The Chincha Islands War (Spanish: Guerra hispano-sudamericana)
was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former
colonies of Peru and Chile from 1864 to 1866. The conflict began with
Spain’s seizure of the guano-rich Chincha Islands in one of a series of
attempts by Spain, under Isabella II, to reassert its influence over its
former South American colonies. The war saw the use of ironclads,
including the Spanish ship Numancia, the first ironclad to circumnavigate the world.
Under
the rule of Isabel the II (1843-1868) Spain faced one of the most
interesting and turbulent years of its history. When the young Queen was
crowned, she found a weak country that was far beyond from being the
great power of the past. She also found that the formerly powerful
Spanish Armada had only three main warships, all of them built during
the XVIII century and a couple of frigates and steamers, which was a
clear contrast with the 177 warships that the country had in 1790.
Isabel
tried to recover the military prestige that the Kingdom had until the
battle of Trafalgar, in which the British wiped out its impressive
armada. She encouraged the construction of a modern and powerful fleet,
which in few years turned Spain into the world’s fourth naval power.
Between 1859 and 1860, 170 million of pesetas, an enormous amount for
those days, were allocated for the construction of new warships. The
result was a mighty squadron composed of six iron-protected frigates,
eleven first class frigates and twelve steam corvettes, plus dozens of
transports and smaller warships. Few times in her history Spain had
assembled such an important and respectable fleet.
Despite
her internal problems, Spain became again a colonial power, and backed
by her naval might, by the end of the 1850´s the kingdom was
participating in several overseas interventions and internal conflicts.
During the second Government of former Governor of Cuba, Leopoldo
O´Donnell (1858-1863), Spain engaged in a war against Morocco (Tetuan),
in a conflict in Indochina (Vietnam), in the French-lead invasion of
Mexico and in the brief annexation of the Dominican Republic.
Soon it was the turn of South America.
At
the end of 1862, the Spanish Queen approved the sending of a so-called
“scientific expedition” to Latin American waters. The expedition was
placed under command of Rear Admiral Luis Hernandez Pinzon –a direct
descendant of the Pinzon brothers who accompanied Christopher Columbus
in the discovery of the New World- and was escorted by three warships:
The twin steam frigates Triunfo and Resolucion and the schooner Virgen
de Covadonga. However, beside scientific research, one of the purposes
of the trip was to support the claims of Spanish citizens living in the
Americas.
On April 18, 1863, the Spanish
fleet arrived at the Chilean port of Valparaiso. While in Chilean waters
the officers and men were cordially received and the Spaniards
responded in kind. But in July of that year, once in Peru, the problems
started. At that time Spain did not have diplomatic relations with Peru
neither had recognized its independence obtained in 1821. Despite this
situation, the expedition was received with friendly demonstrations by
the authorities. Unfortunately, on August 2, and for reasons still not
clear, an incident occurred in the northern Hacienda of Talambo between
Spanish Basques immigrants and Peruvian nationals. As a result, one
Spaniard was killed and four others injured.
Informed
about this, Pinzon, who was on his way to San Francisco, California,
returned to Peru with his fleet. The Spanish commanding officer
attempted to interfere in what many Peruvians thought was an internal
affair and requested reparations for the incident. Later, the Government
in Madrid also demanded the immediate solution of some pending issues,
such as the payment of debts originated in the wars of independence. To
negotiate these issues, a special emissary, Eusebio Salazar y Mazaredo,
invested as a Royal Commissioner, was sent to deal with the Peruvian
Government. Peru resented the title of Mazaredo, since a Commissioner
was supposed to be a colonial officer and not an Ambassador, which was
the proper title for a diplomatic envoy to a free and Sovereign State.
Mazaredo, who arrived in Peru on March 1864, tried unsuccessfully to
reach an agreement with the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juan
A. Ribeyro.
In response, on April 14th,
1864, the Spanish squadron moved from Callao towards the islands of
Chincha, the major source of Peruvian guano fertilizer. The small
Peruvian garrison was forced to surrender and at 16:00 hours, a
detachment of 400 Spanish marines seized the islands, raised their flag
and placed Governor Ramon Valle Riestra under arrest aboard the
Resolucion. To have an idea about the importance of those islands to
Peru, it must be said that nearly 60% of the Government expenditures
came from the custom duties from guano. Spain wanted to use the rich
islands as a bargaining tool for their demands, and even an ambitious
Spanish Minister back in Madrid proposed to swap them with the British
for Gibraltar.
The Spaniards also blockaded
Peru’s major port and placed the country into turmoil and anger. Even
if during a first stage the Spanish Government of the new Prime Minister
Jose Maria Narvaez did not approve the unilateral action taken by
Pinzon and Salazar, over the next months he changed his mind and sent
four more warships to reinforce the squadron. Narvaez also replaced
Pinzon with the more capable Rear Admiral Juan Manuel Pareja, a former
Minister of the Navy who, coincidentally, was born in Peru. His father,
an army officer, was killed during the wars of independence, and Pareja
disliked the “rebels” for that.
