No. 249.
Mr. Gibbs
to Mr. Evarts.
Lima, Peru , June 12, 1877. (Received July 9.)
Sir: In my dispatch No. 159, June 1,1 referred to the fight between the rebel ship Huascar and Her Britannic Majesty’s ships Shah and Amethyst. The first great excitement has passed, but a deep feeling of resentment remains against this so-called intervention of the English men-of-war, which has stirred all Peru, making Piérola a great hero, the name of revolutionist being nearly forgotten, at the same time there is a proud sentiment of the brave resistance of the Huascar, and which is thought a naval victory. Up to the present, I should state that all the accounts of the fight have been ex parte, all from Peruvian sources. I gave a description of the Huascar in my dispatch No. 150, of May 12. The Amethyst is a wooden corvette of 1,890 tons displacement, 14 guns, and 2,144 horse-power. The Shah is not an armored vessel, as I mistakenly stated in a former dispatch, but of iron framing and cased with wood; 5,700 tons displacement, and 7,500 horse-power, 10 guns broadside and 3 heavy 300–pound swivel guns, with the Whitehead torpedo-system. * * * I do not understand how the Huascar escaped being sunk or captured, for it was understood that the Shah by her torpedoes could do great damage; or it may be, as said by some persons here, that the Shah did not wish to destroy the vessel.
From the various accounts published by the press of this city, I have extracted the following items:
The fight commenced by the Shah firing at 2.25 p.m., the English retiring at 5.50. The Huascar fired the last two shots. Over 300 projectiles of all kinds were fired from the two British vessels, of which 80 struck the Huascar. The Shah had mitrailleuses, and when near used them. Only one bomb penetrated the Huascar, which killed one soldier and wounded various persons by splinters. The Peruvian flag, from the peak, was shot away; it was then hoisted aft by a sergeant and a boy under a heavy fire; the sergeant was wounded in two places by splinters. Everything above deck, boats, masts, bridges, chimneys, all except turrets, were swept off by the heavy fire of the English vessels.
The whole affair goes to show that vessels like the monitor Huascar, of fair speed and light armor, well handled, are very formidable vessels; and from what I can learn, if she had had a first-class disciplined crew, with proper officers, she would have been more than a match for the two vessels which attacked her.
The Shah arrived at Callao on the 6th, but left again immediately. This was a matter of prudence, for there is no doubt, if she had remained, conflicts would have taken place with any of the crew that might have come ashore; also her officers would have been exposed to insult. * * * The combat took place near Ho, and was plainly visible from the shore.
I am, &c.,