BAP Unión was a corvette of the Peruvian Navy, originally ordered by the government of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Built in France it was bought by the Peruvian Navy and during its service participated in the Chincha Islands War and in the War of the Pacific in which it was scuttled following the Blockade of Callao to prevent it falling into Chilean hands.
The current Peruvian training ship; BAP Unión, is named after this vessel.
History Construction and purchase During the American Civil War, the Confederate States ordered the French shipbuilder Henri Arman de Rivière to build 4 cruisers. He built 2 in his own shipyard in Bordeaux, under the names of Osaka and Yedo, which were to be called Louisiana and Mississippi. The other two were commissioned from his partner Voruz in Nantes, under the names of San Francisco and Shanghai, which were to be called Texas and Georgia. Due to pressure from American diplomacy, the cruisers were embargoed in 1864 when they were not yet completed. Those in Bordeaux were bought by Prussia, then at war with Denmark, while those in Nantes were bought by Peru in anticipation of a possible war with Spain.
Peru bought the two vessels in November 1864 at a cost of 2.3 million francs, equivalent to 92 thousand pounds sterling, which was more than the Huáscar monitor cost. The San Francisco took the name of America and the Shanghai became the Union. Lieutenant Commander Juan Pardo de Zela took command of the America and First Lieutenant Miguel Grau was assigned to the Union. Both corvettes, which were in Saint Nazaire, prepared to set sail for the Pacific in December 1864.
Naval actions The campaign in the Peruvian civil war of 1865 When the Union corvette arrived in England from France to enlist a crew, on 17 January 1865, its commander Grau was arrested at Plymouth, accused of having violated the principles of neutrality that the port imposed on all foreign warships. Federico Barreda's energetic protest before Count Russel managed to annul the arrest warrant against Grau, and the Union and its twin America were able to continue their trip to Peru. On 31 March, Miguel Grau, commander of the Union, was promoted to corvette captain.
The Peruvian convoy had to overcome two strong storms in the Atlantic, which is why the ships called in Rio de Janeiro, from 6 to 26 May 1865. When the convoy managed to get ready to sail, it was again surprised at less than one hundred miles off the Brazilian coast by a furious gale that damaged the Union's trees, which re-entered the port of Rio de Janeiro towed by America. Given that the Union's reparations would take almost a couple of months, it was decided that America should continue alone.
On 6 July, the Union anchored in Valparaíso and there its commander learned of the state of affairs in Peru. In Peru, the rebel army was under the command of the captain Lizardo Montero, Grau's childhood friend and with whom he had already participated as rebel sailors in the Peruvian Civil War of 1856–1858, which is why Grau decided to incorporate the Union to the rebel navy, which was made up of the Amazonas frigate, the Lerzundi transport, the Tumbes schooner and the América corvette. The government squad of President Juan Antonio Pezet had the frigate Apurímac, the Chalaco transport, the armored Loa and the Victoria monitor, these last two floating batteries in Callao, so it decided not to confront the rebel navy and remained anchored in Callao during the war. The most important part of the rebel navy was transporting the Rebel Army of the North from Huacho to Pisco, in September 1865, with the Union having to face Apurimac on the high seas.
The campaign in the Spanish-South American war On 5 December 1865, the new Peruvian government headed by Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado signed a treaty of alliance with Chile as a prevention of an imminent war with Spain. A Naval Division was formed under the orders of Captain Manuel Villar Olivera, made up of the frigates Amazonas and Apurímac and the corvettes Unión and América, which marched to Chile. The objective was for the Peruvian squad to join the Chilean squad in southern Chile, to wait for the armor that Peru had bought in England and to initiate a campaign of repression against the Spanish squad in the Pacific. In this way, the corvette Unión began its stay in Chile under the command of the now frigate captain Miguel Grau.
On 14 January 1866, Peru formally declared war on Spain after signing defensive alliances with Ecuador and Bolivia. On 16 January, the frigate Amazonas sank off the extreme southwest point of Abtao Island, in Chayahué, where the allied squadron was stationed. Union participated together with the Peruvian squadron and the Chilean gunboat Covadonga in the Battle of Abtao against the Spanish screw frigates and . Union had the most serious casualties: twelve dead. After this combat, the Union and the entire allied squad withdrew to Huito.
In March 1866, the Chilean captain Juan Williams Rebolledo, commander of the fleet, ordered that neither the Union nor America should go out to look for the Spanish ships in Valparaíso, as had been proposed by their commanders, the sailors Grau and Ferreyros, who wanted to reach that Chilean port before the Spanish frigates to surprise the smaller ships. In April, the Union and America set sail for the Strait of Magellan to look for the new Peruvian armored ships, but returned without finding them, as they were still on the way. The Union was sent in May to Valparaíso to pick up Vice Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada to take command of the allied squad, but upon leaving Huito, the Chileans fired the cannons on the beach, which had belonged to the Peruvian frigate Amazonas, fulfilling Williams's old order not to let the Union leave, an order that it had not been canceled. The cannonade did not produce any damage.
