THE FIRST NAVAL CAMPAIGN ON THE PACIFIC.
1818.
When San Martin in 1814 at Tucuman first made a sketch of his
continental campaign, he saw that the true road from Chile to Lima was
by sea. At that time both oceans, from California on the Pacific to the
Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic, were dominated by the Spanish navy.
Chile had but a few fishing-boats among the islands of the South
Pacific, yet from the extent of her sea-line, from the number of her
ports, and by her geographical position, shut in on a narrow strip of
land between the Andes and the sea, Chile was eminently fitted to be a
great naval power. Travelling by land was so difficult, that the sea was
the natural road of communication between the different districts. In
the forests of Arauco the pine and the oak tree flourished luxuriantly,
her valleys produced hemp and flax in abundance. In the bowels of the
earth were stored up vast supplies of copper, iron, and coal. Chacabuco
and Maipó had secured the independence of Chile, but without a fleet
further progress was impossible.
After Chacabuco the Spanish flag was still kept flying on the forts of
Valparaiso. Deceived by this stratagem, the Spanish brig _Aguila_
entered the harbour and was captured. She was armed with 16 guns and
named the _Pueyrredon_, and an Irishman named Morris was put in command.
His first exploit was to sail to the island of Juan Fernandez to the
rescue of the Patriots there imprisoned by Marcó and by Osorio.
Some months afterwards the _Wyndham_ frigate of 44 guns anchored at
Valparaiso. She belonged to the East India Company, and at the
suggestion of Alvarez Condarco, then in London, had been sent there for
sale. Guido raised a loan among the merchants of Valparaiso, and gave
the guarantee of the Argentine Government for 50,000 dollars, so that
the Government of Chile, in spite of the exhausted state of the treasury
just before Maipó, purchased the ship for 180,000 dollars, and named her
the _Lautaro_. She shipped a crew of 100 sailors of various
nationalities, and 250 Chilians, soldiers, boatmen, and fishermen. The
marines were placed under the command of Captain MILLER, an Englishman,
and command of the ship was given to Captain O’Brien,[13] who had served
in the English navy, with Turner as lieutenant. All the officers were
either English or North Americans, except Miller; not one of them could
give orders in Spanish. “Nevertheless,” says Miller, in his Memoirs,
“ten hours after sailing she fought and fought well.”
The Spanish Pacific squadron at this time consisted of 17 ships,
mounting 331 guns. After the victory of Maipó, O’Higgins ordered his two
ships to put to sea in search of the Spanish ships which had been
blockading Valparaiso. They sailed on the afternoon of the 26th April.
At daybreak on the 27th the _Lautaro_ sighted the 44-gun frigate
_Esmeralda_ making for the port, followed at some miles distance by the
18-gun brig _Pezuela_. O’Brien hoisted the English flag and sailed
straight for her, till off her quarter and to windward, when he hauled
down the English flag, hoisted the Chilian, and ran into her, exchanging
a broadside. Followed by thirty or forty men, he then leaped on board,
driving the Spaniards from the upper deck, and hauling down her flag. A
shot from the lower deck killed him, and he fell, shouting, “Stick to
her, boys! The ship’s ours.”
But while the fighting went on the ships had separated. Turner, thinking
the enemy was captured, sent off a boat with eighteen men to assist, and
sailed off in the _Lautaro_ against the _Pezuela_, which hauled down her
flag without firing a shot. Meantime Coig, commander of the _Esmeralda_,
had rallied his men, recaptured the upper deck, drove the rest of the
assailants overboard, and on the return of the _Lautaro_ made off,
accompanied by the _Pezuela_, for Talcahuano, both of them being swifter
ships than the _Lautaro_. On their way back to port the Chilian vessels
captured a Spanish brig, whose value more than covered the cost of the
_Lautaro_.
Government then bought an American privateer mounting 20 guns, and named
her the _Chacabuco_. Soon afterwards an American brig mounting 16 guns
was purchased, and named the _Araucano_. In August the ship
_Cumberland_, purchased by Condarco in London, arrived, and was named
the _San Martin_.
