Chilean corvette Chacabuco (1815)

Chacabuco was a 20-gun corvette of 450 tons built 1815 in Boston, USA. She came to Coquimbo as Avon and was bought by investors of Copiapó, Chile, in order to be used as privateer vessel under the name Coquimbo.^[1] But as the businessmen drew back, the Chilean government bought the ship on 20 June 1818 for $36,000. She was renamed Chacabuco and commissioned to the Navy under the command of Captain Francisco Díaz.^[2]

In October 1818 she participated with the Chilean Squadron under the command of Manuel Blanco Encalada in the campaign to deter the Spanish convoy of the frigate María Isabel. She was not involved in the capture of the frigate in Talcahuano, but on 18 November she captured the Spanish transporters Jerezana, Carlota and Rosalía of the convoy.

On 24 March 1819, during the second blockade of Callao she captured the Spanish sloop Moctezuma.

In 1826 she set sails with Galvarino, Aquiles, O'Higgins and Lautaro from Corral under the command of Manuel Blanco Encalada in order to capture the last Spanish enclave in South America: Chiloé commanded by Antonio de Quintanilla.

She was sold to Argentina on 1 April 1826 together with O'Higgins and Independencia. Out of the three she was the only one to reach Buenos Aires. (The O'Higgins sunk rounding Cape Horn and the Independencia sunk in Talcahuano but was refloated and sold to Perú).

References

1. ^ William L. Neumann, United States Aid to the Chilean Wars of Independence, The Hispanic American Historical Review, Volume 27, 1947, pp. 204-219
2. ^ Gerardo Etcheverry, Principales naves de guerra a vela hispanoamericanas, retrieved 24. January 2011