Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Brazilian
monitor Santa Catharina (in modern spelling, Santa Catarina) was the
sixth, and last, ship of the Pará-class river monitors built for the
Brazilian Navy during the War of the Triple Alliance in the late 1860s.
By the time she was completed the war was winding down and she only had
one significant engagement against Paraguayan forces in 1869. The ship
was assigned to the Mato Grosso Flotilla after the war. Santa Catharina
sank at her moorings while under repair in 1882. The Pará-class monitors
were designed to meet the need of the Brazilian Navy for small,
shallow-draft armored ships capable of withstanding heavy fire. The
monitor configuration was chosen as a turreted design did not have the
same problems engaging enemy ships and fortifications as did the central
battery ironclads already in Brazilian service.
