On May 10th, after burying their dead and healing their wounded at the San Lorenzo Island, the Spaniards divided their mauled squadron. One part of it -the Numancia and four of the wooden frigates, the most damaged ones- sailed toward the Philippines, and the other, headed by Admiral Mendez Nuñez, consisting on the remaining frigates and most of the transports, steamed around Cape Horn toward the Atlantic. The damages, casualties and lack of military equipment, convinced Mendez Nuñez not to attack other Peruvian ports -as he was previously instructed by his Government- and to suggest to his superiors in Madrid to avoid sending a new expedition to Peruvian and Chilean waters. However, anticipating a possible continuation of the conflict, the Admiral distributed his force between the neutral ports of Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, while awaiting replacements from home.
The allied squadron on the other hand, was reinforced with the arrival of the two powerful ironclads built for the Peruvian Government by the British companies Samuda Brothers and Lairds of Birkenhead respectively. Both ships sailed in convoy, accompanied by the steamer Thames, which carried coal and supplies. On their way to Chile, off the coasts of Brazil, Huascar captured and destroyed three Spanish merchant ships. Both ironclads proved their sea-going qualities by navigating the straight of Magellan in force-10 gales and reaching the West Side of South America intact. They soon joined the allied squadron at Valparaiso and were placed under orders of Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada, Commander in chief of the joint naval force.
Peru and Chile decided to renew the contest, this time on the offensive, to punish the Spaniards for all the damage that they had inflicted to their ports. They were sure that the new ironclads would tie the strategic balance. Those modern vessels could easily attack ports in the Iberian Peninsula, raid Spanish colonies or challenge the Spanish fleet in the Pacific. The Chileans, afraid of an early return of the Iberians to the Pacific coasts, favored a more conservative strategy, including an attack by the entire fleet to the weakened enemy squadron in South America's Atlantic shores. However, Peru's President Mariano Prado and his advisers planed a more daring and aggressive course of action in which the allied squadron should pursue the Spaniards to one of their overseas possessions and destroy their fleet at port. Since the Iberians have come to attack their former colonies, it was the turn of the colonies to pay back. It was not an impossible task taking into account that the allied force was almost intact, that it possessed several new warships and that the Spanish fleet was damaged and demoralized, and with the exception of the mighty Numancia, most of its vessels were wooden ones. Surprise was also an important factor.
While the allies were discussing strategies, the Peruvian Government suggested the appointment of a new commander for the allied squadron, a man with great experience that could lead properly the new offensive. The hiring of a foreign officer to conduct the fleet was an option provided in the treaty of alliance, so Peru instructed its Minister in Washington to seek for a capable and experienced naval commander. The Peruvian Minister to the United States was Federico Barreda, who put a lot of effort in finding a commander for the allied fleet (1). No U.S. navy officer accepted the job, so he turned into ex Confederate naval officers. His options narrowed between two well-known Commodores: John Randolph Tucker and Robert B. Pergram. Tucker was selected. According to the agreement, the former Confederate received a commission as Rear Admiral of the Peruvian Navy, with an annual salary of US$ 5,000, which was exactly the same amount received by a Rear Admiral on active service in the U.S. Navy. Tucker was also allowed to select a couple of American officers for his staff.
Commodore Tucker was without a doubt a celebrity. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, he served first in the U.S. Navy, and in 1855, with the rank of Commander, he become skipper of the USS Pennsylvania, who was the biggest pre civil war American warship. When the war erupted, Tucker resigned his commission in the federal navy, and along with other 367 fellow Southern officers he entered into the service of the newly created Navy of the Confederate States of America.
His first assignment was to command the James River Squadron. Tucker converted the vessel Yorktown into a lightly protected ship-of-war and renamed it as CSS Patrick Henry. The ship was assigned to a position near Mulberry Island in the James to protect the right flank of the Confederate Peninsula Army, and during the following months remained vigilant against possible attack by Federal vessels from Newport News. On 13 September 1861 and again on 2 December, Commander Tucker took Patrick Henry down the river to a point about a mile and a half above Newport News and opened fire on the Federal squadron at long range hoping to draw out some of the gunboats. The lure was refused, but Tucker inflicted some minor damage.
During the battle of Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862 (when ironclad Virginia inflicted severe damage on the Union fleet), CSS Patrick Henry approached USS Congress, run aground with a white flag, but came under fire from other Federal ships and shore batteries. A shot through her steam chest, killing four of her crew. Towed out of action long enough to make repairs, she resumed her former position. In the engagement between CSS Virginia and USS Monitor the following day, Patrick Henry, under Tucker, fired long range at Monitor maneuvering against Virginia. The Confederate Congress later accorded special thanks to all officers and men for their gallant conduct during the 2-day battle.
