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| Missing image Monitor_Huascar.jpg Huáscar in Talcahuano, Chile. | ||
| Career | 
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|---|---|---|
| Built at: | Liverpool, England | |
| Ordered: | August 4, 1864 | |
| Launched: | October 7, 1865 | |
| Commissioned: | 8 November 1866 | |
| Decommissioned: | --- | |
| Fate: | Transformed as a memorial ship | |
| General Characteristics | ||
| Displacement: | 1,180 t | |
| Length: | 66.90 m | |
| Beam: | 10.90 m | |
| Draught: | 5.57 m | |
| Propulsion: | 300 hp | |
| Fuel: | Coal | |
| Speed: | 12 knots | |
| Complement: | 170 | |
| Armament: | 1 Gatling Machine gun .44.
1 / 12 pounds cannon 2 / 40 pounds cannons 2 / 300 punds cannons | |
Huáscar is a small Peruvian ironclad turret ship, similar to the monitor type. It was built in Liverpool, England in 1865.
On May 29 1877 it fought the inconclusive Battle of Pacocha against two British vessels, the large iron frigate Shah and the wooden corvette Amethyst. This battle saw the first use in anger of the newly-invented locomotive torpedo.
Previous conflicts, particularly the American Civil War, witnessed the used of torpedoes, but these were actually stationary mines. At the time of the Huascar's battle with the H.M.S. Shah, the Whitehead locomotive torpedo, which propelled itself, had just entered limited service with the Royal Navy. The generic use of the word "torpedo" to describe any underwater explosive continued until the late 19th century.
In May 1879, Chilean captain Arturo Prat of Esmeralda, an old wooden sailing ship dating from the Independence Wars of the 1820s, died on the deck after an unequal battle with Huáscar, and a heroic but futile attempt to board. On October 8 1879 it was captured by the Chilean navy at the Battle of Angamos, during which most of Huascar's crew died, including Admiral Miguel Grau Seminario, her commanding officer and Peru's most renowned naval commander.
It is now a floating museum-memorial and a commissioned ship in the Chilean navy, and one of the few surviving examples of its type. It is berthed in the port of Talcahuano, Chile, one of Chile's national treasures. Huáscar is considered the tomb of Admiral Miguel Grau, whose body was never found.
External links
- El Huascar (in Spanish) (http://www.peru.com/batallas_navales/angamos/el_huascar.asp)
- Pre-Dreadnought Preservation The Huáscar (http://www.oz.net/~markhow/pre-dred/huascar.htm)
- model of the Huáscar (360-degree spin around) (http://www.armada.cl/animaciones/quicktimevr/huas320.htm)es:Monitor Huáscar