The Peruvian Ironclad “Huascar”, somewhere off the coast of Chile in the late 1870’s (painting by Peruvian artist Fernando Saldías)

The Peruvian Ironclad Turret Ship “Huascar” was one of the first ironclads built with a turret designed by Captain Cowper Coles and was for a time the most powerful warship in Latin America.

Captain Cowper Coles was critical of the operations of the broadside British warships during the Crimean War. He saw a better solution in having a few large guns mounted in a revolving turret than more numerous smaller guns firing through broadsides. Completely independently of John Ericsson in the United States Cole came up with his own turret design. From the start foreign navies were more interested in the Coles’s turret than the conservative Royal Navy. If broadsides had worked for Nelson, why should there by a change? Denmark was the first to acquire a warship with the Coles’s turret when Rolf Krake was launched on December 1, 1862. Intended only for coastal defense the ship had only a freeboard of three feet. Prussia and the Royal Navy soon acquired similar ships. Meanwhile Coles’s started working on a seagoing design. The first customer for the seagoing version was the Confederate States of America, who ordered two vessels from the Laird Brothers firm at Birkenhead. The Laird firm had been more than happy to supply the Confederate Navy with all types of warships, however, they had to conceal the true recipient. The ironclads were to be named North Carolina and Mississippi but officially Laird put it out that they were being built for the Egyptian Navy. Laird became the favored firm for navies of the world to acquire ironclads with Coles’s revolving turrets. In 1864 Spain was making noise about sending a squadron to South America to recover some of her lost colonies. Some South American countries went shopping for ironclads. In 1864 Paraguay ordered two Coles’s turret ironclads from Laird and Peru one. In 1865 Brazil bought the Paraguayan ships but Peru kept her Laird ship.

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

Named after “Huascar” (the name of a famous Inca emperor), the ship displaced 2030 tons deep load and was completed in December 1865. She was 200-feet in length, 35-feet breadth of beam and with a 15-feet draught of water. The engine produced 1,200 ihp providing a top speed of 12.27 knots. The armament was two 10-inch muzzle loaders with shell weight of 300 pounds. Smaller guns included two 40 pdr and one 12 pdr. Like almost all Coles’s turret warships, the Huascar had a low freeboard because of turret weight and to minimize the ship the target area. Huascar was given folding solid bulkheads that were raised to increase freeboard in the open ocean and lowered when in action. To minimize rigging to minimize obstructions for firing the guns, the ship used tubular tripod iron masts. Belt armor was 4.5-inches wrought iron over the machinery spaces and magazine with a 2-inch armored deck and 5.5-inch turret armor. With only a bunker capacity of 300-tons the Huascar had a limited range. The turret was rotated manually with a 16 man crew. It took a full 15 minutes to rotate 360 degrees.

Original design drawing of the “Huascar” by Cowper Coles

HISTORICAL DETAILS:

Her first voyage:

Huascar left for Peru on January 17, 1866. She first went to Brest to await a second Peruvian purchase, the Independencia, which was a iron steam frigate. Spain had already engaged in operations against Peru and Chile. As the Peruvian pair crossed the Atlantic, they seized two Spanish merchants. After reaching the Pacific, the conflict with Spain ended before Huascar reached Peru. Built to fight the Spanish, Huascar would wind up fighting the Royal Navy.

Engagement with two warships of the Royal Navy:

Algernon Frederick Rous de Horsey, who would have a name like that in England? Well, in May 1877 de Horsey was by Grace of God and probably a few family connections a Commodore in Her Majesty Queen Empress Victoria’s Royal Navy. The Raj was supreme and for almost the entire 19th Century Pax Britannica reigned as the Royal Navy cowed all opposition. He was in command of two ships off the west coast of South America. Peruvian mutineers had seized control of their Peruvian warship and had been stopping British steamers and generally acting in an uncourteous manner. The ship was named Huascar and had been built in England over a decade earlier. Furthermore, the Huascar was an ironclad armed with a Cole’s turret mounting two 10-Inch guns.

