Prat quickly positioned the ship in front of the coast, 200 metres (660 ft) from it, forcing Huáscar to shoot with a parabolic trajectory to avoid hitting the Peruvian village, whose people gathered in crowds to see the battle. At the Battle of Iquique (then in Peru, now in Chile), on May 21, 1879, the Peruvians suffered the loss of one of their best warships, the Independencia; then the Huáscar was captured on October 8, and this eventual surrender of control of the sea permitted a Chilean army to land on the Peruvian coast. var script = document.createElement("script"); After the Peruvian army arrived safely at Arica, the Independencia and the Huáscar steamed south to challenge the Chilean blockade of Iquique and landings at Antofagasta. On the 21st of April the Chilean sloop "Esmeralda" and the gunboat " Covadonga " � both small and weak ships � engaged the Peruvian heavy ironclads "Huascar" and "Independencia "; after a hot fight the "Huascar" under Miguel Grau sank the "Esmeralda" under Arturo Prat, who was killed, but Carlos Condcu in the "Covadonga" manoeuvred the "Independencia" aground and shelled her into a complete wreck. The defenders had 22,000 men in the lines, the Chileans engaged about 24,000. Expenditures for the war, and the consequent loss of revenue from the nitrate fields, created the possibility of imminent bankruptcy. The War of the Pacific (1879–83). Uribe tried to maneuver like Prat and managed to present his side at an angle to spur the monitor Huáscar, but this time he opened a water route, entering pouring into the powder magazine and machines. This time, however, the bold boarding party failed to take its prize, and Prat was killed on the deck of the Huáscar. Sublieutenant Ignacio Serrano boarded Huáscar with eleven more men, armed with machetes and rifles but they were again unsuccessful, falling on the deck of the monitor to the Gatling guns and the monitor's crew, some dying immediately due to bullet wounds sustained. It was perhaps the greatest act of bravado in any naval battle since John Paul Jones took HMS Serapis from the deck of the sinking Bonhomme Richard a century earlier. Please try again. The two navies spent the first month of the war convoying troop transports, the Chileans from Valparaíso north to Antofagasta, the Peruvians from Callao south to Arica, while the Chileans continued to blockade Iquique in-between. Independencia was in pursuit of Covadonga, which was heading south of the port of Iquique. Esmeralda displaced 854 tons, and was armed with twenty 32-pound cannons and two 12-pound cannons. Leguía supported the adoption of a new constitution in 1920. The Huáscar was modernized by the addition of a steam winch for its turret, and all three of the fleet’s armored warships received new 8-inch Armstrong breechloading rifles. This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. The first line of defence was attacked by Baquedano on the 13th of January 1881. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Prat responded not by surrendering but by leading a charge from the deck of the sinking Esmeralda in an attempt to board and take the Huáscar. About the same time Chilean warships occupied Cobija and Tocapilla, and Sotomayor, after his victory at Calama, marched to the latter port. There was a problem loading your book clubs. Whichever country controlled the sea could freely transport troops and land them at any strategic point. A peace treaty was finally signed on October 20, 1904 – which made this arrangement permanent. script.setAttribute("async", true); This vessel was named Esmeralda after the frigate of the same name captured by Lord Cochrane at El Callao in 1820. Chilean troops landed north of the city in March eventually cut off the garrison from resupply by land; they finally stormed Arica and captured it on 7 June. (function(src){var a=document.createElement("script");a.type="text/javascript";a.async=true;a.src=src;var b=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];b.parentNode.insertBefore(a,b)})("//experience.tinypass.com/xbuilder/experience/load?aid=bYdYZQml5V"); Throughout the nineteenth century Chile's borders were a matter of contention. A lively and informative new podcast for kids that the whole family will enjoy! For some inexplicable reason the allies made no use of their victory, continued to retreat and left the Chileans in complete possession of the Tarapaci region. script.setAttribute("onerror", "setNptTechAdblockerCookie(true);"); (The Huáscar remains the world’s only contested museum ship; as recently as August 1999 President Alberto Fujimori demanded its return to Peru.). The decisive campaign of the war was the Chilean advance on Lima (the capital of Peru). Grau quickly had him picked up and carried to the infirmary in a state of shock, where they left him next to the dying petty officer Aldea. Williams Rebolledo hastened back to Iquique but arrived on the morning of 22 May, too late to save the Esmeralda and Covadonga, which had engaged the Peruvian ironclads in battle the previous day. Condell ignored Prat's order and followed Lamar, but the warship did get away from Covadonga, and Independencia, under control of Juan Guillermo More, followed him. The ship's speed dropped to 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) (her engine was defective due to age and lack of maintenance). At 8:15, the first volley hit between the ships, and Prat ordered Esmeralda to start moving, followed by Covadonga. Also, Captain Prat's sudden death while on duty inspired thousands of Chilean youths to join the army and the navy. The War of the Pacific also bestowed on the Chilean armed forces enhanced respect, the prospect of steadily increasing force levels, and a long-term external mission guarding the borders with Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina.  He found Independencia stranded in the shallow water with 20 surviving crew members aboard, including More, since the rest had landed in boats on the shore. Meanwhile, the Covadonga steamed southward, hugging the coast, chased by the Independencia. Soon controlled by British and then by United States investors, the nitrate fields became a classic monocultural boom and bust. The corvette leaned forward and began to sink. document.cookie = "__adblocker=" + (adblocker ? The wooden hull of the 20-year-old Esmeralda took a terrific pounding but Prat refused to strike his flag. Grau, now known as the "Gentleman of the Seas" due to his actions in the battle and later for his noble gesture toward Prat's widow and the surviving crewmembers, became honoured in both Peru and Chile as a gallant naval hero. The tardy pursuit of the Chileans ended in the battle of Tarapaci on the 27th. Does this book contain inappropriate content? The battle took place off the then-Peruvian port of Iquique. Two days later took place the battle of Miraflores (January 15th). The desert remained calm until February 1878, when Bolivia imposed a new export tax on saltpeter, in violation of the 1874 tax-freeze pledge. In 1872 a Chilean–Bolivian treaty established the border at the 24th parallel, just south of Antofagasta, and two years later Bolivia pledged not to raise taxes on Chilean companies operating between the 23th and 24th parallels for a period of twenty-five years. British observers praised the gunnery of the Chileans, who fired a total of seventy-six rounds and scored a remarkable twenty-seven hits; in contrast, the guns in the hand-cranked turret of the Huáscar managed just three hits against its two opponents, causing no damage. Under an 1866 treaty, Chile and Bolivia divided the disputed area encompassing the Atacama Desert at 24� south latitude (located just south of the port of Antofagasta) in the understanding that the nationals of both nations could freely exploit mineral deposits in the region. The war gave Chile control over nitrate exports, which would dominate the national economy until the 1920s, possession of copper deposits that would eclipse nitrate exports by the 1930s, greatpower status along the entire Pacific Coast of South America, and an enduring symbol of patriotic pride in the person of naval hero Arturo Prat Chac�n. Fighting the War of the Pacific, 1879–1884. The Naval War of Pacific, 1879-1884: Saltpeter War Parution du 1/09/2020 Auteur : Robert Panek Edition : MMP BOOKS - SERIE MARITIME N°3111 ISBN : La guerre du Pacifique (en espagnol: Guerra del Pacifico), également connue sous le nom de guerre du salpêtre (en espagnol: Guerra del salitre) était une guerre entre le Chili et une alliance bolivo-péruvienne.