Huascar
At the time this newspaper was the war between Peru and Bolivia and Chile still continued. The Chilean navy consisted of 2 armoured frigates, 3 corvettes, 1 gunboat and one goelette with a total displacement of 8,488 tons and 3,340 hp and further more 9 steamships to be used as transports, some of which were heavily armed, fast and able to transport 1,200 soldiers. The administration and supply facilities at land and sea were well organized and the main ports of Antofagasta in the North to Lota in the South were well fortified. Recently was the transport Rimac with 240 cavalry men on board captured by the Peruvian ironclad Huascar and corvette Union. The corvettes O’Higgins and Chacabuco which had been cruising for the last seven months without success returned to Valparaiso to let their boilers being repaired. The Peruvian newspapers daily claimed that they would defeat the Chilean fleet. Forty North American engineers arrived at Calloao with 24 disassembled torpedo boats with which the entire Chilean fleet would be destroyed.
