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Looking upward, Douglas saw that a number of Peruvians, armed with rifles, had clambered up on the roof of the turret, and up into the Huascar's low fighting-tops, and were firing directly downward into them. It was one of these bullets that put an end to the career of the gallant Chilian commander.
The Spanish commander refused, at first, to credit the unwelcome news, and bluntly told the Inca, that his brother could not be dead, and that he should be answerable for his life.47 To this Atahuallpa replied by renewed assurances of the fact, adding that the deed had been perpetrated, without his privity, by Huascar's keepers, fearful that he might take advantage of the troubles of the country to make his escape.
The Peruvians were not prepared for the attack, as they had quite expected to sink the little sloop with the first blow of the Huascar's ram; but they quickly recovered from their surprise and swarmed out of the turret, and up from below, charging furiously upon the boarders, with drawn cutlasses and revolvers.
The British sailors, stripped to the waist, cutlass in hand, stood eagerly awaiting orders. The gunners' crews were engaged in firing rapidly. The Huascar replied by slow but heavy reports from her turret. The object of the British was to disable the Huascar's turret, and they succeeded by directing all shots against it.
The Shah and Amethyst were unarmoured cruisers, but in point of number of guns they were superior to the ironclad. The fight lasted for three hours. The Huascar's smoke-stack was pierced, and damage done to her deck beams, but the metal of the British guns were not heavy enough to pierce the armour.
Jim scrambled out of his seat and was just raising the locker lid when a long streak of flame burst from the Huascar's side. There was a deafening, thudding roar, and a stream of machine-gun bullets screeched and hummed over their heads. They had indeed walked right into a cunningly contrived trap, and the Peruvians had been on the watch for them the whole time.
The corvette Union, which up to that time had been keeping station on the Huascar's port quarter, suddenly slowed down and passed under her stern, turned to the eastward, and made for Arica under a full head of steam.
Both missiles struck on the unarmoured portion of the Huascar's bows, and pierced her through and through, without exploding, however, as the thickness of steel penetrated was insufficient to detonate the projectiles. The Peruvian at once replied with a shot from her 300-pounder, which struck the Blanco's navigating bridge and blew it to pieces.
The skipper therefore ordered his men to turn their whole attention to the corvette and try to disable her also, since they would soon be beyond the range of the Huascar's guns.
The battle of Angamos was over at last. The Huascar's men were then secured, a prize-crew placed on board, and under escort of the Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada she went under her own steam into the harbour of Mejillones, where she was temporarily patched up and rendered more or less seaworthy.
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