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Battle of Abtao
Part of Chincha Islands War
Spanish ships Villa de Madrid and Reina Blanca during the battle. Oil on canvas by Ángel Sánchez, Naval Museum of Madrid.
Date February 7, 1866 Location Abtao, near Chiloé, Chile Result Tactically inconclusive; Strategic results favourable to Spain; Both sides claimed victory
Belligerents
Spain	Peru Chile
Commanders and leaders
Claudio Alvargonzález Juan Bautista Topete	Manuel Villar
Strength
2 frigates	1 frigate, 2 corvettes, 1 schooner, 2 steamers, 3 shore batteries
Casualties and losses
6 wounded and 3 bruised	Sources vary: 2 killed and 1 wounded 12 killed and 20+ wounded

The Battle of Abtao was a naval engagement of the Chincha Islands War fought on 7-8 February 1866 at the island of Abtao in the Gulf of Ancud, near the Chiloé Archipelago, in south-central Chile. A Spanish squadron comprising the steam frigates Villa de Madrid and Blanca under the joint command of Captain Claudio Alvargonzález confronted a Peruvian-Chilean fleet of several ships under Manuel Villar in a confuse and inconclusive long-range action in which various Allied vessels were not really engaged.

Background

Allied plan

The frigate Apurímac under sail.

A plan to engage the superior Spanish fleet had been established by the Chilean-Peruvian fleet at the outbreak of the war with Spain, even before the capture of the Covadonga, consisting of base the joint fleet in the Chiloé Archipelago to threaten the communication lines of the Spanish squadron with the Naval Station of Río de La Plata. Chiloé was also a good place to wait for the arrival of the new European-built Peruvian ironclads Huáscar and Independencia, which along of other warships purchased abroad could alter the balance of power. The archipielago consisted of more than 60 islands and hundreds of islets and reefs. The magnitude and variability of the tides would expose the Spanish warships to a disaster if they attempted to enter those waters. Moreover, if they salied to Chiloé, the blockade over the Chilean and Peruvians coasts would be lifted.

The supreme command of the Allied fleet was given to Juan Williams Rebolledo for his victory over the Covandonga. Having repaired and rearmed the ship, he began to prepare a base in Abtao while expecting the steamers Maipú and Lautaro, and some transports. The Peruvian Navy sent to Abotao its best units: the steam frigates Amazonas and Apurimac, and the corvettes América and Unión, all of them under the joint command of Captain don Manuel Villar. The most powerful unit, the Amazonas, ran aground near Abtao with the lost of two crewmen. Its artillery and part of the equipment could be salvaged, but the loss of the ship showed the risks which involded the navigation in the waters of Chiloé. Another incident occured when the boilers of the Chilean steamer Lautaro blown up, completely disablig the ship, killing 7 saliors, and injuring 11.

Spanish plan

The recently arrived Spanish commander Casto Méndez Núñez, meanwhile, had been instructed by his superior to destroy or capture the Allied warships if the negotiations mediated by neutral countries cannot reach a satisfactory agreement. Only in case of not being possible, he should shell some enemy port. Although the Spanish commander considered conduct himself an expedition to Chiloé, he finally preferred to mantain a tight blockade over the Chilean coast and sent the screw frigates Villa de Madrid, in command of Captain Claudio Alvargonzález, who took the joint command of the squadron for being the oldest officer, and Blanca, under Captain Juan Bautista Topete. Blanca was markedly inferior to Villa de Madrid in size and power, but she was more maneuverable and had less draft.

The Spanish squadron sailed to Chiloé in search of the Allied fleet. At the island of Juan Fernández they were informed by the aborigines of the presence from other ships near the island of Abtao. The passage was extremely difficult due to the large tidal differences, which varied in some places in 10 or 12 meters. The crews of the Spanish frigates sometimes observed a sandy bottom in the place where their ship were previously anchored with sufficient water. On 7 February, thanks to the skill of Topete, who opened the march aboard Blanca, the Spanish squadron sighted the Preuvian-Chilean fleet.

Battle

The Allied fleet was anchored in the circle in front of the entrance of the Bay of Challahué, behind the tip of Abtao, where the provisional base had been built. Williams Rebolledo's Esmeralda had not joint the squadron, so Manuel Villar was in command of it. The force gathered in Abtao consisted of the Peruvian steam frigate Apurimac under Captain don Benjamín Mariátegui, armed with 8 68-pounder guns and 20 32-pounders, besides a 130-pounder and another 68-pounder from the Amazonas. The ship was reinforced with a provisional armor. The Peruvian corvettes Unión and América under Captains Miguel Grau and Manuel Ferreyros also had a provisional armor of 10 cms protecting their engines and boilers. Their armament consisted of 12 70-pounder rifled barreled guns and two minor pieces. The Chilean ships were Captain Thompson's Covadonga, then armed with 3 68-pounders and 2 rifled barreled 18-pounders; the damaged Lautaro, armed with 4 68-pounders; and the steamer Maipú (Antonio Varas, according to some sources), with a pivotal 68-pounders and 4 pieces of 40 pounders. Three shore batteries were installed using 7 guns of the Amazonas. They were commanded by Lieutenants Domingo Salamanca, Santiago Hudson and Manuel Hurtado. The remaining guns of the frigate, 28 32-pounders, were mounted to protect the harbour of Ancud and did not took part in the battle.

The Spanish ships mounted a total of 86 pieces as opposed to the 76 of the Allies. Blanca was armed with 10 68-pounders, 26 32-pounders and 3 12 cm rifled barreled guns. Villa de Madrid mounted 31 68-pounders, 6 32-pounders and 5 16 cm rifled barreled guns. Only 44 cannons of the Spanish ships could opne fire simultaneously compared to 43 of the Peruvian-Chilean fleet, but the Allies were advantadgeous, in fact, as the fastness of their position and the fear of find unknown shoals, submerged flotsam or even mines, convinced Alvargonzález not to approach more than 1,800 meters from the Allied ships, an excesive distance to most of the smoothbore guns of both fleets, but not to their rifled barreled guns, of which the Allied fleet mounted more than the Spanish and of superior caliber. Moreover, the superior firepower of the Allies was increased by the fact that the Spanish frigates could not open fire simultaneously due to the narrowness of the channel acceding to the Bay of Challahué.