late 1930s and remained in service until the late 1960s.

The ships in the class were used in exercises with the high seas fleet, and very frequently assigned to the Patagonian seas where sea conditions are very rough. The stability problem of this design was worsened in those seas, which eventually led to the loss of the Fournier with all hands during a storm, in September 1949.

Three ships were transferred to the Paraguayan Navy after being decommissioned by Argentina, and remained in service as of the late 1990s..