Imperial Marinheiro-class corvettes were built and designed following the order of Brazilian Navy Minister Admiral Renato de Almeida Guillobel in the early 1950s.

[1] Ipiranga was powered by two Sulzer 6TD36 6-cylinder diesel engines turning two shafts creating 1,610 kilowatts (2,160 bhp), giving the ship a maximum speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph).

[1][2] Ipiranga was ordered from Smit in the Netherlands, and the ship's keel was laid down on 17 October 1953 at the CC Sheepsbower & Gashonder Bedriff Jonker & Stans shipyard in Rotterdam and was launched on 26 June 1954.

[3] She was one of two corvettes deployed to sea by Admiral Arnolodo Toscano in response to French fisherman encroaching in the locals' fishing and lobster territory in 1961.

During a routine mission,[1] the bow of the corvette struck the protruding rocks of the Cabeça da Sapata underwater pinnacle and sank in 60 meters (200 ft) of water off the northeast coast of Brazil, not far from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.