Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/181

 periodical internal disturbances in Peru, the ‘Huascar’ was seized by a party of the disaffected, headed by Don Nicolas Pierola. The ship was taken out of Callao Harbour, and proceeded on a cruise to the southward. As she had committed an act of piracy in forcibly removing coal without payment from a British barque, Admiral de Horsey, then flying his flag in the ’Shah,’ as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron, determined to seize the ‘Huascar.’ In company with the ‘Amethyst,’ a corvette of 2000 tons, armed with 64-pounders, the admiral proceeded in chase. On the 29th of May the two ships met the ‘Huascar,’ and a boat was sent on board demanding her delivery, refusal to be followed by fire being opened upon her by the British vessels. The monitor was only a little over 2000 tons, and her armament consisted of two 12½-ton muzzle-loading guns, in a single turret, and two 40-pounders. But on the water line the ship was protected by 4½-in. iron plates, and the turret by 5½-in. Against this the guns of the ‘Amethyst’ were of little use, but those of the ‘Shah’ could, at close quarters and hitting direct, penetrate any portion. On the other hand, the guns of the ‘Huascar,’ loaded with common shell, would, if they hit, inflict great damage on the ‘Shah's’ entirely unprotected sides.

With a scratch crew, and against such odds, Pierola might have surrendered his little vessel without any great loss of honour. He preferred to fight, and at three P.M. the action began. A series of broadsides were fired from the ‘Shah,’ some of which struck the