Peruvian gunboat Pilcomayo
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 Pilcomayo | |
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Peru | |
| Name | Pilcomayo |
| Ordered | March 1872 |
| Builder | Money Wigram and Sons, Blackwall, England |
| Laid down | 1873 |
| Launched | 1874 |
| Commissioned | 1874 |
| Captured | Captured by Chile at the Tocopilla, 18 November 1879 |
 Chile | |
| Decommissioned | 1909 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | corvette |
| Displacement | 600 long tons (610 t) |
| Length | 52.12 m (171 ft 0 in) |
| Beam | 8.35 m (27 ft 5 in) |
| Draught | 3.35 m (11 ft 0 in) |
| Installed power | 1080 HP at 10,0 knots |
| Propulsion |
|
| Sail plan | Three masts Barque square-rigged |
| Speed | 11.5 knots (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph) |
| Range | 1836 nmiles at 9,0 knots |
| Complement | 130 |
| Armament |
|
The Pilcomayo was a gunboat of the Peruvian Navy which was involved in several actions during the War of the Pacific. Captured by the Chilean Navy on November 18, 1879, she was repaired and participated in the blockade of the Peruvian ports. After the war it was used for hydrographic research, then as a training ship. In service until 1909, Pilcomayo was finally used as a pontoon at Talcahuano.
Its hull was made of nailed teak, copper-bottomed and reinforced with galvanized iron cross bracing. Its four boiler 1080 horsepower engine, manufactured by J. Penn & Company of Greenwich,[1] gave it a maximum speed of 11.5 knots measured on August 7, 1874, lower than that of its sister ship the Chanchamayo. Its armament consisted of 6 guns: two six-inch Armstrong 70-pounders, one to starboard and one to port, and four 4.75 inch Armstrong 40-pounders, two per side.[2]: 96 A Gatling gun was added shortly before the start of the war.
Construction
Four million sols was budgeted for the purchase of two ironclads and two gunboats, but only the gunboats were eventually bought. These, the Chanchamayo and the Pilcomayo, were built between 1872 and 1874 by order of the Peruvian government at the Money Wigram shipyards in Blackwall, Great Britain arriving in Callao on January 11, 1875.[1]
The name of this ship was originally supposed to have been the Putumayo, after a river in Peru, but the ship's painter confused it with the gunboat Pilcomayo which was being built for Argentina at the J. and G. Rennie shipyard in Greenwich at the same time.[2]: 96
Naval actions
In 1877, it was part of the naval division that the government formed to hunt down the rebel ironclad Huáscar.[3][4] During the War in the Pacific, on April 7, 1879, it left Callao together with the corvette Union and took part in the battle of Chipana under the command of frigate captain Antonio C. de la Guerra, returning to Callao on April 17.[5]: 29 [6]
Expeditions off the coast of Bolivia and Chile
It was ordered out to sea again on June 29, 1879, this time under the command of Captain Carlos Ferreyros, setting sail from Callao and arriving in Arica on July 2 with a shipment of 2,000 rifles for the Bolivian army. On July 4, it escorted the transport ship Oroya to Pisagua, arriving the same day and then continuing its journey south.[7]
Frigate captain Carlos Ferreyros now made for Tocopilla; passing at night between the coast and Chilean warships, he entered Tocopilla on July 6 at 9:00. In the port, he surprised the Chilean merchant "Matilde" and three other boats loaded with food and fodder. After sending a delegation ashore to assure the local people that he would not bombard the town, he sank the "Matilde" with five cannon shots and destroyed the other boats.[7][8]: 426
After the Tocopilla action, Commander Ferreyros ordered full speed toward Antofagasta to surprise the Chilean military camp stationed there. But at 12:20 p.m. he sighted the Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada, accompanied by the corvette Chacabuco and the transport ship Limarí, coming from Iquique after bombarding es:Pabellón de Pica.[9]
On spotting the Chilean ships, Ferreyros steered close to the coast to escape and then sped away heading north, pursued by the Blanco Encalada for almost 20 hours. The Pilcomayo arrived in Arica on the July 8 at 3:00 am and the Chilean naval division abandoned the pursuit.[10]: 77 [7]
On July 15 the Pilcomayo was ordered to Cobija to capture enemy transports if she found them, on the assumption that the Chilean ironclad Almirante Cochrane was in Iquique and the Blanco Encalada in Antofagasta, but on the way she encountered the Cochrane and the Chacabuco, sailing from Iquique to Antofagasta. The Cochrane pursued the Pilcomayo between July 17 and 18 without being able to reach her, and the Pilcomayo arrived in Arica on the 22nd. After a brief tour off Pacocha, she returned to Callao on July 26 carrying 28 prisoners from the captured transport Rímac.[5]: 37
Other action
On August 23, the Pilcomayo set sail from Callao escorting the transport Chalaco, arriving at Arica on August 26. On September 13, near Arica, it ran into the Blanco Encalada carrying es:Rafael Sotomayor, the Chilean War Minister, and the artillery transport Itata commanded by Patricio Lynch, evaluating landing points for the planned Chilean invasion. The Pilcomayo fired 10 shots at them as it attempted to draw them into a fight, but they held their distance and the Pilcomayo’s was fire was answered by 6 shots from the Itata.[11]
On October 5, a Chilean squadron arrived in Arica and at 9:30, the Pilcomayo set out on the orders of President Mariano Ignacio Prado to face them, which it did at 10:00. At 9.50 am, the gunboat Covadonga and then the corvette O'Higgins separated from the Chilean convoy. A fight broke out between the Pilcomayo and the O'Higgins 6 miles from Arica, between 10:30 and 11:30, in which the Pilcomayo fired 21 shots and the O'Higgins, 16 shots.[8]: 486