In May 1877 the ironclad was seized by mutineers at the port of Callao in support of an uprising against the national government. The Huascar cruised up and down the coast, seizing provisions, stopping steamers and generally paralyzing trade. When the ironclad stopped some British steamers and seized mail, the government in Lima saw its chance and asked for the assistance of the Royal Navy. Commodore de Horsey had his flagship Shah, a 6,250-tons unprotected iron steam frigate, and the wooden steam corvette Amethyst of 1.970-tons. The British squadron found the Huascar of Ilo Peru on May 29, 1877. After ordering the Huascar to surrender in the name of Queen Victoria, after waiting ten minutes with no response de Horsey opened fire. Shah was armed with 9-inch guns firing a 250-lb shell. The two hour engagement started at 1,900 yards. Shah fired over 300 rounds and some 70 to 80 hit. Only one hit any real impact and that was just a two inch dent in the belt. The superstructure received superficial damage but the combat capabilities were not impaired. Shah was equipped with Whitehead self-propelled torpedoes. At 5:14 PM one was fired at Huascar but the ironclad turned away and outran the torpedo. This was the first combat use of the self propelled torpedo. Huascar proved a difficult target, as she was very nimble, turning 180 degrees in only two minutes. The British were helped by the inexperience of the Peruvian gunners (They were gunners improvised), which de Horsey styled as “singular and providential”. According to Britons “Huascar fired her main guns only five times achieving no hits and three near misses”. After two hours Huascar turned toward Ilo and the next day surrendered to the Peruvian government.

Nitrate War:

Bolivia is now a land locked country. In 1879 it was not as Bolivia had a corridor to the Pacific Ocean. This corridor was very valuable from the nitrate production from bat guano. Chile went to war with Bolivia and since Peru had a secret defense treaty with Bolivia, Peru came to Bolivia’s aid. On April 5, 1879 the Chilean navy blockaded the primary Peruvian nitrate port of Iquique, which would have a substantial economic impact. A Chilean squadron comprising two new ironclads, Blanco Encalada and Cochrane and four corvettes, was sent to Callao to take of suprising the Peruvian navy. However, the Peruvian squadron under Commodore Miguel Grau had been quick. On May 19 the two forces passed within 30 miles of each other without seeing each other with the Chileans steaming north and the Peruvians south. At Iquique the Chileans had the old wooden steam corvette Esmeralda with eight 40 pdr guns and the gunboat Covadonga. On the morning of 21 May the lookouts on Esmeralda saw smoke in the north. When it was seen that it was Huascar and Independencia, the Chileans turned towards the port. However, Esmeralda had a boiler explosion, which reduced speed. Huascar engaged Esmeralda but the Independencia was lured into shallow water and wrecked on a reef. After three hours of firing with a bit damage, Grau decided to ram Esmeralda. The first attempt to ram just glanced off. The Chilean commander Arturo Prat and a marine sergeant fell on the Huascar’s deck killing on it. A second ramming disabled Esmeralda as another thirteen Chileans fell on the Huascar’s deck only to be gunned down and killed by the Peruvian marines. Esmeralda, now stationary, was finished off with a third ramming.

Huascar returned to Callao for minor repairs and at this time the forward tripod was removed to allow forward fire. After the repairs Huascar steamed along the Chilean coast terrorizing the coastal towns. The Chileans were in a blue funk until the Navy’s commander was replaced and the Chilean ironclads made ready to confront their country’s tormentor.

On October 8, 1879 the confrontation occurred at Punta Angamos, which was the Pacific end of the Bolivian Pacific corridor, lands rich in nitrate and which was the original cause of the war that Chile made to Bolivia and Peru. The Chileans had Cochrane and Blanco Encalada to put up against the Huascar. The Chilean ironclads were larger than Huascar and mounted six 9-inch guns each against the two 10-inch guns of Huascar. The Chileans were broadside ships designed by Edward Reed. The Chileans had new Armor-Piercing shells not available to Shah when she fought Huascar two years earlier. Seventy hits were scored on Huascar, which knocked out her steering, smashed the superstructure, penetrated the turret twice and killed Commodore Grau. Huascar was dead in the water with her turret knocked out. Now defenseless, the crew tried to scuttle her but Chilean boarding parties came aboard and stopped the ship from sinking.

The “Huascar” is badly damaged at the battle of Angamos in 1879 (painting by Peruvian artist Fernando Saldías)

The Huascar after Angamos:

The Chileans made temporary repairs and reached Valparaiso on October 20. By November Huascar was in operations against her former owners, blockading Peru. In February 1880 Huascar encountered a new Peruvian ironclad, the Manco Capac. Although eight crewmen, including the captain were killed, the Huascar received damages. During the blockade of Callao, Huascar was hit three times from a fort and had one compartment flooded.

SOURCE:

Gerald L. Wood, The Ironclad Turret Ship Huascar, Warship Volume X (Conway Maritime Press, London 1986), two part article on the ship.