On 6 June 1866, the allied forces finally joined the new armored ships (frigate Independencia and monitor Huáscar) in Ancud, marching together to Valparaíso five days later. The Union remained there for several months. The Peruvian government hired Commodore John Randolph Tucker, who had fought on the Confederate side in the Civil War, to take command of the Peruvian squad that was to attack the Spanish in the Philippines . The commanders of the Peruvian ships in Valparaíso did not accept that designation and resigned their posts. It was then that Grau left the command of the Union being replaced by the captain of the frigate Juan Guillermo More.
Travel to England The Union corvette was sent to England in 1871 in order to change boilers, although it was also asked to change its artillery. Only a 9-pound caliber Whitworth cannon was fitted.
The trip, almost all done under sail, lasted three and a half months with stops in Punta Arenas and Bahia. The repairs took a year at the Greenhite shipyards and the boilers ultimately turned out higher than the previous ones, thus naturally more exposed. The corvette was of return to Peru 11 July 1873, after a trip of 94 days of which it spent a total of 16 in the ports of Plymouth, San Vicente, Montevideo and hours in Cabo Vírgenes, Posesión; Punta Arenas, Playa Parda, Puerto Angosto, etc. It was commanded by the frigate captain Nicolás Portal .
Campaign against Huáscar in 1877 An important event in the Peruvian Navy was the Huáscar uprising in 1877. Supporters of Nicolás de Piérola had captured Monitor Huáscar on the night of 6 May 1877. The government of General Mariano Ignacio Prado formed a Naval Division to subdue the rebel monitor. The division was under the command of the captain Juan Guillermo More, composed of the armored frigate Independencia, where More was the commander, the corvette Unión, under the command of the captain Nicolás Portal, the monitor Atahualpa and the Limeña transport, which towed to the monitor.
The Naval Division left Callao on 11 May and met with the Pilcomayo in Iquique . On 28 May, the Independence, the Union and the Pilcomayo faced Huáscar in the Combat of Punta Pichalo, without any success. Finally the Huáscar surrendered to the Peruvian forces under the command of More, on 31 May.
Campaign in the Pacific War At the beginning of the war, the Union corvette became part of the Second Naval Division of the Peruvian squad together with the Pilcomayo Gunboat . The commander of the Union was the captain of the ship Nicolás Portal, and that of the Pilcomayo the captain of the frigate Antonio de la Guerra . The division was commanded by captain Aurelio García y García, who raised his insignia in the Union . The Oroya transport was added on 10 May, although in the entire war, they did not expedition together.
First expedition The Second Naval Division set sail from Callao on 7 April 1879 and faced the Chilean gunboat Magallanes in the Naval Combat of Chipana on 12 April. This was the first encounter of the war, which resulted in a shootout without consequences. As the Union boilers were in poor condition, he had to return to Callao, remaining under maintenance for almost three months.
Second expedition When the Union finished its maintenance in Callao, it left for Arica carrying war supplies, and there, after a meeting between Grau, García and García and President Prado it was agreed to make an expedition over Chilean coasts in retaliation against the bombing of Iquique, which it was a defenseless port. On the night of 17 July, theUnión and Huáscar set sail from Arica. The objective was to capture some Chilean transport, since they knew that these were sent without an escort, while the Peruvian squad did escort the transports.
On 19 July, the Union detained the Chilean frigate Adelaida Rojas in Mejillones, which was carrying 1,700 tons of coal. Cargo and ship was sent to Callao after being marinated by the Union .
In the early hours of the 20th, off Chañaral, the brig Saucy Jack, loaded with copper, fell into the hands of the Peruvian ships and sent to Callao. In that port they destroy the cargo boats. At dawn and in the afternoon of the 21st, the ships were in Huasco and Carrizal Bajo respectively, destroying the mobility elements. On the 22nd they returned to Chañaral and captured the boat Adriana Lucía, loaded with copper, which was sent to Callao.
On 23 July, after a preconceived maneuver, the gunned Rímac steamship was captured with a very valuable cargo: the whole Carabineros de Yungay regiment (258 men), 215 horses, one 300-pounder gun and numerous weapons, ammunitions and supplies.
Expedition to the Strait of Magellan Through papers obtained in the Rímac, the Peruvian command learned that the Gleneg steamer was carrying an important load of weapons for Chile: 4 thousand Gras rifles, 16 Krupp cannons and ammunition. Under the command of Nicolás Portal and leading the division commander Aurelio García y García, the Union set out on 31 July for the Strait of Magellan to hunt down the steamer Gleneg .
On 13 August, running a strong storm from the north, the Union sighted the strait and entered it at 3:30 pm, when it was already dark, so they kept to the layer between Westminster Hill and Cape Packer.