First Chilean Navy Squadron

The First Chilean Navy Squadron was the heterogeneous naval force that terminated Spanish colonial rule in the Pacific and protagonized the most important naval actions of in the Latin American wars of independence. The Chilean revolutionary government organized the squadron in order to carry the war to the Viceroyalty of Perú, then the center of Spanish power in South America, and thus secure the independence of Chile and Argentina.

Background

The Napoleonic Wars had crippled Spain's navy, and the French occupation had destroyed the logistical base of its dockyards, with the result of the loss of the majority of Spain's navy. Nevertheless, during the Patria Vieja period, the Spaniards and the Royalists of Chile and Peru were able from Callao, the royalist stronghold in Perú, to blockade any Chilean revolutionary ports, to land in Talcahuano, a loyal port, and support the advance of the royalist troops of Chile against Santiago de Chile, the main city of the revolutionary forces and crush the rebellion in Chile. Argentine historian Bartolomé Mitre gives the following list of armed Spanish ships in the west coast of South America, but it was never done simultaneously: frigates Venganza and Esmeralda, merchant corvettes Milagro, San Juan Bautista and Begoña, second class frigates Governadora, Comercio, Presidente, Castilla and Bigarrera, corvettes Resolución, Sebastiana and Veloz, brigantine Pezuela, plus other 3 unnamed ships with 37 guns. All things considered 17 ships with 331 guns along the war. In 1819 came the frigate Prueba and 1824 came the 74 guns Asia and the Aquiles.
Naval capacity played almost no role for the revolutionary forces in the time from the first declaration of independence 1810 to the Spanish "reconquest" of Chile 1814. Two ships bought by the patriots were defeated in a short fight off Valparaíso in May 1813.
After the Argentinians and Chilean insurgency won the Battle of Chacabuco, the beginning of the Patria Nueva, Chilean patriots re-entered Santiago, but Talcahuano and Concepción, Valdivia and Chiloé remained under Chilean royalist control.
The Chilean patriots decided that they needed their own navy with trustworthy crews if they were to protect the long coasts of the state and to mobilize troops against the enemy. Without a proper naval force, Chile was vulnerable to enemy landings.
The major concern of the British and US governments was the colonial dispute and preservation of their trade. During the Napoleonic wars Britain became committed to defending the status quo in the peninsular Spain in order to ensure Spain's alliance against France. In 1817, Castlereagh secured an order forbidding British subjects from serving in Spanish American armies. Although, in practice, strict neutrality was not always observed.
Still, British and US public opinion welcomed the end of Spanish autocratic government in South America. In England, the end of the Napoleonic wars permitted the government to reduce the number of ships in the Royal Navy from 700 to 134 and the number of sailors from 140,000 to 23,000, thus lessening the presence of the Royal Navy off the coasts of South America.

1817-1818

Build up

After the Battle of Chacabuco, Bernardo O'Higgins remarked that "this triumph and a hundred more will be insignificant if we do not control the sea". Consequently, the Chilean government, led by O'Higgins, on 20 November 1817 authorized privateers to engage as commerce raiders, interrupting the Spanish trade off the west coast of South America. Although Spanish commerce along the whole coast from Chile to Panama was interrupted, the military and naval achievements of the privateers were insignificant.
But they also violated the rights of neutral vessels. They drew to their crews navy deserters, so that O'Higgins was eventually forced to put a limit to their excesses.

Ship name	Type	tonnage	Other names	Year	Property of	Guns	Prizes	Reference
Santiago Bueras	Brigantine	200.0	Lancaster	1817	Gregorio Cordovéz	12	Los Ángeles, Resolución
El Chileno	Brigantine		Adeline	1817	Felipe S. de Solar	12	Saetas, Diamante, Inspectora, Balero and San Antonio
La Fortuna	Boat	20	Death or Glory	1817	Budge and MacKay		Minerva
La Fortuna	Schooner	180.0	Catalina		MacKay	10	San Miguel and Gran Poder
Minerva	Boat			1817	Budge and MacKay	12	Santa María
Maipú	Brigantine			1818	José M. Manterola		San Antonio, Lanzafuego Providencia, Buena Esperanza
Congreso	Schooner			1818	J.A. Turner		Empecinado, Golondrina, San Pedro Regalado
Nuestra Señora del Carmen	Schooner		Better known as Furioso	1818	Manuel Antonio Boza	1	Nuestra Señora de Dolores,''Machete
Rosa de los Andes	Corvette	400.0	Rose	1819		36	Tres Hermanas
Coquimbo			Avon later Chacabuco	1818

