Battle of Quilmes


The Battle of Quilmes took place between a fleet of the Imperial Brazilian Navy, commanded by British admiral James Norton and a fleet of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata under the command of William Brown. The confrontations began at dawn on July 30, 1826 and lasted for three hours.

Background

On the night of July 29, while an Argentine convoy of troops and military equipment carried out a crossing to the Banda Oriental, escorted by the Río de la Plata schooner that was commanded by captain Leonardo Rosales, admiral Brown, with a force integrated by the 25 de Mayo frigate, the Congreso, Independencia, Republica and General Balcarce brigs, the Sarandí schooner and other small ships in a total of 18, was in his usual base waiting for the convoy's arrival and left the port in an unsuccessful attempt to surprise the Brazilians.
The Brazilian fleet, commanded by captain Norton, was composed of the Brazilian [frigate Nichteroy (1823)|Nichteroy] frigate, the corvettes Brazilian [corvette Liberal|Liberal], Maria da Glória, Maceió and Itaparica, the brigs Pirajá, Caboclo and 29 de Agosto, the schooners Leal Paulistana, Dona Paula, Conceição and 7 de Março and a few gunboats, with a total of more than 200 guns. From 8 o'clock onwards, the fleet continued to sail until midnight, when it anchored to the east of the outer channel, near Ensenada waiting for the return of the convoy to attack it, which it finally did near the coast of Quilmes.

Order of Battle

Empire of Brazil

ShipsTypeGuns
NichteroyFrigate38
Maria da GlóriaCorvette30
Corvette22
MaceióCorvette20
ItaparicaCorvette20
CabocloBrig18
29 de AgostoBrig18
PirajáBrig18
Leal PaulistanaSchooner8
ConceiçãoSchooner4
Dona PaulaSchooner4
7 de MarçoSchooner3
9 de JaneiroGunboat2
12 de OutubroGunboat2
ItaparicaGunboat1

United Provinces of the Río de la Plata

ShipsTypeGuns
25 de MayoFrigate36
IndependenciaBrig22
CongresoBrig18
RepublicaBrig16
BalcarceBrig14
Oriental-ArgentinoBrig13
SarandíSchooner8
RíoSchooner1
PepaSchooner1
9 GunboatsGunboat1 gun each

Battle

As Scheina puts it: