Being unavoidable the encounter, Grau ordered combat shambles, hoisted the war pavilion and with great courage he prepared to give battle against broadly superior forces.
Soon his ship, armed with four guns and one Gattling, would engage in one of the most fierce and unequal naval encounters against two powerful battleships totaling a weight of almost eight thousand tons, protected by double armor and provided with an artillery of 42 guns, six machine-guns and eight torpedo-tubes.
At 9:25 in the morning Huascar majestically started the encounter and at a distance of one thousand meters her guns shot a broadside of grenades against the Cochrane, some of which reached the galley of the battleship, but without damaging her. The Blanco Encalada and the Covadonga, meanwhile, were coming closer. The Cochrane on the other hand didn't respond the shots but was shortening distance. At about 9:40 hours, when the ship was only 200 meters from Huascar, Commander Latorre ordered to shell his opponent.
The skillful conduction by Admiral Grau however allowed his ironclad to carry out skilled and rash maneuvers. He even tried to ram the Cochrane, but the greater speed of the battleship, provided with a double helix allowed her to avoid what could have been a mortal lunge. Then the Chilean guns began a ferocious exchange with the Peruvian Armstrong’s. The Nordenfeldts also duel with the sole Huascar´s Gattling and the action became general. A hail of lead pattered on the decks while the great guns hammered incessantly. Soon the Cochrane’s Palliser and Shrapnel grenades caused devastating effects on the Peruvian ship. One of those pierced the armor of the helmet of the artillery turret and hurt the twelve sailors that served the Munches of the guns. This was the first time in naval history in which a shell was successfully exploded after perforating armor in action. Another grenade cut the combat wheel, which caused several casualties and a fire, and blocked the mechanisms that controlled the maneuvers. The bodies of the dead were packed around the turret.
Huascar however responded, and one of her 300-pound projectiles entered into the bunker of the Cochrane through an opening. It wrecked on gun and killed its entire crew. For a moment the incredible Huascar seemed to recover advantage. But the battleship Blanco Encalada and the schooner Covadonga, now only at a distance of 200 meters from the Peruvian ironclad, entered into action.
Huascar was contained this way between both Chilean battleships, with the step cut by the schooner. Then she directed her guns against the Blanco and also tried to charge her with the ram, but the Blanco, as the Cochrane did before, was able to avoid the attack. Another maneuver of the Huascar placed her in the center of the two battleships. The ironclad rotated her turret and start shooting towards one and the other. However, the projectiles bounced without being able to penetrate their strong armors. This position, nevertheless, impeded for a while that the Blanco Encalada and the Cochrane shoot at the Huascar fearing being damaged mutually. In a certain moment of the combat, a bad maneuver of the Blanco almost caused a collision with the Cochrane. It was avoided thanks to the skill of the commander of this last ship.
That situation didn't last for long. The handling difficulties didn't allow Huascar to keep a constant course. The battleships then changed position and continued to fire. Approximately after thirty minutes of combat, a projectile of the Cochrane fell into the commanding bridge and caused a horrendous explosion that killed the gallant Admiral Grau and his assistant, Lieutenant Diego Ferre. The projectile also disabled completely the governing wheel and part of the engines.
After the death of the Admiral, his second in command, Captain Elias Aguirre, assumed control of the ship. Under his orders a tenacious and sustained combat continued. However, in few minutes, Commander Aguirre followed the same fate that Grau being killed by a projectile that exploded on his body. Captain Meliton Carvajal, the third ranking officer, took command. However Carvajal soon was wounded and replaced by the next officer in hierarchy, First Lieutenant Meliton Rodriguez, who, as his predecessors died commanding the ship.
By that time the combat had turned into maritime carnage. The Huascar, almost without control due to the impacts on her flotation line, was left at the mercy of the enemy's guns. Inside the ironclad, the surgeon of the ship, doctor Santiago Tavara, made great efforts to save the life of the wounded crewmen. Casualties multiplied as the titanic fight continued. Even under such conditions Huascar kept fighting without giving up or requesting a truce, nevertheless she no longer could maneuver, neither could she rotate and was practically paralyzed due to the destruction of the apparels on the helm’s chain. The number of projectiles that had hit her was endless. There was not a section of the ship that had not been damaged. Two of the Chilean grenades caused fires in the commander's room and in the officers’ headquarters, destroying them completely. Another grenade penetrated into the section of the engine that was hit before by four gunshots, producing a new fire. Lieutenant Diego Garezon now was in command of the ship, whose deck, completely destroyed by the projectiles, was covered by blood, dead bodies and wounded.
At 10:10 in the morning the Peruvian flag fell of the mast, a fact that was interpreted by the Chileans as a symbol of surrender, but Lieutenant Enrique Palacios, among a rain of bullets -seven of which hit him- hoisted it again on the battered mast and the combat continued.
However, under the continuos and intense fire from the two battleships and other smaller ships, including the Covadonga, Huascar ended completely disabled. Garezon, in a futile gesture, attempted for the last time to use the ram, but Huascar didn't respond anymore.
She was transformed into a cemetery of floating steel, whose only signs of life were the survivors that with great difficulty still keep shooting at the adversary. Two other fires began one under the control turret and the other at the height of the prow. Soon the last gun of the Coles Turret was destroyed and one of the boilers exploded. It ended up covering the ship with heavy smoke, while the fire and the screams of the wounded became the last sounds of the disabled ship.
Ninety minutes of epic combat had elapsed, and without possibilities of further resistance, Garezon and the three remaining officers agreed to sink the ship. In consequence an order was given to the first engineer to open the valves, which was done immediately.
