Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada
Blanco Encalada
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| History | |
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 Chile
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| Name: | Valparaíso |
| Namesake: | Manuel Blanco Encalada |
| Builder: | Earle's Shipbuilding Co., Hull |
| Laid down: | 1873 |
| Launched: | 8 May 1875 |
| Completed: | 1875 |
| Renamed: | Blanco Encalada (1876) |
| Fate: | Sunk by torpedo, 23 April 1891 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Almirante Cochrane-class armored frigate |
| Displacement: | 3,480 long tons (3,540 t) |
| Length: | 210 ft (64.0 m) |
| Beam: | 46 ft 9 in (14.2 m) |
| Draught: | 19 ft 8 in (6.0 m) |
| Installed power: | 3,000 ihp (2,200 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Barque rig |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Range: | 1,200 nmi (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Complement: | 300 |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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Blanco Encalada was an armored frigate built by Earle's Shipbuilding Co. in England for the Chilean Navy in 1875. She was nicknamed El Blanco. She participated actively in the War of the Pacific, her most important action being the capture of the Peruvian monitor Huáscar during the Battle of Angamos.
Blanco Encalada formed part of the congressional forces that brought down President José Manuel Balmaceda in the Chilean Civil War of 1891. She was sunk during that conflict on 23 April 1891, becoming the first warship to be sunk by a self-propelled torpedo.
In 1871 the president of Chile, Federico Errázuriz Zañartu, sent the Congress a bill to authorize the executive to acquire two armored warships. The bill, which was approved only by a vote of no confidence, stipulated that both vessels would be mid-sized frigates and would not cost more than 2 million pesos.
Alberto Blest Gana, the ambassador to the United Kingdom, was put in charge of the project. Blest Gana contracted the ship designer Edward James Reed, an ex-naval architect of the British Admiralty, as the technical advisor. Blest Gana contracted Earle's Shipbuilding Co. in Hull, Yorkshire to carry out the construction.
The two ships were named Cochrane and Valparaíso but later, upon arrival at port on 24 January 1876, Valparaíso was renamed Blanco Encalada by the decree of the Minister of War and Navy on 15 September 1876. This was in honor of the admiral and first president of the Republic of Chile, Manuel Blanco Encalada. The construction of Blanco Encalada started in April 1872 and the ship was launched in 1875.
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