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Covadonga at berth in Valparaiso, Chile | |
History | |
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Spain | |
Name | Virgen de Covadonga |
Ordered | June 10, 1857 |
Builder | Arsenal de la Carrara shipyard (Cádiz, Spain) |
Cost | 5,000,000 Reales de Vellón |
Laid down | 13 February 1858 |
Launched | 28 November 1859 |
Commissioned | 8 October 1859 |
Captured | Battle of Papudo, 26 November 1865 |
Fate | Captured by Chilean Navy during the Chincha Islands War |
Chile | |
Name | Covadonga |
Acquired | 26 November 1865 |
Commissioned | 4 December 1865 |
Fate | Sunk by a mine in Chancay, Peru during the War of the Pacific, 13 September 1880 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Screw-propelled schooner |
Tons burthen | 630 tons |
Length | 107 ft (33 m) |
Propulsion |
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Sail plan | Brigantine sail rigging |
Speed | 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) on steam |
Complement | 110 crewman |
Armament |
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Notes | (*) Installed after 21 May 1879 |
The schooner Virgen de Covadonga was a ship that participated in the Chincha Islands War and the War of the Pacific, under Spanish and Chilean flags. She was launched in 1859. Covadonga hit a floating mine and sank off Chancay in 1880.
A Royal Order of 10 June 1857, led to Covadonga's keel being laid at the Arsenal de la Carraca in Cádiz, Spain, on 13 February 1858. She was a wooden schooner that was also fitted with steam propulsion. She was launched on 28 November 1859, and her construction cost a total of 5 million Reales de Vellón. She was named for the Battle of Covadonga - a highly symbolic event in Spanish history, being considered the beginning of the Reconquista.
She was commissioned by Royal Command on 8 October 1858. Her first commander was Lieutenant Evaristo Casariego y García. She was originally intended as a mail boat between Manila and Hong Kong, with her berth at the Naval Base of Manila, in the Philippine Islands.
During the Chincha Islands War, Covadonga served as an auxiliary ship to the Spanish fleet. The Chilean corvette Esmeralda, under the command of captain Juan Williams Rebolledo, captured Covadonga during the Naval Battle of Papudo, on 26 November 1865. Her capture led to Spanish Admiral Juan Manuel Pareja committing suicide.
Covadonga was commissioned into the Chilean Navy on 4 December 1865, under her original name. During this war, she also participated at the Naval Battle of Abtao.
During the War of the Pacific, Covadonga and Esmeralda, as the oldest and slowest ships of the Chilean navy, were left behind to blockade the port of Iquique. There they participated in one of the most important naval battles of the war.
Esmeralda faced the ironclad Huáscar at the Naval Battle of Iquique, and Covadonga managed to escape from the attacks of the Peruvian ironclad Independencia when the latter collided with a submerged rock and sank, after trying to ram the schooner, Naval Battle of Punta Gruesa, both on 21 May 1879.
On 8 June 1880, she was hit by shore based artillery fire at Arica, Peru and was beached. [1]
On 13 September 1880, while enforcing a blockade in the port of Chancay, Peru, the sailors of Covadonga saw an unmanned boat loaded with fresh fruit and produce being carried by the currents. When they tried to lift the boat it exploded as the Peruvians had rigged it as a floating mine. Covadonga sank in less than 10 minutes.
In the disaster, out of the 109 men of the crew, the commander, Captain Pablo Ferrari, and 32 sailors died, 29 were rescued by the gun-boat Pilcomayo, and 48 were captured by the Peruvians. Also among the dead was petty officer Constantino Micalvi, a survivor of the Naval Battle of Iquique.
Huáscar is an ironclad turret ship owned by the Chilean Navy built in 1865 for the Peruvian government. It is named after the 16th-century Inca emperor, Huáscar. She was the flagship of the Peruvian Navy and participated in the Battle of Pacocha and the War of the Pacific of 1879–1883. At the Battle of Angamos, Huáscar, captained by renowned Peruvian naval officer Miguel Grau Seminario, was captured by the Chilean fleet and commissioned into the Chilean Navy.
Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón was a Chilean lawyer and navy officer. He was killed in the Battle of Iquique, during the War of the Pacific.
The Chincha Islands War, also known as Spanish–South American War, was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia from 1865 to 1879. 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.
The Battle of Abtao was a naval battle fought on February 7, 1866, during the Chincha Islands War, between a Spanish squadron and a combined Peruvian-Chilean fleet, at the island of Abtao in the Gulf of Ancud near Chiloé Archipelago in south-central Chile. It was limited to a long-range exchange of fire between the two squadrons, as the allied ships, anchored behind the island, were protected by shallow waters inaccessible to the Spanish ships, whose gunnery, nevertheless, proved more accurate and inflicted damage to the Chilean and Peruvian ships.
