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At three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day the two torpedo boats, under convoy of the Huascar, went on ahead to scout; and, arriving off the port just about dusk, Lieutenant Goni of the Guacolda rashly determined to make a raid on the Peruvian shipping on his own account, and accordingly slipped away into the harbour toward the place where the enemy's warships were known to be lying.
At length all preparations were completed, and on the 2nd of April 1880, exactly a week after Jim had returned to Valparaiso in the Angamos, the fleet, consisting of the Blanco, Huascar, Angamos, Pilcomayo, Mathias Cousino, and the two torpedo-boats Guacolda and Janequeo, left that port and, steaming out of the bay, headed to the northward.
They had also several new torpedo-boats, as well as launches and tugs armed with spar-torpedoes, with which they patrolled the harbour to prevent any repetition of an attack like that of the Guacolda.
But undismayed by this, the gallant Chilian forthwith destroyed the boom, and then discovered that he had lost his second spar, and consequently was unable to torpedo the ship herself. The Union then opened a smart machine-gun fire, and the Guacolda was compelled to beat a retreat, much to Lieutenant Goni's annoyance.
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