The first Peruvian warship was the Sacramento, which was captured from the Spaniards on March 21, 1821 (1). Over the next months Peru incorporated to its new squadron several warships and transports and renames them as Balcarce, Belgrano, Limeña, Protector, Guayas, Spano, Macedonia, Monteagudo and Cruz. They had a combined firepower of more than 170 guns. In 1826, five years after the declaration of independence, the Navy was composed of seven warships: The flagship frigate Presidente, the frigate Monteagudo, the corvettes Libertad and Limeña, the brigantine Congreso and the schooners Peruviana and Arequipeña.
In June 1828, the Great Colombia declared war on Peru. The Peruvian Government ordered the naval fleet to begin the maritime campaign. The squadron obtained victories at the naval battles of Malpelo and Cruces and attacked the port of Guayaquil, which was occupied by Peruvian forces in early 1829.
In 1836, Peru and Bolivia established a Confederation presided by Marshal Andres de Santa Cruz. A conflict emerged with Chile, whose Government, because of geopolitical considerations, opposed its existence. At that time, the Peruvian Navy was composed of the corvettes Libertad, Socabaya, and Confederacion; the frigates Monteagudo and Santa Cruz; the brigantines Arequipeña, Fundador, Junin and General Orbegoso; and the schooners Limeña, Peruviana and Yanacocha. The squadron also had several transports and one palest.
During the war, the most important naval action was the combat of Islay, held on the 12 and 13 of January 1838, between the Peruvian brigantines Fundador, Socabaya and Junin, with a total of 50 guns, against five Chilean warships armed with 76 guns.
After the conflict however, the Peruvian fleet, in critical condition, was reduced to its minimal expression in eighteen years and only two warships remained, the small Vigilante, a 79-ton vessel with one gun and the 650-ton frigate Limeña.
By December 1841, the fleet was slightly increased after the purchase of the corvette Yungay, armed with 22 guns; the brigantine Constitution, with 16 guns and the schooner Libertad, armed with 3 guns, but the old days of a bigger navy seemed, for a while, over.
Under the Government of Marshal Ramon Castilla (1845-1851), things improved drastically. During his Administration, Peru boasted the first vessels in the region built expressly for war and the first Latin American steam warships. The technology of the time also became part of the Peruvian Navy. Castilla, whom many called “The Nelson of the Pacific”, knew that Peru’s strategic situation in the center of South America, facing the Pacific Ocean, with almost two thousand miles of coastline to protect, made it necessary to have a well organized naval force. He was aware of the importance of the new inventions and their repercussions in the economic and military aspects of the sea. He ordered the reestablishment of the Naval Academy for officers and pilots, the creation of a naval factory at the port of Callao, the invigoration of the naval power in the northern port of Paita, and the development of the merchant fleet.
Castilla´s strategy included the increase of the fleet with brand new, fast, reliable warships capable of protecting the country’s interests. Still fresh in the President’s memory was the August 1844 incident, in which a British naval squadron composed of the frigate Dublin and the corvette Cormoran, in a typical Victorian-era action, demanded reparations “for an offense committed against Her Majesty’s flag”. The British blockaded the Peruvian warships Yungay, Limeña, Jesus and Libertad, which were anchored at the port of Islay and bombarded the port of Arica. The Yungay and the other ships of the already weakened Peruvian fleet, were no match for the British, and Castilla, who at that moment was War Minister, suggested avoiding confrontation. The Government had no choice but to sign a humiliating treaty and the incident was forgotten. But not for Castilla, who once elected President, decided to create a fleet powerful enough for the country to be respected by the great powers and their sometimes, abusive military officers.
During his first year in office Castilla bought the brigantine Admiral Guise, armed with ten 12-pound guns. It was the beginning of a process that would make Peru’s Navy the most powerful in America after that of Brazil and the United States. One year later the 145-ton brigantine Gamarra armed with 16 guns was bought. In 1847, Peru acquired its first paddlewheel steam warship; the 683-ton Rimac armed with six guns, built for Peru by Stilman & Allen in New York, USA (3). At the end of that decade, huge revenues earned from guano fertilizer exports enabled Peru to have a world-class navy.