During the rest of the American Civil War, Tucker performed brilliantly. A highly skilled professional, and an advocate of torpedo warfare, Tucker headed the Confederate squadron at Charleston and during the last days of the war he commanded the naval brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia. He saw action at the final battle of Sayler Creek and was the last of General Robert E. Lee's major commanders to surrender to the Federal Army.
Tucker, like several Confederate officers, became a prisoner of war of the Federal Government and during the next months he appealed unsuccessfully for clemency. After his release he was jobless and barred from resuming a career in the U.S. Navy. However, in less than a year, he got the chance to lead again a major naval force and he seized this sudden opportunity to become a Rear Admiral in the Peruvian Navy. Mr. Tucker sailed to Peru from New York and arrived in the country during the middle of June 1866. On the 17th of that month, he met with President Mariano Prado, and as a first step was appointed head of the Peruvian Naval Division. On July 22nd, the Admiral and his two American officers arrived to Valparaiso. On August 13th, he was named second chief of the joint squadron. The following day, after the resignation of Chilean Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada, Tucker assumed supreme command of the combined fleets of Peru and Chile and raised his insignia on the ironclad Independence. For Walter Raleigh Butt, one of Tucker's American lieutenants, the first sight of the allied fleet produced quite an impression. He wrote to his relatives in the United States:
"It is quite a respectable as well as a formidable naval force".
Luck was however against Tucker, a 54-year old Southern Gentleman with pleasant manners. After his arrival the Admiral found out that the Peruvian naval officers, who had handled very well the encounters against the Spaniards, resented obeying a foreigner. They felt offended by their Government decision to appoint him instead of any capable local Commander. The crisis lasted several days, and it was resolved after President Prado suspended 32 Peruvian naval officers for “insubordination”. After the incident, preparations for the campaign went trough, including repairs on the ships and naval maneuvers in the Juan Fernandez Island. During that period, the Peruvian Navy became the world first sea service to emphasize offensive torpedo warfare. Tucker ordered spar torpedoes mounted on the ironclads, while the wooden corvettes were fitted to receive these devices when needed. The Peruvian Navy was an enthusiastic supporter of the new modality of warfare. It had embraced it before the Dos de Mayo combat and now was building a fleet of torpedo boats for harbor defense. In addition to their own spar torpedoes, the four major vessels of the Peruvian squadron carried torpedo-mounted steam launches. By the end of November 1866 the allied fleet was ready to begin the offensive against Spain. In December, Tucker was instructed by President Prado to proceed with his fleet from Valparaiso to Coquimbo and wait for new orders.
On November 27, the Commander of HMS Topaze reported to the Admiralty in London that:
“The squadron being assembled here at Valparaiso is quite impressive. No one is sure which Spanish colony will be attacked, but most likely it may be the Philippines. Should this squadron sail on a hostile expedition it is most probable that whatever their own fate may be they will do considerable mischief to the enemy”
In general terms the plan consisted in attacking by surprise the Spanish fleet in the Philippines, whose ships were supposed to be disarmed while undergoing repairs in dock, and to capture or destroy them. Should Tucker not find the Spaniards, he should bombard the city of Manila in reprisal for the attacks on Callao and Valparaiso. Peru wanted to do this using its two ironclads plus the two French built corvettes and a couple of transports. The operation, from beginning to end, would require about five months. Contrary to the Chileans, who feared a Spanish attack from the Atlantic, the Peruvians thought that Mendez Nuñez could not mount a major offensive before the end of the year. They assumed that rather than engaging the now superior allied squadron the Spaniards would remain under the safety of Brazilian and Uruguayan ports.
According to the daring plan, while the ironclad division attacked the Philippines, the remainder of the allied fleet would sail around Cape Horn, raid Spanish commerce, interdict the flow of supplies to the Mendez Nuñez ships in Brazil, and seek an opportunity to engage dispersed vessels of the Peninsular fleet. The Peruvian plan also included a provision that rested on pure luck. Depending on the success of the attack on Manila Bay, the allies planed to assault Spanish forces in Cuba and Puerto Rico. This operation, probably in conjunction with land forces sent trough Panama, might secure the independence of both colonies. As a matter of fact, one of Presidents Prado's sons, Leoncio, would fight in the early 1870's as an officer of the Cuban revolutionaries.
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(1) Mr. Federico Barreda was not only an able and talented diplomat but also a very wealthy businessman who had lived for many years in the United States as a well-known importer and investor. Such was his fortune that he became part owner of the present-day “Solomon Island”, a 19th century development in Maryland, that was variously known as Bourne's Island (about 1680), Somervell's Island (1740-1814), and Sandy Island (1827-1865). He bought the land in 1856 in partnership with a group of Baltimore investors who were buying sizeable tracts of land at the mouth of the Patuxent River in both Calvert and St. Mary's Counties for reasons not specified. These land purchases were in the name of Richard B. Fitzgerald who was a partner in the Baltimore firm of Fitzgerald and Booth and one-half from Federico L. Barreda, then living in New York.