Admiral
Pareja arrived on Peru on December 1864 and engaged in intense
diplomatic negotiations with retired General Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco,
the special representative of the Peruvian President. The negotiations
concluded on January 27, 1865, with a preliminary agreement signed
aboard the Spanish frigate Villa de Madrid. However, most of the
population rejected the Vivanco-Pareja Treaty because it was very
humiliating for Peru. Congress did not ratify it and a revolution
against the Pezet Government exploded in the city of Arequipa months
later.
Meanwhile, anti-Spanish sentiments
in several South American countries such as Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador
were increasing. It was obvious that the Spaniards had no intention to
conquer again their former colonies. Neither they had the strength, nor
the resources to do it, but it was possible that the Government of
Madrid, while presenting a crusade of honor in the Pacific was trying to
distract attention from domestic problems. It was understandable that
after what had happen in Mexico and Santo Domingo, Peru and its
neighbors were suspicious about the possibility of the re-establishment
of the Spanish Empire. For this reason it was not surprising that when
the Spanish gunboat Vencedora stopped at a Chilean port for coal, the
President of that country declared that coal was a war supply that could
not be sold to a belligerent nation. However, from the Spanish point of
view such embargo could not be taken as proof of Chilean neutrality
since two Peruvian steamers –one of them the Lerzundi- had left the port
of Valparaiso with weapons and Chilean volunteers to fight for Peru. In
consequence, Admiral Pareja took a hard line and demanded sanctions
against Chile, even heavier than those imposed upon Peru. He then headed
with part of his squadron composed of four wooden ships to Chile, while
the Covadonga and the Numancia remained to guard Callao.
On
September 17th, 1865, Admiral Pareja anchored his flagship, the Villa
de Madrid, at Valparaiso and demanded that his flag be saluted with 21
guns. Under the circumstances the proud Chileans refused to salute
Pareja’s Insignia and war was declared one week later. Leopoldo
O´Donnell, who was again Spain’s Prime Minister, backed Pareja. Since
the Spanish Admiral had no troops with which to attempt a landing he
decided to impose a blockade of the main Chilean ports. Even so, his
plan was ridiculous, for in order to blockade Chile’s 1,800 miles of
coastline, Pareja would have needed a fleet several times larger than
what he had at his disposal. The blockade of the port of Valparaiso,
however, caused great damage to Chileans and neutrals.
On
November 8th, 1865, Peruvian President Juan Antonio Pezet was forced to
resign from office and was replaced by his Vice President, General
Pedro Diez Canseco. However, Diez Canseco also tried to avoid a
collision with Spain, and on November 26th General Mariano I. Prado,
leader of the nationalist movement, deposed him. Prado immediately
declared his solidarity with Chile and a state of war with Her Catholic
Majesty’s Government in order to restitute the nation’s honor and
confront Pareja´s insults and humiliations.
Ironically, that same day Admiral Pareja committed suicide. During the last weeks he had been suffering a series of setbacks. He could make no positive advances in his war with Chile, his blockade deteriorated and was ineffective and the crews of the ships were demoralized. The proud Admiral was unaware that the Chileans, in a brilliant naval action, had captured the gunboat Virgen de Covadonga and that during the fight the Spaniards had 4 men dead and 21 wounded (1). When on November 25 the American Consul casually mentioned it to him, the Admiral suffered a nervous collapse. It was too much for him. The Covadonga was the second warship lost by Spain in enemy waters after a fire destroyed the Triunfo a year ago. The next day Pareja dressed in his best uniform, laid down on his bed, and shot himself in the head.
Back in the Peninsula, the Spanish public opinion was enraged and
demanded revenge. Because of the loss of the Virgen de Covadonga, one
newspaper wrote:
“Let our squadron perish in the Pacific if necessary, only let our honor to be saved”
After Pareja´s death, the command of the Spanish squadron went to the Captain of the Numancia, Commodore Casto Mendez Nuñez.
On
December the 5th 1865, Chile and Peru formally signed an alliance to
fight against Spain. The treaty was ratified on January 12, 1866. Two
days later Peru declared war on Spain. Immediately a squadron of the
Peruvian navy under command of Captain Lizardo Montero, composed by the
steam frigates Amazonas and the Apurimac, sailed towards Valparaiso to
join the Chilean fleet. Once there the allied command was placed under
orders of Chilean Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada, an old but capable
officer.