Chile had thus rapidly acquired a small fleet of her own, and, looking
about for an admiral, she chose Don Manuel Blanco Encalada, a young
officer of artillery. Born in Buenos Ayres of a Chilian mother, Encalada
had adopted Chile as his country; he had held a separate command before
the disaster of Rancagua, was among the Patriot prisoners rescued by the
_Pueyrredon_ from the island of Juan Fernandez, was present at
Cancha-Rayada, and had distinguished himself at Maipó. He had previously
served in the Spanish navy as a junior officer, and was at this time
twenty-eight years of age.
On the 21st May a Spanish expedition of eleven transports, two of which
were armed vessels, under convoy of the 50-gun ship _Maria Isabel_,
sailed from Cadiz for the Pacific, carrying two battalions of the
regiment of Cantabria, 1,600 strong, a regiment of cavalry of 300
sabres, 180 artillerymen and pioneers, with 8,000 spare muskets. One of
the transports was in such bad condition that they were forced to leave
her at Teneriffe, and distribute her men among the other ships. Five
degrees north of the equator the convoy was dispersed by adverse winds.
On the 25th July the British brig _Lady Warren_ reached Buenos Ayres,
and reported having seen them about a month before. In consequence of
this information the Argentine Government sent off the brig _Lucy_,
flying the Chilian flag, and the brig _Intrepido_, flying the Argentine
flag, each carrying 18 guns, with orders to double Cape Horn and join
the Chilian squadron. At the same time word was sent to San Martin to
invite the Chilian Government to despatch all their squadron against the
expedition.
On the 26th August one of the transports named the _Trinidad_, with 180
soldiers on board, cast anchor at Ensenada, a port on the River Plate,
some forty miles to the south of Buenos Ayres. She had separated from
the convoy to the north of the equator, when the troops, headed by two
sergeants and a corporal, had mutinied, shot their officers, and had
compelled the master to sail for Buenos Ayres. The Argentine Government
thus came to know the signals and the point of reunion of the
expedition, which information they at once sent on to Chile.
Soon after this the 36-gun frigate _Horacio_, which had been purchased
in the United States by Aguirre, the Argentine commissioner, reached
Buenos Ayres, and announced that she was followed by the _Curacio_ of
the same armament.
On the 19th October the _San Martin_, Captain Wilkinson, the _Lautaro_,
Captain Wooster, the _Chacabuco_, Captain Diaz, and the _Araucano_,
Lieutenant Morris, sailed from Valparaiso. The squadron mounted 142
guns, and was manned by 1,100 men, most of whom were Chilians. The
officers were nearly all English or North Americans. As O’Higgins, who
had gone to the port to hurry on their departure, rode up the hill on
his return to Santiago, he looked upon the four ships spreading their
sails to a fresh sou’-wester, while the Chilian flag fluttered in the
breeze from their mast-heads, and exclaimed,--
“Four ships gave the western continent to Spain; these four will take it
from her.”
On losing sight of land, Blanco Encalada opened the sealed instructions
which had been given him, and found that he was ordered to the island of
Mocha to await the Spanish convoy. The native Chilians were for the most
part quite fresh to the service, but Miller, who sailed with the
squadron, writes of them:--
“The native marines and sailors showed their good qualities, both as
soldiers and sailors, by ready obedience; soon afterwards they showed
bravery also.”
A strong wind separated the _Chacabuco_ from her consorts, who cast
anchor on the 26th October at the Island of Santa Maria to await her,
while the _Araucano_ was sent back to reconnoitre the bay of Talcahuano,
about forty miles to the north.
As the ships flew the Spanish flag a boat came off bringing a letter
from the Admiral of the Spanish convoy to any transport that might touch
there. This letter confirmed information already received from a whaler
that the _Maria Isabel_ had been there five days before accompanied by
four transports, and had gone on to Talcahuano, while the rest of the
convoy with crews sick and out of provisions had been unable to double
Cape Horn.
Blanco Encalada sailed at once for Talcahuano. On the night of the 27th
he arrived there with two ships, and learned that the _Maria Isabel_ was
alone in the bay; the transports, after landing 800 men, had gone on to
Callao. On the morning of the 28th, with a fresh breeze, the two Chilian
ships entered the bay and saw the Spanish ship at anchor under the
batteries.
