The Bombardment of Callao.
When Jim reported to the admiral he was greatly gratified to find that his chief was perfectly satisfied with the way in which he had carried out the task entrusted to him; and although the Chilian very naturally regretted that the young skipper of the Angamos had not been able to bring the Union to book, he fully recognised that Douglas had done all that was possible. And he commended the judgment he had displayed in bringing the cruiser back to Valparaiso, instead of waiting about in the Straits of Magellan on the off-chance of again encountering her, for, as he explained to Douglas, the fleet was even then on the point of leaving port to harry the Peruvian coast, and the Angamos was required to take part in the work.
He was also informed that Captain Castello would take charge of the Angamos on the coming expedition, and that Jim himself was, for certain particular reasons, to return to the Blanco Encalada, in his former capacity of first lieutenant of the flagship. Admiral Riveros also hinted that he had it in his mind to depute to him in the near future a difficult and extremely important piece of work, the character of which he would fully explain to him later, and this circumstance was quite sufficient to compensate the young man for any disappointment he may have temporarily felt at finding that he was not to retain the command of the cruiser.
Accordingly Jim returned to the flagship, where he was heartily welcomed by his old comrades, who informed him that the destination of the squadron was thought to be Callao, and that in all probability the Chilians would bombard the place, and then endeavour to take Lima, the Peruvian capital; so that there promised to be plenty of excitement and adventure in store for everybody.
At length all preparations were completed, and on the 2nd of April 1880, exactly a week after Jim had returned to Valparaiso in the Angamos, the fleet, consisting of the Blanco, Huascar, Angamos, Pilcomayo, Mathias Cousino, and the two torpedo-boats Guacolda and Janequeo, left that port and, steaming out of the bay, headed to the northward.
The ships, which had of course been coaled and provisioned at Valparaiso, had no need to call in anywhere for stores, but headed direct for Callao, which was openly stated to be their destination as soon as they were out of the harbour; and on April 9 the squadron arrived within a couple of hours’ steam of the Peruvian port. At three o’clock in the afternoon of the same day the two torpedo boats, under convoy of the Huascar, went on ahead to scout; and, arriving off the port just about dusk, Lieutenant Goñi of the Guacolda rashly determined to make a raid on the Peruvian shipping on his own account, and accordingly slipped away into the harbour toward the place where the enemy’s warships were known to be lying.
The Union was soon identified as one of the ships lying at anchor, and Goñi promptly headed for her. But when about half a mile distant from her quarry, the torpedo-boat accidentally ran down a fishing-smack, drowning all the crew except three, and losing one of her own torpedo-spars. It was by this time quite dark, and in the confusion the precise position of the Union had been lost; but Goñi, having rescued the three surviving fishermen, forced them to pilot him to the spot where the corvette was lying, only to discover, when he got close to her, that her skipper had surrounded her with a boom. But undismayed by this, the gallant Chilian forthwith destroyed the boom, and then discovered that he had lost his second spar, and consequently was unable to torpedo the ship herself. The Union then opened a smart machine-gun fire, and the Guacolda was compelled to beat a retreat, much to Lieutenant Goñi’s annoyance.
Unfortunately, this ill-timed attack had put the Peruvians thoroughly on the alert, and as soon as daylight appeared they hauled their fleet, consisting of the Union, Rimac, Chalaco, Oroya, and Atahualpa into shoal water behind the breakwater of the stone docks, where were also the Talisman and two hulks, the Apurimac and Marañon. They had also several new torpedo-boats, as well as launches and tugs armed with spar-torpedoes, with which they patrolled the harbour to prevent any repetition of an attack like that of the Guacolda.
Admiral Riveros was extremely angry with Lieutenant Goñi when upon his arrival off Callao he saw that every possible preparation had been made for his reception; that any further surprise was impossible; and that the attack would now have to be made openly. He therefore called away his barge and, under a flag of truce, visited the senior Peruvian naval officer for the purpose of informing him that Callao was to be blockaded, and that, since bombardment might at any moment become necessary, all non-combatants should at once leave the town and seek a place of safety. The Chilian also sent a notice to this effect to the principal consular agent and to the senior foreign naval officer of the neutral warships lying in the roads, eight days being the time allowed for neutral shipping and foreigners generally to leave the place. Upon the representation of the consuls, however, that eight days were not enough, the admiral increased the period of grace to ten days, and then set to work on the task of making his fleet ready for the bombardment which he saw was inevitable.
The defences of Callao consisted for the most part of a series of batteries arranged in crescent form round the shores of the bay. At the extreme south-west point of land, between the bays of Callao and Miraflores, stood the strongest Peruvian battery, called the Dos de Mayo, which had only very recently been constructed. This contained two 20-inch M.L. Rodman guns, mounted on United States service iron carriages; and these formidable weapons commanded nearly seven-eighths of the horizon. Tarapoca battery, which faced due south over Chorillos bay, contained two 15-inch Dahlgren guns, as also did Pierola battery, facing Callao bay. Next to Pierola came the Torre del Merced, a revolving turret mounting two 10-inch rifled Armstrongs. Then came a brick fort called the Santa Rosa, containing two 11-inch rifled Blakely guns. The Castle, a very old and ruinous structure, the only strength of which consisted of two masonry towers, had four 11-inch rifled Blakelies. Seven large-bore guns were mounted on the mole, together with two small and very ancient 32-pounders. At the north end of the town itself was Fort Ayacucho, containing one 15-inch Dahlgren and one 11-inch Blakely. Then came another revolving turret, with two 10-inch Armstrongs; and finally a sand-bag battery, named the Rimac, which mounted four 15-inch Dahlgren muzzle-loaders.