Red marks on H uascar sColes turret show where battle damage occurred and vertical red lines indicate a slight displacement ofthe armor. Chile replaced the originalguns with these two Armstrong breech-loading rifles in 1874. (Photos: Gerald L. Wood; courtesy the author) than for defense. She was designed for speed, being about four knots faster than Huascar, and much larger at 6,250 tons; her armament was two 9-inch muzzleloading rifles (MLRs), sixteen 7 -inch MLRs and eight 64-pounders. Amethyst had fourteen 64-pounders. Shah found Huascar off the town ofllo. A parlay was arranged, and de Horsey demanded that the rebels surrender the ship; the demand was refused. The British vessels then opened fire at a range of 1,500 yards. Huascar initially operated in water within the estuary that was shallow and reef-strewn and was able to keep the range at 1,000 to 2,500 yards. She proved to be a difficult target because of her small size. Shah fired 280 rounds, hitting Huascar with her heavy armament about 30 times. Two British officers later visited Huascar and concluded that she had been hit about 70 or 80 times in all, including rounds from Shah's Gatling gun. All this had no significant effect on Huascar. Only one round fully penetrated her armor near the end of the ship and that failed to inflict any significant damage. Another round hit exactly on the joint between the deck and the side armor. It burst in the wooden backing of the midships armor, and the head of the round embedded itself in the backing on the opposite side of the ship but inflicted no structural damage; this round caused the sole casualry. Huascar' s woodwork on deck was full of shell splinters, and three rounds put holes in her funnel. One hit on the turret slightly depressed some of the armor but had no effect on the turret's operation. She had a poorly trained gun crew and slowly blasted away at the British ships without ever hitting their hulls, although she did cut up Shah's rigging. After two hours fifteen minutes Huascar closed the range and made several attempts
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to ram. Shah's crew found that their relatively large and slender ship had to be handled with care in the restricted water of the estuary or Huascar's superior maneuverabiliry might have made it possible for Huascarto ram her. Shah took advantage of the short range during just such a ramming attempt to fire a Whitehead torpedo at
Huascar. At that stage in its development the torpedo had a speed of seven knots and a range of about 300 yards. Huascar turned in the same direction as the torpedo, put on full steam and kept going until the torpedo reached the end of its run. It was not difficult as Huascar had a best speed of 11 knots; most observers concluded that the range was too great anyhow. By now it was getting dark, and, when Shah's boats made an attempt to cut out Huascar, they found she had sailed off into the foggy night. Shah's presence prevented her renewing her coal supply, and she was forced to surrender to Peruvian forces. Much to de Horsey's chagrin, the "pirates" were not tried and hanged; there was much public support for their politics, and they shortly afterwards formed a new Peruvian government. The inability of Shah to harm Huascar in any serious way is impressive. She was more heavily armed than Huascar, and, given the right conditions, her 7-inch shells should have been able to penetrate 5.6 inches of iron at 2,000 yards and her 9inch, 8.4 inches at the same distance. Huascar's maneuvering seems to have caused almost all the rounds to strike obliquely and glance off. This general failure of the rounds to penetrate her armor was a matter of some surprise to the Royal Navy. The engagement is also noteworthy as the last time a wooden British sailing ship (Amethyst) was in combat. The British ships were lucky in that the rebels' gunnery was totally inept. Had they
been able to hit Amethyst's hull, the wooden corvette would have been demolished. It even seems possible that Huascar could have overcome Shah if her gunnery had been better, as Huascar's large guns could have wrought vital damage on her unarmored opponent. What is certain is that an iron steam frigate over three times Huascar's size and fitted with more guns that were almost as large and more modern in design than Huascar's could not silence her. This point was not overlooked in Whitehall, and subsequent flagships on the South American station were second-rate turret battleships carrying side armor. The incident was also the first example of the attempted use of the Whitehead torpedo in battle and showed the deficiencies of the contemporary version when used against a small agile steamship.
A Lugging Match with Chile Huascar came under fire again in the Pacific War of 1879, a conflict resulting from the nitrate business on the west coast of South America. Chile had first developed the nitrate business on her own territory and then in Peru and Bolivia. The industry had prospered, and Peru and Bolivia imposed penal taxes on the Chilean companies on their territory. Chile suspected this to be the beginning of a takeover of the nitrate industry that would threaten her national treasury and in 1879 declared what is known as the Pacific War to protect her interests. Huascarused Iquique as a base to harass Chilean shipping, and the threat she posed was taken so seriously that the naval forces Chile possessed were circumscribed in their counteractions. The corvette Esmeralda under Captain Arturo Prat together with the smaller corvette Covadonga under the command of Lieutenant Commander Carlos Condell were sent to keep an eye on Iquique
SEA HISTORY 94, AUTUMN 2000