Every Day Is Special: October 8 - Battle of Angamos in Peru

October 8 - Battle of Angamos in Peru

Posted October 8, 2019

Today visitors to Peru might get to see a military parade honoring Admiral Miguel Grau Seminario, arguably Peru's greatest modern hero, who died on this date in 1879.

It's always surprising to me when a nation celebrates a military LOSS, rather than a victory, but this battle with Chile, during the War of the Pacific, didn't go Peru's way. As a matter of fact, this was the deciding battle - Peru started out stronger in the war but ended up losing.

Grau was not only courageous, he was caring. When he was winning battles and - at that point - the war, he begged the Chilean captain who'd clearly lost to surrender and save what remained of his sailors. But the Chilean captain refused to surrender, and when Admiral Grau sunk his ship, the captain boarded Grau's ship but ended up dying in combat. Grau ordered his men to save all the Chilean sailors that they could and take them to land.

Before the war, and before he had become an admiral, Grau had traveled to the United Kingdom on behalf of Peru to order and oversee the construction of ironclad ships that were lighter and more maneuverable than earlier ironclads. One of the ironclads became his own flagship, the Huáscar.

Grau and the Huáscar had so dominated in the War of the Pacific, Chilean leaders decided that they had to work hard to either destroy or take command of that ship. So two Chilean ironclads AND three other Chilean ships all went after Grau in a surprise attack. Grau realized that he was badly outnumbered and tried to flee. He became trapped, however, and when Chilean ships opened fire, it was with armor-piercing rounds that hit Grau's command tower and killed him instantly. The Peruvian forces tried to fight on! - realized they had better scuttle the ship! - decided too late and were boarded by the Chileans!

The death of Grau and the capture of the Huáscar were devastating blows that resulted in the eventual loss for Peru. Losing the war meant losing a chunk of resource-rich land to Chile, and it was even worse for Peru's ally, Bolivia, because it lost its only chunk of coastline to Chile and therefore became landlocked.