The _Maria Isabel_ fired a blank cartridge and hoisted her flag. The
_San Martin_ replied with another blank cartridge and hoisted the
English flag. When within musket shot both the Chilian ships hoisted
their own flag with loud cheers, which immediately produced a broadside
from the Spaniard. The _San Martin_ replied with another and cast anchor
within pistol-shot of the enemy, on which the Spaniard cut his cables
and ran aground. Part of the crew landed in boats while the rest kept up
a fire from the poop. The Chilian ships continued to fire till her flag
was hauled down, when two boats put off to her with fifty men under
Lieutenants Compton and Bélez, and took prisoners seventy men and five
officers of the Cantabria regiment.
Encalada then landed two companies of marines to dislodge the Royalist
troops on shore, who kept up a fire on the prize from behind walls on
the beach; but Sanchez coming up with a strong force from Concepcion,
compelled them to re-embark. In spite of the fire from shore every
effort was made to set the prize afloat, but without success on account
of the wind which blew from the sea.
During the following night preparations were made by both parties to
continue the struggle next day. Sanchez placed four guns in battery on
the beach, while Encalada swung the _Lautaro_ round by an anchor from
the poop, and brought her guns to bear on this battery and on the fort
of San Agustin, which commanded the entrance of the bay.
At daybreak on the 29th both sides opened fire within pistol-shot of
each other. About eleven o’clock a stiff breeze came up from the south,
a cable was passed from the _San Martin_ to the prize, the anchor was
weighed, the sails spread with great rapidity, and she was towed off
amid shouts of “Viva la Patria!” from the Chilians, mingled with loud
“hurrahs” from the English sailors. The Chilian squadron celebrated
their victory by a salute of twenty-one guns, and sailed out of the bay
in triumph with their prize, which they at once named the _O’Higgins_.
The four ships of the Chilian squadron met again at the island of Santa
Maria and were there joined by the Argentine brig _Intrepido_, Captain
Carter, and the _Galvarino_ under Captains Guise and Spry, who had both
served in the English navy. The squadron now consisted of nine vessels,
including the _O’Higgins_, with 234 guns.
One after another the rest of the transports fell into the hands of the
Patriots to the number of five, with 700 prisoners. Four only, with 800
men, had reached Callao. From that date Spain lost for ever the dominion
of the Pacific. The road for the expedition to Peru lay open.
Thirty-eight days after the four ships had sailed from Valparaiso,
thirteen vessels carrying the Chilian flag anchored in line in the bay,
amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the people.
On the 28th November, 1818, there anchored in the bay of Valparaiso a
ship bringing as passenger one of the first sailors of Great Britain,
who was yet to increase his fame by exploits in the New World. His name
was THOMAS ALEXANDER COCHRANE, a name made famous by extraordinary deeds
of derring-do. Born in Scotland of noble family, and lately a member of
the British Parliament, he had been conspicuous among the Radical
opposition, and was both hated and feared by the ruling party. Mixed up
in Stock Exchange transactions of a doubtful character, he was condemned
to a heavy fine and to exposure in the pillory, and was expelled from
the House of Commons. The people paid his fine by subscription,
Government remitted the degrading part of the sentence, and he was
re-elected by the county he had represented. But he had had enough and
more than enough of political life; he preferred exile and heroic
adventures, and accepted the offers which were made him by Condarco and
Alvarez Jonte, the agents of Chile and of San Martin in London. He
decided to devote his services to the cause of independence in South
America. Ere leaving his native country a farewell banquet was given to
him by his admirers, at which he boldly proclaimed his radical
principles in impassioned words, which give the key to his
character--extreme in everything, in heroism, in hatred, or in love. The
Chilian Vice-Admiral, in no way vainglorious of his recent triumph,
acknowledged at once the superiority of Cochrane. He resigned the
command of the squadron, and Cochrane was appointed Vice-Admiral in his
stead.
Blanco Encalada was married to one of the most beautiful women in Chile;
the wife of Cochrane, who came with him, was a most worthy type of
British beauty, and was idolized by her husband. These two young wives
became the stars of Chilian society on shore, whilst on the ocean the
two Admirals sustained in honour the star of the young Republic which
was emblazoned on the flag floating from the mast-heads of the fleet
which now dominated the Pacific.