Rumors spread trough Europe and
panic reached Spanish waters because two new powerful Peruvian ironclads
had sailed from England and were said to be heading towards the port of
Cadiz. The Spaniards were also afraid of hostilities against their
merchant ships sailing in international waters. To prevent such actions
Madrid dispatched to the Atlantic the frigate Gerona, which in time,
near Madeira, would capture a 2000-ton disarmed Chilean cruiser of the
“Super-Alabama” class built in England, and dispatched in secrecy under
the code name “Canton”. The Spaniards will rename her “Tornado” (2). On
the other hand, Peruvian warships will seize three Spanish transports
off the coasts of Brazil while on their way to Chile. The Chilean
Government on its part sent the steamer Maipu to the Straight of
Magellan to intercept the Spanish transports “Odessa” and “Vascongada”.
THE SQUADRONS
Most
people in Spain thought that Peru and Chile were not worthy to fight
against their glorious armada. Such a perception was based upon
prejudices because both countries, as former colonies, were seen as
inferior. Another reason was the lack of knowledge of the South American
reality as well as the presumption by most Western powers of a moral
and material superiority over other countries or territories of their
time. For many Spaniards as most Europeans, there was no difference
between Peru and Morocco or between Chile and the Dominican Republic and
so they thought they could be easily defeated. That was a big mistake
that would carry fatal consequences, as the lost of the Covadonga and
the suicide of the gallant admiral Pareja. Their difficulties however,
were just starting.
The order of
battle of the Spanish and the allied fleets from the arrival of the
scientific expedition to Callao in July 1863 to the naval encounters of
February and May 1866 will go trough many changes because both navies
were reinforced with new units.
The Spaniards had
managed to assemble in South American waters a formidable squadron. It
was composed of the following warships:
Iron-protected frigates
Numancia,
at that time among the most powerful ships of the world (Built in
France, 1863; Weight 7,500-tons; Speed 12 knots; weapons thirty-four
200-mm guns; Armor five and a half iron belt; Crew 620 men).
Steam frigates
Villa
de Madrid, (Built 1862; Weight 4,478-tons; Speed 15 knots; Weapons
thirty 200-mm guns, fourteen 160 mm-guns, two 120-mm guns, plus two
150-mm howitzers and two 80-mm guns for disembarks).
Resolucion,
(Built 1861; Weight 3,100-tons; Speed 11 knots; weapons twenty 200-mm
guns, fourteen 160-mm guns, one revolving 220-mm gun and two 150
mm-howitzers, two 120-mm guns and two 80-mm guns for disembarks).
Almansa,
(Built 1864; Weight 3,980-tons; Speed 12 knots; armament thirty 200-mm
guns; fourteen 160-mm guns and two 120-mm guns. She also had two 150
mm-howitzers and two 80-mm guns for disembarks). This ship would arrive
to the Pacific on April 1866, days before the Dos de Mayo Combat.
Reina Blanca and Berenguela, (Each weighted about 3,800-tons. The first one had 68 guns while the Berenguela had 36 guns).
Schooners
Virgen
de Covadonga, (Built 1864; Weight 445-tons; Speed 8 knots; Weapons two
revolving 200-mm guns at the sides and one revolving 160-mm guns at the
prow). Spain however will lose the ship to the Chileans.
Gunboats
Vencedora, (Built 1861; Weight 778-tons; Speed 8 knots; weapons two 200-mm revolving guns and two 160-mm guns).
The
squadron was reinforced with other small gunboats and transports, among
them the Marques de la Victoria (armed with 3 guns), Maule, Consuelo
and Mataure. It had combined artillery of 250 guns (3).
Among
the two South American allies, Peru had the biggest fleet. Obviously it
could not match the total tonnage and firepower of the Spanish squadron
but neither it was, as some had thought, a third class flotilla that
could be wiped out with a single of Mendez Nuñez ships. On the contrary,
Peru had the most respectable naval squadron on the Western shores of
the continent, managed by competent and professional sailors.
As
Spain did in the 1850´s, Peru had renewed its navy trough the purchase
of last generation warships in the best European shipyards, mainly
British. When the crisis with Spain deepened, the Peruvian Government
decided to increase its fleet in the event of war, and bought two former
Confederate cruisers built in France and ordered the construction of
two seagoing ironclads in England. It also decided to build ironclad of
its own. By 1866 Peru had the following warships:
Frigates
Apurimac, (Built UK, 1854; Weight 1,666-tons; Weapons forty four guns).
Amazonas, (Built UK, 1852; Weight 1,320-tons; Weapons twenty-six 32-pounders and six 64-pounders).
Richmond-Class casemated ram monitors:
Loa
(Built, UK, 1854; redesigned and finished in Peru in 1865; Weight 648
tons; Weapons one 110-pounder and one 32-pounder. Protection iron armor
3-inch thick).
Victoria (Built Peru 1864; Weight 300 tons; Weapons one smoothbore 64-pounder. Protection iron armor 3-inch thick).