The Naval Battle of Papudo was a naval engagement fought between Spanish and Chilean forces on November 26, 1865, during the Chincha Islands War. It was fought 55 miles north of Valparaiso, Chile, near the coastal town of Papudo.
USS Oneota was a single-turreted Canonicus-class monitor built for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. Completed shortly after the end of the war, Oneota was laid up until sold to her builders in 1868, and then resold to the Peruvian Navy. Renamed BAP Manco Cápac, the ship participated in the defense of Arica during the War of the Pacific. When the town was taken by Chilean troops in 1880, she was scuttled to prevent her capture. Her wreck was rediscovered in 1960 and it has been heavily looted.
The Battle of Punta Gruesa was a naval action that took place on May 21, 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. This may be labelled as the second part of the Naval Battle of Iquique, although it is described in many sources as a separate battle.
Juan Williams Rebolledo, was a Chilean rear admiral who was the organizer and commander-in-chief of the Chilean navy in 1879 at the beginning of the War of the Pacific. As a politician, he was elected from Valparaiso to the national Congress in 1867, and in 1873 he was elected as city councillor.
Juan José Latorre Benavente Chilean Vice Admiral, one of the principal actors of the War of the Pacific, and hero of the Battle of Angamos.
Vice Admiral José Manuel de Pareja y Septien was a Spanish naval officer, who commanded the Spanish forces during the Chincha Islands War (1864-1866).
Juan Guillermo Moore Ruiz was a British Peruvian navy officer. He was killed during the Battle of Arica.
BAP Apurímac was the second steam frigate of the Peruvian Navy, built in England in 1855 along with the steam schooners Loa and Tumbes as a part of a major build-up of the Navy during the government of President José Rufino Echenique. A veteran of two wars and many internal conflicts, due to her age she served as training ship in Callao port from 1873 until January 17, 1881, when she was scuttled along with the rest of the Peruvian Navy to prevent capture by Chilean troops who had occupied the port after the defeat of the Peruvian Army in the battles of San Juan and Miraflores.
Carlos Arnaldo Condell De La Haza was a Chilean naval officer and hero of the Battle of Punta Gruesa during the start of the War of the Pacific.
The Naval campaign of the War of the Pacific or Saltpeter war, was a naval campaign that took place from 1879 to 1884, involving Peru, and Chile, undertaken in order to support land forces in the Atacama Desert. Although the conflict lasted until 1884, the primary naval engagements occurred between 1879 and 1880. Due to the rough terrain and few transport methods it was imperative to have control of the ports in order to have a good supply source in the region. It resulted in a successful campaign by Chile, and the success of their land campaigns eventually led to a Chilean victory, which cut off Bolivia's access to the coast.
The Spanish ironclad Méndez Núñez was a wooden-hulled armored corvette converted from the 38-gun, steam-powered frigate Resolución during the 1860s after the ship was badly damaged during the Chincha Islands War of 1864–1866. She was captured by rebels during the Cantonal Revolution in 1873 and participated in the Battle off Cartagena before she was returned to government control after Cartagena surrendered in early 1874. The ship was stricken from the Navy List in 1886 and broken up ten years later.
Esmeralda was a wooden-hulled steam corvette of the Chilean Navy, launched in 1855, and sunk by the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar on 21 May 1879 at the Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific.
The Battle of Iquique was a naval engagement that occurred between a Chilean corvette under the command of Arturo Prat Chacón and a Peruvian ironclad under Miguel Grau Seminario on 21 May 1879, during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific, that pitted Chile against Peru and Bolivia. The battle took place off the then-Peruvian port of Iquique. The ironclad Huáscar sank the Chilean wooden corvette Esmeralda, after four hours of combat, resulting in a Peruvian victory.
BAP Victoria was an ironclad monitor built for the Peruvian Navy in the mid-1860s. The ship participated in the Battle of Callao in 1866 during the Chincha Islands War of 1864–66 and was not damaged. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
Juan Bravo was a Chilean Navy sailor of mapuche origin, hero of the naval Battle of Punta Gruesa during the War of the Pacific. Juan Bravo distinguished himself in the Battle of Punta Gruesa where he while onboard of the schooner Covadonga sniped down numerous Peruvians on board of the ironclad Independencia.
The Naval Battle of Arica was a naval battle which took place on 27 February 1880 during the Blockade of Arica as part of the War of the Pacific.