At 10:55 hours the Cochrane, the Blanco Encalada and the Covadonga suspended their gunfire and understanding that the Huascar was going to sink, two fast boats from the Cochrane under command of Lieutenants Rogers and Simpson were sent over. A few minutes later the detachment of Chilean marines surrender the Peruvian survivors unable to resist the boarding, At that moment Huascar already had four feet of water and was about to collapse from the stern. Pistols in hand, the Chileans forced the machinists to close the valves and turn off the fires that were consuming diverse parts of the ironclad. The fight had concluded and the extraordinary prey of war had been finally captured.
Few ships in naval history have sustained such terrible damage and still remained afloat. The Chilean armament had been devastating and the accuracy superb. Nearly fifty per cent of the shots had found the target. The scene on board the Huascar was dreadful. Dead and wounded were lying everywhere; more than a third of the crew was dead or wounded. The armor of the Huascar had been useless because the Chilean shots penetrated and exploded inside and sent thousands of pieces of shrapnel everywhere. During the combat the Chilean battleships fired a total of 150 gunshots against the Huascar, and hit her with 76 projectiles, 20 of which were 250 pound-Palliser explosive grenades that easily pierced her armor. The rest were projectiles of diverse caliber, plus an uncertain number of grapeshot bullets that didn't leave a single section of the ironclad intact. The survivors were taken to the port of Mejillones.
The first communication about the combat, directed by Commodore Riveros to the Chilean Minister of the Navy stated:
“At 09:20 a.m. combat erupted between Cochran and Huascar. At 10:00 a.m. the Blanco joined the combat. At 10:50 Huascar, after being turned into pieces, surrender. Miguel Grau died in combat. Also dead are the second and third in command. The crew of the Peruvian ironclad resisted with tenacity and heroism. For the condition of the ship I think she will be of no further use.”
The official report of Commander Latorre added:
“The death of Peruvian Rear Admiral Miguel Grau, has been, Mister Major General, sadly felt in this squadron, whose officers made wide justice to the patriotism and value of that notable man”.
In turn the Chilean Government sent to Riveros the following message:
“According to your report, Admiral Grau has died courageously in combat. Take care that his remains are buried properly so that there will never be doubts about its authenticity. It will be returned to Peru when claimed. The people obeying their traditions, gives homage to value and honesty.”
In his report to the Office of Naval Intelligence, which was published in 1883 as “The War on the Pacific Coast of South America Between Chile and the Allied Republics of Peru and Bolivia”, U.S. Naval South Pacific Squadron, Lieutenant Theodore B. Mason, wrote:
“There was hardly a square yard of the Huascar´s upper works that did not bear marks of having been struck with some species of projectile. Her smokestack and conning tower were nearly destroyed, her boats gone, and davits either entirely carried away or bent out of shape. Below the scene was much terrible. Everywhere was death and destruction caused by the enemy’s large shells. Eighteen bodies were taken out of the cabin, and the turret was full of remains of two sets of guns´crews” (1).
The following day the Huascar´s dead were carried out for funeral honors, in presence of the Chilean Minister of War in Campaign, Rafael Sotomayor, the Commander in Chief of the squadron, Galvarino Riveros and the high ranking officers of the ships. The battalions Chacabuco and Sappers formed for the occasion and the troops of the first presented honors to Admiral Grau and to each one of the officers and men who died in combat. Next the ship went into some temporary repairs and the prisoners were taken to Valparaiso.
The capture of Huascar finally granted Chile the absolute domain of the sea, after its fleet fought for almost six months against that extraordinary ship. This allowed the beginning of land operations, whose first step would be the landings at Pisagua. Miguel Grau and the Huascar had carried out an extraordinary campaign, they had fought against adversity and a great squadron and despite their limitations they had achieved results that few have been able to equal in modern naval history. Peru, it must be said, won in Grau a great naval hero.
On October 14, U.S. Minister to Peru, Isaac Christiancy, sent to the Secretary of State a report about the combat of Angamos:
“This small ship, under the intelligent command of Admiral Grau had for almost five months completely paralyzed the whole Chilean fleet, including two enormous battleships, and has kept open sea communications for Peruvian transports, from Paita in the north trough Arica. The disappearance of this ship changes completely the situation of the war and gives the Chileans total control of the sea... The Peruvian Government is making maximum efforts to compensate the lost of the Huascar and is trying to buy other efficient vessels, but it will be very difficult to find the man who could replace Grau. Such men are not easily find anywhere...”
As for the Huascar, after the repairs, she was incorporated into the Chilean fleet under the same name. She participated in the naval blockade of Arica, and in February of 1880 was hit by a projectile from the Peruvian monitor Manco Capac, perishing in the action her new commander, Manuel Thomson. In 1882, the Chilean navy made some modifications on the ship: Two new 10-inch Elswick guns were added, while a rotation steam system was incorporated to the Coles Turret. However, the legendary ship didn't see more action during the war. She participated in the Chilean civil war between president Balmaceda and Congress during the last decade of the XIX century. In 1901, after the explosion of a pipe that caused the death of fourteen crewmen, the ship was disabled. Repaired partially, she served static, in port, at the service of the Chilean force of submarines.
Since 1930 the ironclad remained anchored at the arsenal of Talcahuano. Twenty-two years later, she was transformed into a museum and together with Nelson's legendary Victory, it is one of the few ships of the world that having served in distinguished naval actions, is still preserved intact. That ship-museum today is a monument to the memory of the heroic officers that served in her. A brass badge placed by the Chilean Navy in the cabin that belonged to Admiral Grau points out:
“Miguel Grau. Hero and gentleman that died in the combat of Angamos.”
. . . .
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(1) Mason, Theodorus B.M. “The War on the Pacific Coast of South America Between Chile and the Allied Republics of Peru and Bolivia” 1879Ä81. Washington: Office of Naval Intelligence, 1883.
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