Above, copy of a Peruvian newspaper of the time, informing about the arrival of the new monitor Manco Capac, twin ship of the Atahualpa, in 1870. The trip between New Orleans and Callao lasted 15 long and difficult months, because the travel autonomy of the ships was only 5 days. It is said that when the river monitors departed for Per� under orders of Commanders Carrillo and Moore, towed by the Peruvian transports Pachitea and Mara�on, the Americans said "They there go, the Peruvians in their iron coffins", because the surface of the ships was only 12" above water. The Manco Capac, a Canonicus class monitor, was the ex USS Oneota. In February 1880 one of her 500 pound grenades hit the Huascar, now under Chile, and killed her Commander, Manuel Thomson. She was sunk by her own crew after the battle of Arica in June 7th, 1880. The Atahualpa and Manco Capac were named after the first and the last Inca Emperors of the Tahuantinsuyo.
Below, the Pilcomayo ship of smaller might, but the newest of the Peruvian fleet during the war, built in 1874 for Peru by Money Wigram & Sons in Blackwood, Great Britain, with machinery of J. Penn & Company of Greenwich. This wooden screw corvette displaced 800 tons, could reach 11 knots of speed and was armed with two 70 pound guns, four 40 pound guns and four 12 pounders. Among other actions, she participated together with the Union in the naval combat of Chipana in April 12th 1879, against the Chilean gunboat Magellan. In July that year she executed a brilliant and daring action: In Tocopilla she slipped between thirteen enemy boats and sank the Chilean vessel Matilde, without the port guns opposing any resistance (Photos courtesy Commander Alex Ru�z S�nchez-Salazar, Peruvian Navy).
