THE CAPTURE OF THE HUASCAR.
A letter from Antofagasta, written just to the engagement which resulted io the capture of the Hnascar by the Chillians, throws light on that event.. Within a few hours of the Huascar having bombarded Autofagastra, silenced the guns of the fort, and inflicted great damage, the Chilian ironclad Blanco arrived in port, and the captain was ordered to go in pursuit of the Peruvian, which, had steamed off northward. Instead of so doing the Blanco went away to southward, which so exasperated the Chilian Government that the Blanco’s captain was immediately disgraced, and Captain Gondell, who succeeded him, a daring adventurer, was ordered at all costs to bring on a naval engagement before Independence Day. That he succeeded in doing, as we have already learned by telegraph, with a result eminently satisfactory to the Chilians. The Peruvian corvette Union had returned from her voyage to the Mangellan Straits, undertaken nominally to look after some vessels bringing Chilian supplies from Europe, but really to bring up from the Brazils herself three batteries of field artillery which have been landed at Callao. The Peruvians were concentrating their forces upon Tocopilla, and unless commissariat and financial difficulties interposed severe fighting was inevitable. Some details of the battle in which the Huascar was captured have been received. A despatch from a Chilian source states that the Huascar sustained the fight against the combined Chilian fleet. Admiral Grau and all the officers of the Huascar were killed. The Huascar did not strike her flag, but was utterly destroyed. The Chilians saved twenty of her crew, including wounded. A Panama telegram
says the battle lasted six hours. The Huaacar refused to surrgnder, and at last sank. One of the Chilian irondclad was also in a sinking condition. The news caused much excitement in Peru, but the enthusiasm for the war is as great as ever. Public subscriptions to the war fund made in Lima the day the news of the destruc-
tion of the Huascar arrived there realised % no less than two and a half million v francs.
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Bibliographic details
Kumara Times, Issue 1018, 6 January 1880, Page 4
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347THE CAPTURE OF THE HUASCAR. Kumara Times, Issue 1018, 6 January 1880, Page 4
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