Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker

by James Henry Rochelle

In order to provide for the reappearance of the Spanish fleet on the coast during his absence, Tucker advised the allied Governments to enroll as a naval reserve all the Peruvian and Chilean masters, mates and crews of merchant vessels, pilots and mariners engaged in employments on shore. A part of his plan was that all merchant steamers carrying the flags of the Republics, which could be made available for war purposes, should be inspected and held ready for active service in the Navy and manned by the naval reserve whenever the Government should think it necessary to employ them. This force, with the harbor defense iron-clads, and the forts and batteries on shore, Tucker thought would be a sufficient protection for the coast, whilst his squadron of the most efficient sea-going vessels was absent in the East Indies, where the capture of Manila would have dealt a heavy blow to Spain, and rendered an honorable peace, carrying with it an acknowledgment of the independence of Peru and Chile, a matter of easy attainment.

This plan, which would probably have been entirely successful if carried out with skill, daring and judgment, as it would have been by Tucker, was favorably considered by the Governments of the allied Republics, but it was not carried out, probably on account of the financial embarrassments under which the Republics labored, and which rendered it exceedingly difficult to find the funds required to fit out the expedition.

The Manila expedition having been abandoned, and the Spanish fleet which had been employed on the Pacific coast having returned home, Tucker requested permission to visit Lima, in order that he might lay before General Prado, President of the Republic, a plan for making an exploration and survey of the Peruvian or Upper Amazon River and its tributaries. The President heartily approved of the enterprise, for the Government was at that very time considering the practicability of opening better communications between the west coast and the eastern part of the country, and of finding an outlet by the waters of the Amazon for the rich productions of the interior.

Tucker resigned his commission as rear-admiral in the Navy of the Republic, and was immediately appointed President of the Peruvian Hydrographical Commission of the Amazon. He left Lima with a full corps of assistants, and made his way across the mountains to the head of navigation on the Palcazu river, where the party was received on board a Government steamer that had been dispatched from Iquitos to meet them. The headquarters of the Commission was established at Iquitos, the principal settlement on the Upper Amazon river, and the place where the Government factories and magazines were located.

In the small steamer Naps, belonging to the Government, Tucker made an exploring expedition of two hundred and fifty miles up Yavari, the river which forms the boundary between Peru and Brazil.

None of the Peruvian steamers on the Amazon being suitable for exploring and surveying purposes, the Government at Lima ordered Tucker to proceed to the United States and procure such a vessel as was required for the duty pertaining to his Commission. In obedience to this order Tucker spent some months in the United States, and had a steamer built by Messrs. Pusey, Jones & Co., of Wilmington, Delaware, expressly adapted to the navigation of the shoals and rapids of the Upper Amazon. This vessel, named the Tambo, was delivered to Tucker at Para, the Brazilian city at the mouth of the Lower Amazon. Embarking on board the Tambo, Tucker took the steamer up the river to Iquitos, where supplies were taken on board sufficient to last for several months. He then proceeded to make an important expedition up the Upper Amazon, the Ucayali and the Tambo rivers. The Tambo river had never been explored, and it was thought that it presented a feasible route for navigation to San Ramon, a military station in the heart of the interior, only about thirty miles distant from the large and important city of Tarmo, which is connected by railway with Lima.

Leaving Iquitos, the Tambo, with the Commission on board, passed up the Amazon to the mouth of the Ucayali river, up the Ucayali past the rapids of the "Devil's Leap," and entered the Tambo river. The Tambo was found to be a narrow stream, full of rocks and rapids and not practicable for navigation by steamers. When the steamer Tambo could ascend no higher, Tucker fitted out a small boat and pulled some twenty miles farther up the river, but everywhere found such obstructions as rendered it an impracticable route to the interior. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that time did not allow of an examination of the other affluents of the Usayali trending towards San Ramon and Tarmo.

On his return to Iquitos, Tucker was again dispatched to the United States to procure another and smaller exploring steamer. During his absence Captain James Henry Rochelle was directed by the Government at Lima to take charge of the Hydrographical Commission as its acting president.

After an absence of some months, Tucker returned to Iquitos with the new steamer, which was named the Mayro, and was little more than a large steam launch, intended for use where a vessel of greater draught of water could not be employed.

The next expedition decided upon was for the exploration of the water route towards Huanaco, by way of the entirely unknown river Pichis. Most of the tributaries of the Ucayali had been traveled more or less by the Jesuit priests from the College of Ocopa, but none of them had attempted the route of the Pichis, the banks of which were in possession of roving tribes of Indians, who permitted no stranger to pass through their country. It was thought possible, and even probable, from the stories told by the natives, that the head of the Pichis river would be found well suited for being the eastern terminus of the trans-Andean railway.