Capture of the steamer Rímac

In daylight on the 23rd, at 6:15 am, the lookout for the corvette Unión announced: "Smoke in sight!" From the Huáscar, 2 smokes were also seen, so Grau assumed that the Unión was being pursued or was pursuing a Chilean transport.

The Rímac was under the command of the German captain Pedro Lautrup, its commander since before the war. The steamer belonged to CSAV and was leased to the Chilean government. The frigate captain Ignacio Luis Gana was traveling on the steamer as a passenger, and he could take command of the ship only when the enemy was on top.^[3]

The Rímac approached to recognize the detected smoke, which was thought to be from the Almirante Cochrane. Recognizing the Peruvian corvette 4 miles away, Lautrup relinquished command to Gana, in accordance with his contract, changed course first and tried to take cover. in the nearby port of Antofagasta afterwards. The Unión hoisted the Peruvian flag and fired a blank shot, being answered by a shot from the Rímac, which was very short, since its range was only 810 m .

The sailors of the Rímac, mostly foreigners, rushed to the canteen wanting to break down the door, but the Carabineros de Yungay [es] intervened to impose order.^[3]

The Rímac headed north and increased its speed, but since it was heavily loaded, its maximum speed was between 10 and 11 knots, while the Unión reached 13 and 13.5 knots. Later, the Rímac fell to the northwest.

At 7:10 am, the Rímac was heading west and the distance between it and the Unión was 4,500 meters. The Peruvian captain Aurelio García y García, commander of the 2nd naval squadron, ordered the captain Nicolás Portal, commander of the Unión, to open fire, firing with the 4 guns of the port battery in the bow, but no shot reached white for not being within reach.^[4] The Unión's next shots were fired from the Whitworth 9 pounder landing craft gun, which was mounted on the forecastle. The shot hit the stern of the Rímac and the second razed the deck of the Rímac, killing one soldier and wounding four.

At 8:00, the Union was already 1,000 m from the Rímac, which was heading west-southwest, and at 9:00 am, the distance between the two was only 900 m, heading southwest, when smoke was sighted to the southeast, which at 9:30 am identified himself as Huáscar. At 9:50 am the Union hit 4 consecutive shots on the Rímac.

At 8:45 on board the Rímac, the council of officers met to determine the possibility of throwing the heaviest weapons off the ship along with the horses, the latter being prevented by the carabinieri squad given the esteem that they had him.^{[clarification needed]} In addition, there was the possibility that they were going to collide with the propeller, breaking it or making it impossible for the ship to move quickly. so it was agreed to throw the weapons into the water and the ammunition and everything that could serve the enemy on deck.

The Huáscar fired a shot with the 300-pound right cannon at 10 am, when the distance that separated it from the Rímac was 4,500 m, while the Unión was 600 m away. The Rímac, which had flown the Chilean flag during the attack, stopped its engines and hoisted the white flag, without lowering its own, as a sign that the ship would be delivered under parliament, while the Soldiers from the Carabineros de Yungay No. 1 squad threw their weapons overboard into the sea. Until that moment, the Chilean transport had been perfectly identified as the Rímac.

The Unión lowered 3 boats to board the Chilean transport. 2nd Lieutenant Felipe La Torre Bueno was in charge of "taking possession of the ship in the name of Peru and sending it to his commander and flag on board." The Chilean captain Gana and his first pilot, J. Stuck were taken to the Unión. The Peruvian captain Portal ordered the Rímac to be taken in by towing. Then the Huáscar stood alongside the Rímac and Grau appointed the graduate frigate captain Melitón Carvajal as provisional commander. García y García boarded the Huáscar to coordinate with Grau the proportion of people from both ships that would crew the Rímac. as during the confrontation, the Unión fired 4 shots with a 70-pound percussion bomb and 50 with a 9-pound bullet.

Commander Pedro Lautrup, Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Bulnes, and 25 other prisoners were transferred to the Huáscar; the frigate captain Ignacio Luis Gana and 55 other crew members, to the Union . The rest of the Chilean crew stayed on the Rímac; the soldiers of the squad were locked in the cellars. In addition to Captain Carvajal, from Huáscar 7 officers, 2 engineers, 8 machine men, 15 soldiers and 12 sailors were stationed in the Rímac, while from the Union 5 officers, 2 machinists, 6 stokers, 10 sailors and 10 soldiers were stationed.

