Capture of the schooner Peruviana

Capture of the Peruviana
Part of the War of the Confederation
The Peruviana sailing with the Chilean Pavilion, work of (Álvaro Casanova Zenteno 1857-1939)
Date January 3, 1838 Location Callao, Peru 12°03′08″S 77°08′21″W / 12.05222°S 77.13917°W / -12.05222; -77.13917 Result Confederate Victory
Belligerents
Peru-Bolivian Confederation	Republic of Chile
Commanders and leaders
Guillermo Miller	Tomás Ruedas  (POW)
Strength
1 schooner 1 frigate	1 schooner
Casualties and losses
1 killed 1 wounded[1]	5 killed 9 captured 1 schooner captured

The capture (or recapture) of the schooner Peruviana occurred on January 3, 1838, in the Callao, after this action said ship was reincorporated to the Confederation squadron after having been captured in its anchorage the previous year by a night incursion that, without prior declaration of war, a Chilean squadron commanded by Victorino Garrido.

The Battle

After landing in Quilca the troops of the first restorative expedition under the command of Manuel Blanco Encalada, the Peruvian gouter under the command of first lieutenant Tomás Ruedas set sail to the north of Peru with the mission of harassing its ports, interfering the trade for them and capturing the merchants it found in its path. Without having been lucky enough to capture any prey, the goleta arrived in Santa on October 26, believing that the port was unguarded, he sent a boat manned by 15 men to make fresh water, however, the captain of the port Juan Seguín gathered and armed a group of militiamen with whom he attacked the Chilean sailors surrendering them after a close shooting.^[2] The garrison of the Peruviana was limited to witnessing the combat because its crew, now reduced to 14 men, was barely enough To operate the ship. After this incident, the goose set sail to the port of Pisco where on his arrival on December 22 the rivero port captain made known to him the signing of the Treaty of Paucarpata, by which peace was established and the Blanco Encalada army withdrew from Peru and the Chilean government must also return the Peruvian ships that Victorino Garrido had treacherously captured in Callao. Ruedas reported that he would go to deliver the gutter to the port of Callao for which he requested that he be provided with what was necessary, after being warned by the military commander of Pisco, Rivero delivered the necessary food only to get to Callao, after doing this the Peruvian set sail in the direction of this port. Arriving, Lieutenant Ruedas went ashore and met with the Minister of War who fully informed him about the content of the treaty and its provisions on the ships captured by Garrido, Ruedas said that he could not deliver them without an order from his government, when trying to withdraw his ship from the port the governor of Callao, General Guillermo Miller, informed him that he could not authorize the sail without superior orders before this Ruedas embarked and after obtaining from the French war brigantine Bisson, the indispensable food for his trip he intended to flee at full sail of the Callao however The wind was not favorable and the gulet was reached by the manned boats of the corvette Socabaya, which had returned from its expedition to Chilean coasts at the end of December of the previous year, whose sailors boarded the Peruviana and after a short skirmish in which five of the men of Ruedas and a Confederate sailor died, resulting in another injury, the rest of the crew surrendered and the gulet being recaptured by the Peruvians and Ruedas and their men confined to the Callao.^[3][4]

References

1. Luis Uribe y Orrego, "The naval operations during the war between Chile and the Perubolivian confederation", page 89
2. Gonzalo Búlnes, "History of the campaign of Peru in 1838", page 11
3. Ramón Sotomayor Valdés, "History of Chile, under the government of the D. Joaquín Prieto", Volume 3, Page 242
4. Commission to Write the Maritime History of Peru, "Maritime History of Peru: pt.1. The Republic", page 555