The New Orleans class of protected cruisers of the United States Navy consisted of two ships which were building for the Brazilian Navy at Elswick, near Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, by Armstrong Whitworth.

The Brazilian Navy had ordered four Elswick cruisers, but had already sold the first ship during construction to Chile as Ministro Zenteno.

[4] These were British-made export-model guns built by Elswick Ordnance Company, a subsidiary of Armstrong.

[5] The engineering plant included four double-ended coal-fired Scotch marine boilers[9] supplying steam to two inverted vertical triple expansion engines (made by Humphrys & Tennant in New Orleans, Hawthorn Leslie in Albany),[4] which produced 7,500 ihp (5,600 kW) for a design speed of 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph), which was achieved on trials.

[8] At least some of the guns from these ships were emplaced in the Grande Island/Subic Bay area 1907-1910 and operated by the United States Marine Corps until the Coast Artillery Corps' modern defenses centered on Fort Wint were completed.

[2][4] At least one 6-inch gun Mark 5 was delivered to the Army during that war for potential service on M1917B field carriages on the Western Front; it is unclear if these weapons were shipped overseas.