By 1856, during Castilla's next Government, Peru managed to build a formidable fleet, composed, among other ships, by the steam-frigates Amazonas, Apurimac, Loa and, Tumbes; the armed transports Huaraz and Izcuchaca; the schooners Freedom, Noel, Jesus, Hector and Peruana; the corvettes Yungay, Guise and Gamarra and the small Vigilante.
At that time the Amazonas became the first Latin American warship to sail around the world, which increased the prestige of the Peruvian navy. Under Castilla, Peru maintained naval supremacy in the South Pacific, a status that was reinforced between 1864 and 1865 with the purchase of the corvettes Union and America and the powerful ironclads Huascar and Independence. Also, in 1864, the monitor Victoria became the first warship build and designed by Peruvian naval engineers.
Castilla obtained also control over Lake Titicaca with two English steamers used for commercial and military purposes. He unified the infantry, developed the local production of guns, reorganized the military school, and sent military missions to Europe to purchase heavy artillery. In the international front his Administration strongly rejected attempts by European countries to impose monarchic governments in the Americas and was willing to help the threatened countries, among them Santo Domingo, Mexico and Ecuador. As an example of the Peruvian military might of those days, Castilla dispatched a warship to California to protect the interests of the Peruvian merchants who traveled to that region during the anarchic gold fever period.
In 1858, Peru and Ecuador faced a conflict, after the later granted to its British creditors big land extensions on the riverbanks of the Bombonaza, which were located within the Peruvian Amazon region. Castilla recurred to war to obtain the nullity of such an agreement. The powerful Peruvian squadron, under Rear Admiral Ignacio Mariategui, composed of the warships and transports Marline, Ucayali, Tumbes, Callao, Amazonas, Guise, General Plaza, Carlota, Rodrigo, Iquique, Arica and Valparaiso, did not have problems to block and to siege Ecuador’s first port, Guayaquil. In early 1859 Peruvian troops disembarked and took control over it and its surroundings, including Mapasingue. Further negotiations after the easy victory, originated the Treaty of Mapasingue, by which the Ecuadorian government declared null the land concessions to the British and recognized the property of Peru over the territories between the Bombonaza and Pastaza rivers in accordance to the “Real Cedula” of July 15, 1802.
At the beginning of the 1860's the Peruvian Navy had two Rear Admirals, twenty-six Captains, nineteen Commanders and thirty-eight Lieutenant Commanders. Peru's best officers were quite competent and several of them had considerable service time with the merchant fleet or foreign navies or had attended naval schools abroad.
By the middle of that decade, the country was ready to face its first conflict of magnitude against a European power.
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(1) The Carcamo brothers, Andres and Victoriano, seized the Sacramento from the Spaniards. On July 7, 1821, the ship was commissioned in the Peruvian Navy with a crew of 36 men under Lieutenant D. Joseph Wickham. It was armed with one gun and renamed as Castelli in honor of Argentinean politician Juan Jose Castelli. In her first naval action she captured the Spanish brigantine Pezuela.
(2) The units incorporated to the Peruvian Navy after the Sacramento were the brigantines Pezuela and Guerrero armed with 18 and 17 guns respectively. Next the Peruvians bought the corvette Thais, armed with 20 guns. Later came the frigate Protector, armed with 17 guns, the ships Guayas and Nancy, with 4 guns each, the schooner Cruz armed with 17 guns and the frigate Monteagudo. The Pezuela and Guerrero were renamed as Belgrano and Belcarce in honor of two Argentinean politicians who played an important role in the independence movement, while the Thais was renamed “Limeña”.
(3) There is a dramatic episode related to the warship Rimac that says much about the gallantry of the Peruvian naval officers. On April 1853, the Rimac towed the frigate Mercedes under command of Captain Juan Noel from Casma to Callao. The Mercedes was transporting 800 hundred passengers, including women and children. At midnight, May 1st, while crossing very dangerous reefs, the ship collided. The vessel started to sink and her commander made desperate efforts to save the passengers, among them his own wife and son. Lifeboats were not enough and only 100 people survived the worst disaster in Peruvian naval history. When at the end of the struggle the survivors plead the Captain to save himself, he replied: “The Commander of a warship should not survive her lost. His duty is to sink with his ship!”. And so he did. A week after the disaster, the Government, in honour of this gallant action renamed the Rimac as “Captain Noel”.
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Perú