United States or Benin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Admiral Blanco was his second in command, and his squadron consisted of the O'Higgins, the San Martin, the Lautaro, the Independencia, the Galvarino, the Araucano, and the Puyrredon, mounting two hundred and twenty guns in all. There were also two old vessels, to be used as fireships. The fleet entered Callao Roads on the 29th of September. On this occasion there was no subterfuge.
From the neglect to repair the ships which were left in the same wretched condition as when they returned from Peru and Mexico the Independencia was alone seaworthy; and was sent to sea by Zenteno without even the formality of transmitting the requisite orders through me. But a crisis was now at hand.
Lord Cochrane, however, determined that the fleet, furnished at such expense and effort by Chili, should not be wholly wasted, and when he sent his ships in to anchor off the port, he retained the O’Higgins, the Independencia, and the Lautaro, with the professed intention of blockading Callao at a distance.
On the 21st of November the sick were sent off to Valparaiso in charge of the San Martin, the Independencia, and the Araucano, while with the remainder of the fleet Lord Cochrane sailed to the mouth of the river Guayaquil, where he captured two large Spanish vessels, mounting together thirty-six guns and laden with timber.
Scattered through the building were several small patios with patches of sun, in which many prisoners were engaged in making ingenious little knickknacks which they were permitted to sell for their own benefit. The speciality of one old fellow under life sentence was a coin purse with the slightly incongruous device, "Viva la Independencia!"
On reaching Antofagasta the Covadonga went into the roads and lay inside the reef which stretches across their entrance; and there, her captain, Carlos Condell, telegraphed to Valparaiso, giving details of the previous day's fight, and asking for further orders, while he set about repairing the very extensive damage which had been sustained by his ship in her fight with the Independencia.
But even in 1865, the Alcalá Gate, standing where the Plaza de la Independencia is now, formed one boundary of Madrid, the Gate of Atocha was still standing at the end of the paseo of that name, and the Gate of Sta. Barbara formed another of the limits of the city. The Museo was unfinished and only to be entered by a side door, encumbered with builders' rubbish and half-hewn blocks of stone.
On the 10th of January, I communicated to the Government the contents of another despatch from Captain Haydon, at Pernambuco, reporting that the new Junta there had seized the Imperial ship of war, Independencia ou morte, and had removed the officer in command, at the same time threatening to treat Captain Haydon as a pirate.
From 1873 to 1879 Admiral Grau was a member of the Peruvian Congress for Paita, but on the outbreak of the war he successfully applied to be reinstated in his former command of the Huascar. By him the Peruvian squadron was arranged as follows: The first division, under Admiral Grau himself, consisted of the Huascar; Independencia, armoured frigate; and the Oroya, a paddle-transport of 1597 tons.
There were other instances of false economy, whereby Lord Cochrane's intended services to his Chilian employers were seriously hindered. The vessels were refitted, however, and a new one, an American-built corvette, named the Independencia, of twenty-eight guns, was added to the number. After nearly three months' stay at Valparaiso, he again set sail on the 12th of September, 1819.
Word Of The Day