“Children, the odds are against us, but our flag has thus far never been lowered in the presence of the enemy, and I hope that it will not be to-day. As long as I live that flag shall fly in its place; and if I die, my officers will know how to do their duty.”
The men were then dismissed to their quarters, and almost immediately afterwards—at eight o’clock in the morning—the Huascar fired the first shot, which fell right between the two Chilian ships, and then began one of the most memorable sea-fights that have ever been recorded in history. The Chilians at once replied with every available gun, and the action instantly became fierce, the Huascar singling out the Esmeralda as her antagonist, while the Covadonga was attacked by the Independencia.
The Peruvian ironclads steamed slowly along toward their prey, the Huascar firing her two 10-inch turret-guns as she came, but she was somewhat handicapped by the circumstance that there was great risk of her shot striking the town, which was, of course, still in Peruvian hands. But each of these shells weighed as much as 300 pounds; and whenever they hit the unfortunate sloop at which they were aimed, the effect was terrible. One of them pierced her thin side, and penetrating to the engine-room, burst there, killing every one of the engineers, and partially disabling the crazy engines. Arturo Prat, however, immediately detached from among the invalids a squad of men to do duty in the engine-room, and redoubled his fire upon his opponent, keeping up such a furious fusillade with his small-arms that Captain Grau of the Huascar mistook it for machine-gun fire; and so excellent was the aim of the marksmen that it destroyed the Peruvians who were working the unprotected guns, and prevented them from being replaced.
Jim was here, there, and everywhere, encouraging and cheering on his men, both with voice and example; but the odds were most fearfully against the Chilians. Shot fell upon the unfortunate Esmeralda like hail, and one of them shivered Douglas’s sword in his hand as he waved it above his head. The undaunted crew of the sloop were too fully occupied with the work of fighting the Huascar to take any notice of what was happening in the town behind them, and suddenly a shower of shells began to hurtle over the devoted craft from shoreward. The Peruvians there had dragged down to the beach a battery of field-pieces, with which they now opened a galling fire upon the Esmeralda. Her present berth at once became untenable, for she had not enough men left to work the guns on both broadsides, and Commander Prat at once rang down to his engine-room for “full speed ahead,” the anchor having been raised at the beginning of the action; and the doomed vessel’s engines began the last revolutions that they were ever to make.
As soon as she was seen to be slowly steaming farther out into the bay, the captain of the Huascar determined to try to ram his opponent, and thus end the fight at once. He accordingly steamed for the Esmeralda at a speed of about eight knots, steering north-east, while the sloop was steering due north but was only just moving through the water.
Douglas at once divined the intention of the Peruvian and shouted a warning to Prat, who had left the bridge for a few moments in order to assist with the repairing of a gun, the mechanism of which had become jammed, and the gallant commander immediately sprang to his bridge-telegraph, and rang for all the steam his boilers could give him. But the engineers were already getting every possible ounce of work out of the crazy machinery, and the sloop’s speed could not be increased! For two dreadful minutes the combatants paused, as if by mutual consent, while the Huascar rushed onward, like some fearful sea-monster, at its prey.
But Captain Grau stopped his engines just a few seconds too soon, and the Esmeralda was within an ace of scraping clear. She was nearly past—only a few yards more and she would be in safety—but her wretched engines chose just that precise moment to break down, and the sloop at once lost her way. The next second the Peruvian monitor struck her with a concussion that threw every man to the deck; but the blow was fortunately a glancing one, and the Huascar rubbed harmlessly along the sides of the sloop, coming to a standstill alongside her in consequence of the entanglement of some raised port-shutters.
Now was the Chilian’s last opportunity to snatch success out of the jaws of failure, and Captain Prat immediately seized it.
Waving his sword above his head, he shouted: “Boarders, away! Follow me all who are able!” And he sprang over the side of his ship on to the decks of the Huascar.
Douglas was the second man aboard the Peruvian monitor, and he raced along her deck, followed by only twelve men, in the wake of his gallant commander. 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. Scarcely a man, it appeared, had been touched aboard the Peruvian, owing to the great thickness of her armour-plating, and her crew, being practically intact, brought an overwhelming force to bear upon the handful of invaders, who were instantly surrounded by their enemies.