At 3:40 p.m. the inauguration of the Rímac was completed and all the ships went in convoy to Arica, where they arrived on July 25 at 9:30 a.m. The news was known that same day in Lima by telegram from President Mariano Ignacio Prado and the editorial of the newspaper El Comercio. The first commission under the Peruvian flag occurred on July 28, when he sailed to Mollendo to bring the Iraola battalion of 330 men, returning on the 29th; the battalion was armed with the 255 Comblain rifles taken from the transport, but not enough for all.

The RIMAC steamer was under the command of the German captain Pedro Federico Lautrup and was hired by the CSAV.

The Carabineros de Yungay No. 1 cavalry squadron with 258 men, 215 horses, 1 300- pound cannon, 300 Comblain II rifles with 200,000 shots, some Winchester carbines, ammunition, provisions, coal, fodder were captured in the transport, supplies for the ambulance, money and official correspondence. A trial began in Callao in the Court of Dams that culminated on December 15, 1880, valuing the entire complex at £ 65,216 - s 6.

On July 23, Minister Domingo Santa María sent a telegram to President Aníbal Pinto informing him of the arrival of the transport Paquete de Maule but suspected the capture of the Rímac due to its failure to arrive and the Huáscar and the Union had been seen that same day near Antofagasta. On the 29th, the French corvette Decrés brought the news to Mejillones that the Rímac was with the Peruvian squadron in Arica and by telegraph, the news reached Santiago de Chile on the 30th, at the same time that the news arrived from Valparaíso, from the German steamer Theben of the Kosmos Company, which at in Arica on the 25th when the Peruvian ships entered with the Rímac.

On July 24, Santa María received the news of the arrival of the ironclad Almirante Cochrane to Caldera towed by the Itata transport due to lack of coal. In the cabinet session on the 25th, it was decided to ask Captain Simpson for explanations about the lack of coal on his ship.

The news of the capture of Rímac coincided with the questioning of the cabinet of ministers scheduled for July 31 and August 1. On the afternoon of the 31st, about a thousand men protested the misconduct of the war in the portico of the senate. In the night there were disturbances when the police tried to disperse the demonstrators, leaving 4 injured. In the interpellation session, the entire cabinet came out well, but the Minister of War and Navy, General Belisario Urrutia, who was offended by Vicuña Mackenna within the Chilean Senate, resigned his portfolio on August 2. There was also a ministerial crisis because the entire cabinet lost Antonio Varas, Minister of the Interior, who resigned on August 12.

The crisis led to the resignation of Rear Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo to the General Command of the Squadron on August 4, of Eulogio Altamirano to the General Command of the Navy and Arms of Valparaíso on August 6, of Echaurren Huidobro to the position of General Quartermaster of the Army and Navy and of José Alfonso to the position of War Auditor of the Northern Operations Army on August 22.

A new one was formed, chaired by Domingo Santa María, who would occupy the portfolio of Minister of the Interior and had previously been Minister of Foreign Affairs. Santa María went to the Chamber of Deputies and Senators on August 21 and 22, respectively, to present his program. The new conduct of the war in Chile was decisive for its subsequent success in the naval campaign.

• Bulnes, Gonzalo (1911). Sociedad Imprenta y Litografía Universo (ed.). Guerra del Pacífico. vol. 1: De Antofagasta a Tarapacá (PDF). Valparaíso. p. 745.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Carvajal Pareja, Melitón (2006). Instituto de Estudios Histórico Marítimos del Perú. Lima (ed.). Historia Marítima del Perú, Tomo XI, volumen II. ISBN 9972-633-05-5.
• Vicuña Mackenna, Benjamín (1880). Imprenta Cervantes. Santiago (ed.). Historia de la Campaña de Tarapacá. Tomo II.

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Parte oficial sobre la captura del Rímac por el capitán de fragata Ignacio Gana

• Documentos sobre la captura del Transporte Rímac
• El Almirante Grau
• Documentos inéditos relacionados con el Huáscar