O'Higgins set out to create a navy out of nothing. José Ignacio Zenteno was nominated as Minister of Marine and promulgated in November 1817 the Reglamento General de Marina, a legal framework for the new institution. José Antonio Álvarez Condarco and Manuel Hermanegildo Aguirre were sent to respectively to London and New York City to recruit men and to acquire warships.
A few days after the Battle of Chacabuco, Chilean revolutionaries commissioned their first ship, the old US-smuggler ship Eagle, once captured by the Spaniards and now in the hand of the Chileans. Eagle was first renamed Águila and then later Pueyrredón. The regular Chilean navy began to grow steadily and soon was able to man the East Indiaman Windham, which arrived at Valparaíso in March 1818, and Cumberland, which arrived at Valparaíso in May 1818. The Chileans had bought both in England and renamed and Lautaro and San Martín. In July 1818 the Columbus, a US-origin 18-gun brig, reached Valparaíso and was bought and renamed Araucano.
As usual at the time all prizes and seized property was subject to rules defining shares and differences between property and ships captured afloat or in transit, or property on land.
Ship name Type tonnage Other names Commissioned from Price
Águila Brigantine 220 Eagle 1817.02 Spanish prize
Lautaro East Indiaman 850 Windham 1818.03 bought in London $180,000
San Martín East Indiaman 1300 Cumberland 1818.05 bought in London $140,000
Chacabuco Corvette 450 Coquimbo, before Avon 1818.06 bought from Chilean privateer $36.000
Araucano Brigantine 270 Columbus 1818.06 bought in USA $33,000
Galvarino brig-sloop 398 HMS Hecate
Lucy 1818.10 bought in London $70,000
O'Higgins Frigate 1220 Patrikii
María Isabel 1818.10 Spanish prize
Moctezuma Sloop 200 1819.02 Spanish prize
Independencia'' Corvette 700 Curatio 1819.06 bought in USA USD300.000

Note: $100,000 was equivalent to £20,000
The rescue from the Juan Fernández Island
The first task of the Águila was to bring home 72 patriots being held prisoner in the Juan Fernández Islands. This apparently simple task had an enormous importance: among the rescued were Juan Enrique Rosales, Agustín de Eyzaguirre, Ignacio Carrera, Martín Calvo Encalada, Francisco Antonio Pérez, Francisco de la Lastra, José Santiago Portales, members of the first revolutionary governments; Manuel de Salas,, Juan Egaña, co-author of the first constitution of Chile, Mariano Egaña, Joaquín Larraín and José Ignacio Cienfuegos, churchmen of the insurgents; Luis de la Cruz, Manuel Blanco Encalada and Pedro Victoriano, eminent military men.
Later, the Aguila joined Lautaro to break the blockade of Valparaíso by the Spanish vessel Esmeralda.
Summer 1818-1819
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe encouraged the Fernando VII's restored autocracy to make every effort to retain their American colonies. They planned in October 1817 to send 12,000 men to Buenos Aires and 2,000 to Chile to repress the independent movements in South America. But the Manila Galleons and tax revenues from the Spanish Empire had been interrupted. Spain was all but bankrupt and its government was unstable.
On 21 May 1818 eleven Spanish ships set sail from Cádiz escorted by the Spanish frigate Reina María Isabel bound for Talcahuano, a Chilean port still in possession of Spanish King. One of the ships remained in Tenerife. According to Antonio García Reyes in Memoria sobre la Primera Escuadra Nacional the transporter were: Rosalía, Trinidad, Especulación, Dolores, Javiera, Magdalena, Carlota, San Fernando, Mocha and Elena. This expedition was called "Expedición de la Mar del Sur" in Spain.
The eleven transport carried food supplies, ammunition, guns and, more importantly, two infantry battalions of the Cantabria Regiment, three cavalry squadrons, two artillery and combat engineer companies, for a total of 2,080 men under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Fausto del Hoyo, actually a member of the constitutionalist party in Spain. The naval force was under command of Captain Manuel del Castillo, but suffering from a paralytic stroke, he had to disembark in Tenerife and the command was transferred to Lieutenant .
During the voyage the crew of one transport was severely weakened by sickness and at 5°N latitude the soldiers disembarked in Trinidad where they mutinied, executed their officers, deserted the fleet and sailed to Buenos Aires where they surrendered to the revolutionary authorities on 16 August 1818 and handed over orders, signals and rendezvous points of the expedition. The Argentine Government sent a hot-foot courier over the Andes with the information to warn the Government in Santiago de Chile.