Chilean ship Almirante Lynch (1891)

For other ships of the same name, see Chilean ship Almirante Lynch .

Career (Chile)
Name:	Almirante Lynch
Namesake:	Patricio Lynch
Builder:	Laird Brothers of Birkenhead, Birkenhead
Laid down:	1889
Launched:	1890
Commissioned:	1890
General characteristics
Displacement:	713 t (702 long tons)
Length:	70 m (229 ft 8 in) p/p
Beam:	8 m (26 ft 3 in)
Draught:	1 m (3 ft 3 in) forward 6 m (19 ft 8 in) aft
Propulsion:	2 steam engines, 3.38 MW (4,533 hp) 4 cylindrical boilers 2 screws
Speed:	20.2 knots (37.4 km/h; 23.2 mph)
Range:	2500 nm
Complement:	87
Armament:	1890 : 5 × 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes 3 × 14-pounder Hotchkiss guns 4x3-pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 machine guns

The gun torpedo vessels Almirante Lynch and her sister ship edit] Design

The vessels had a high forecastle and poop, and a ram on the bow. the hulls were steel. The principal armament was five Whitehead torpedo tubes, one in the bow and two in each broadside. They also had two fourteen-pounder guns in echelon on the forecastle and one on the poop, four 3-pounder guns, and two machine guns. ^[1]

Service History

Almirante Lynch was part of the small force of ships at disposal of José Manuel Balmaceda in the Chilean Civil War of 1891. During the war, on April 23, 1891, the Almirante Lynch and her sister ship Almirante Condell attacked and sank the rebel ironclad frigate Blanco Encalada (1875). Early in April a portion of the revolutionary squadron, comprising the Blanco Encalada and other ships, was sent southward for reconnoitring purposes and put into the port of Caldera. During the night of April 23, and whilst the "Blanco Encalada " was lying quietly at anchor in Caldera Bay, the Almirante Lynch torpedo gunboat, belonging to the Balmaceda faction, steamed into the bay of Caldera and discharged a torpedo at the rebel ship. The "Blanco Encalada " sank in a few minutes and 300 of her crew perished. This coup severely weakened the Congressional squadron. This was the first successful torpedo attack on a warship.^[2]

See also

• Sinking of USS Housatonic

References

1. ^ New York Times: Battle of Caldera Bay
2. ^ Edwyn Gray, The Devil's device: the story of Robert Whitehead, inventor of the torpedo‎, Seeley, 1975, Page 147; and R. A. Fletcher, Warships and Their Story‎, 2004, Page 209.