Above, the paddlewheel steam frigate Rimac, built for Peru in New York, USA, between 1847 and 1848 by the prestigious company Brown & Bell –which designed several ships for the U.S. Navy- with machinery from Stilman and Allen. She was loaded with two 68-pound and four 24-pound British guns. She had a weight of 638 tons and could reach a speed of 13 knots thanks to a 200 HP engine. The ship, which arrived in Peru in July 1848, had a crew of 100 officers and men, and became the first war steamer in South America. She was lost in 1855, after a collision in Punta San Juan, Ica, in which 78 men lost their lives.