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Updated: June 8, 2025
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.
Jim carefully digested the report, and then unfolded his latest plan to Manuel, which was to the effect that the Miraflores, with a prize-crew aboard, and the Angamos, should impersonate the two Peruvian gun- runners expected by the Union; and that they should hoist the enemy's flag and go in search of him; thus getting close enough to bring the elusive corvette to action.
There was therefore absolutely no chance of the Union being missed should she come within twenty miles from the Angamos, for a man with a powerful telescope would be able to cover at least that distance from the cruiser's fore-topmast head. But despite the strict look-out maintained aboard the Angamos, the days passed without any sign of the Union making her appearance.
Have the port and starboard quarter-boats manned and lowered, Senor Manuel, if you please, and bring off the crew of that ship; but take the precaution of first putting them all in irons. After you have transferred them to the Angamos I will put a prize-crew aboard, under your command; and you shall keep me company until we return to Valparaiso.
When Jim reported to the admiral he was greatly gratified to find that his chief was perfectly satisfied with the way in which he had carried out the task entrusted to him; and although the Chilian very naturally regretted that the young skipper of the Angamos had not been able to bring the Union to book, he fully recognised that Douglas had done all that was possible.
But the Angamos was past the flagship in about half a minute, and Jim then put his engines at full speed. The cruiser, which had only very recently been built, was capable of steaming at the rate of fourteen knots, consequently she was at least two knots faster than the Union, the ship she was being sent to hunt down.
And he commended the judgment he had displayed in bringing the cruiser back to Valparaiso, instead of waiting about in the Straits of Magellan on the off-chance of again encountering her, for, as he explained to Douglas, the fleet was even then on the point of leaving port to harry the Peruvian coast, and the Angamos was required to take part in the work.
A shore-boat was then signalled for, and upon her arrival alongside the two lads got into her and had themselves and their baggage conveyed ashore, where they chartered another boat in which they were rowed out to the Angamos. The object of the double journey was to keep, as far as possible, their movements secret.
The moment that daylight dawned, Jim, whose nerves were by this time torn to fiddle-strings by frequent necessary stoppages during the night, put his vessel at full speed again, and, still with two leadsmen sounding the whole time, the Angamos swept along the narrow waters, finally emerging at the Argentine end of the Straits.
"Were you ever on board the Chilian cruiser Angamos?" he inquired, still in the same low and even tones, but with a curious new thrill in his voice. "Yes," replied Jim, looking him straight in the face, "I had the honour to command that ship upon the occasion when she encountered the Union in the Straits of Magellan. If I remember rightly, the Union did not stay to finish our little encounter."
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