Dictionary of Battles / From the Earliest Date to the Present Time

by Thomas Benfield Harbottle

Callao (South American War of Independence).

On the night of November 5, 1820, Lord Cochrane, who with three Chilian frigates was blockading the Spaniards in Callao, rowed into the harbour with 240 seamen and marines, and cut out the Spanish frigate Esmeralda from under the 300 guns of the shore batteries. He lost in the enterprise 41 killed and wounded, while the whole of the crew of the Esmeralda, including the Spanish Admiral, was captured or killed.