On April 24th, the day after the engagement in which
the Blanco Encalada ' was sunk by the torpedoes of the
Almirante Lynch' and the Almirante Condell,' these two vessels, with their comrade, the Sargeante Aldea,' attacked the insurgent ironclad Magellanes ' in Chafiaral Bay. The 4 Magellanes,' however, was not surprised with anchors down and fires banked up, but was prepared for the attack with steam up, and she succeeded in beating off the three gunboats, and driving them out to sea in a very disabled state. She herself suffered considerably, having one of her batteries disabled, sixty of her crew wounded, and twenty-two killed by
the fire of the three assailants. There sesms to be absolutely no evidence of panic on either side. On the contrary, a shot from the 'Lynch' having knocked into the sea the yard-arm on which the flag of the Magellanes ' was fixed, a gunner with- out hesitation jumped after it into the sea, and he was hauled back on deck waving the flag in his hand. Valour and speed seem to be as effective in the new naval warfare as in the old.
Previous page