Cruisers
Union
(Built France, 1864; Weight 1,600 tons; Speed 12.5 knots; Weapons two
100-pounder guns, two 68 pounders and 12 forty pounders)
America
(Built France, 1864; Weight 1,600 tons; Speed 12.5 knots; Weapons two
100-pounder guns, two 68 pounders and 12 forty pounders)
Ironclads
Independence,
casemate, central battery, ironclad steam frigate (Built UK 1865;
Weight 2004-tons; Speed 12.5 knots; Weapons two 150 pounders, twelve 70
pounders, four 32 pounders and four 9 pounders. Protection 4-inch armor;
Crew 260 men).
Huascar (Built
UK 1865; Weight 1,130-tons; Engine 1,500 horse power; Speed 11.5 knots;
Weapons, Two 300-pound Armstrong’s, two 40-pound pivots Armstrong at the
sides and one 12-pounder at the stern. Protection 4.5 armor in the iron
helmet amidships, 2.5 inches at the ends and 5.5-inches in the
revolving turret. Crew 200 men).
Huascar
was by all means an extraordinary warship. In theory, her 10-inch guns
were capable of destroying any of the wooden Spanish frigates, whose
most powerful guns were 68-pounders, number 2, incapable of piercing the
armor or the Huascar or the Independence
Peru also
had several other warships, including the Tumbes (carrying two rifled
70-pounders), Ucayali (two 32-pound guns, three 24-pounders and one
18-pounder), the Sachaca (armed with six-smoothbore 12-pounders) and the
850-ton General Lerzundi (six guns).
On
September 1864 Peru also bought a brand new steamer in the United
States, the Colon, armed with two-smoothbore 12-pounders. However,
American General Irvin McDowell seized and held the Colon in San
Francisco. The seizure of this ship was later approved by the U.S.
Secretary of War and his additional orders provided that all war
material was required for the use of the United States government, and
nothing of the kind could be purchased or taken from the United States,
especially on the Pacific coast. The Peruvian government protested
against the seizure of the Colon and demanded that the vessel be
released. The American government was slow to act and the order to
release the Colon was not issued until March 14, 1865, more than six
months after the seizure. In the meantime the case had been the subject
of an investigation by a grand jury and an opinion rendered that there
was no cause for the detention of the Colon. Nevertheless the ship was
commissioned in the Peruvian Navy and arrived in time to fight against
the Spaniards.
At the beginning
of the conflict, the Chileans only had the Esmeralda, a 854 ton
British-built corvette commissioned in 1854 and armed with 18 guns, and
the Maipu, a 450 ton steamer built in the United Kingdom in 1855 armed
with four 32 and one 68-pounder guns. Chile also was about to receive
two Alabama class unarmored cruisers from the British, the Chacabuco and
the O´Higgins, originally built for the navy of the “Confederate States
of America”. Unfortunately for the allies those ships could not join
the struggle because London seized them until the end of the war. The
Chilean fleet however was increased with the 412-ton Spanish iron
protected schooner Virgen de Covadonga and the 850-ton steamer General
Lerzundi. The first one captured from the Spaniards and the second one
bought from Peru in early 1866 and renamed as Lautaro.
. . . .
(1) The Tornado was apparently launched at Clydebank in 1863. The vessel had a protective 4″ armor belt surrounding her engines and boilers. She was armed with one 220mm (7.8″) muzzleloading Parrott guns, two 160/15 cal. muzzleloading guns, two 120-mm bronze muzzleloading guns, and two 87- mm/24 cal. Hontoria breechloading guns. She had a crew complement of 202 men. The Tornado has been built a commerce-raider for the North American Confederation. Seized by the British Government in 1863, and acquired in 1865, she was purchased by Chile for 75,000 Pounds through Isaac Campbell & Co.in January or February of 1866. According to some sources the vessel was renamed Pampero. Was captured off Madeira by the Spanish frigate Gerona on August 22, 1866 and renamed Tornado. Commissioned in the Spanish Navy, she was rated as screw corvette in 1870. She was converted to a torpedo-training vessel in 1886. Her hulk was sunk in Barcelona by Nationalist air raid during Spanish Civil War. She was finally broken up after 1939.
(2)
St. Hubert Ch. “The Early Spanish Steam Warships 1834-1870” Warship
International 1983. – # 4. – P.338-367; 1984. – #1. – P. 21-44.
(3)
This episode was known as the Battle of Papudo and was fought 55 miles
north of Valparaiso. The Chileans, following a threat used by Admiral
Lord Thomas Cochrane 45 years before, hoisted a British flag on the
Esmeralda, and when they were close enough to Covadonga, they raised
their own flag and unmercifully bombarded the Spanish ship until her
surrender. Beside the casualties, seven Spanish officers and 115 sailors
were taken prisoners.
