At the beginning of the Pacific War in South America, Chile quickly blockaded the coasts of Peru and Bolivia with a navy twice the size of the combined fleet of Peru and Bolivia. At present, the warships ordered by Chile from Britain have not yet been launched, and Peru, which has three ironclad ships, has quickly deployed to blockade Chile's coastline.

The opposite of the sea is war on land. After a short period of preparation, the Chilean army easily entered the Bolivian province of Litto-Maritimes, capturing the two large cities of Antofagasta and Carama in a company. The Bolivian army was defenseless, and as in history, the Bolivian army even used longhair and crossbows, making it the last war in the world to use crossbows. Peru, an ally, refused to send troops, citing insufficient military equipment. Manuel Pardo also had his own considerations, and the Chinese offered him a proposal to allow the capital to acquire the right to mine saltpeter and guano in the Atacama Desert by means of war. But Manuel Pardo wanted to swallow the entire Atacama Desert and claim it for himself.

On March 3, 1874, the Chilean army captured Cobija and captured the Bolivian fleet in the port of Gugu, taking complete control of the Bolivian province of Primoral Affairs. Just when the Bolivian government was angry that Peru had ignored the alliance agreement, the Peruvian government offered Bolivia to buy the Atacama region, and Bolivia felt completely betrayed. But Bolivia, which has now lost its Littoralis department, can hardly continue the war at this time. On March 19, Bolivia sold the Littoralis to Peru for £500,000 and announced its withdrawal from the war.

For a time, Chile's morale was greatly boosted, but the Chilean army had achieved great results, and the navy had bad news.

On 2 May, Chilean Navy Commander Williams led the Chilean fleet to sea for a decisive battle with the Peruvian Navy. Unfortunately, the Chilean parliament saw the army's victory and burst into self-confidence and forced the navy to fight.

Early morning, May 4, 1874. The Chilean fleet arrived off the coast of the Peruvian fortress of Iquique. At this time, Iquique gathered a large number of Peruvian troops and a large number of munitions and supplies preparing to go south, and at this time, the Peruvian fleet appeared outside the home port of the Chilean fleet, in the sea area of Valparaiso, Chile, less than 10 kilometers east of the city of Valparaiso is the capital of Chile, Santiago.

At 6:11 a.m., the Chilean fleet bombarded the fortress of Iquique with naval guns for two full hours, and although the soldiers suffered few casualties on the positions (one of the compulsory subjects for Chinese instructors was to prevent artillery holes), at least five or more armories in the city were destroyed, and the ammunition base of the 60,000 Peruvian soldiers in Iquique fell by two-thirds. In other words, in the next month, these soldiers will have only fifteen ammunition bases available (one ammunition base is ten bullets and two grenades), which will be a great obstacle to the attack under the docking.

And the Peruvian fleet, which had finished shelling an hour earlier than them, was already on its way back, and the batteries on the coast of Valparaiso were ready, and in order to avoid unnecessary losses, the Peruvian fleet decided to bring it back. The Chilean fleet was as happy and nervous as a thief had won the vote, and Williams carefully dispatched two old wooden warships, the cruiser Esmeralda under the command of Captain Oturo Pratt and the schooner Covadonga under the command of Captain Carlos Condel, to scour the surrounding waters and avoid encountering the main force of the Peruvian fleet.

At 8:10 a.m., the fleets of the two countries met off the coast of the port of Kopiapo. At this time, the Chilean fleet had a central artillery room ironclad "Admiral Cochran", as well as two cruisers including the "Blanco Enkarada", according to the division of the Imperial Admiralty, these two cruisers belonged to the unprotected cruisers, and were close to the Imperial Admiral-class in terms of comprehensive performance. The Peruvian Navy has three ironclad ships and three medium-sized cruisers (the Imperial Admiralty divides the cruisers at this stage into large, medium and small, depending on the displacement, and the Peruvian Navy's cruisers with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons are considered medium-sized. The Imperial Admiralty Division: Type III cruisers all had basic waterline armor, unlike the unprotected cruiser Blanco Enkarada, which really didn't have any armor. ）

At around 8:30 a.m. on May 4, 1874, the lookout post of the "Covadonga" first spotted the Peruvian "Huaasca" and "**", but due to the dense sea fog, they were mistaken for friendly fleets. At 4:45 a.m., the sailors of the "Covadonga" identified the two ships, and the captain of the ship, Carlos Condel, immediately ordered the firing of cannons in the air to inform the fleet behind. At this time, the Covadonga was facing the Peruvian fleet with a wooden warship, the cruiser Esmeralda under the command of Captain Oturo Pratt, and the transport ship Lamar.

Due to the huge disparity in strength between the two sides, the captain of the "Esmeralda", Oturo Pratt, asked Condel to follow his course and merge the "Covadonga" and "Esmeralda", and Oturo Pratt ordered the transport ship "Lamar" to enter the port of Antofagasta immediately.

At 8:15 a.m., the Peruvian ironclad fired its first salvo at the Chilean warship, and Pratt ordered the "Esmeralda" to maneuver, followed by the "Covadonga". At 8:25, the Peruvian ironclad fired a second salvo, and a shell from the "Gutierrez" hit the starboard side of the "Esmeralda" and passed through the hull, killing 12 people and seriously injuring 5.

At this time, the transport ship "Lamar" raised the American flag and headed north, and Kondle on the "Covadonga" also changed course and followed to find the main fleet. Miguel Grau ordered the cruiser "Castile" to block the escape route of the "Covadonga" and "Lamar". Miguel Grau aboard the Gutierrez decided to stay and settle the Esmeralda. At this time, Pratt knew that he was finished, and in order to avoid accidentally injuring the Chileans on the coast, the villagers were gathering in the field to fight, and the "Esmeralda" was heading for the Pacific Ocean to the west.

At 9:02, Miguel Grau decided to deliver the decisive blow to his opponent and ordered the ironclad ship "Huaasca" to aim at the starboard side of the "Esmeralda" at the angle of collision in the bow of the ship, and prepare to attack. Pratt saw this as an opportunity to board a Peruvian warship and suppress enemy fire in a hand-to-hand fight. So when the two ships collided for the first time, Pratt raised his sword and shouted: "Alabordajemuchachos!" (Spanish "Follow me, boys!") But only Pratt and Sergeant Juan de Dios Aldea managed to jump onto the Peruvian ironclad. Sergeant Aldia was hit by fire from the enemy turret and fell, while Pratt rushed straight to the conning tower, being shot twice and martyred. The remaining soldiers aboard the Esmeralda witnessed the glorious sacrifice of their commander, and when Miguel Grau tried to ram the bow of the Esmeralda again, Captain Ignacioserrano of the Esmeralda shouted "Prepare to jump!" He jumped aboard the "Huaasca" with 10 other sailors, but they were all knocked out by the Grimm guns and the fire in the turret.

The third ramming of the "Huaasca" hit the middle part of the "Esmeralda", announcing the death sentence of the old ship. Because of the lack of altitude, no one from the Chilean sailors on the "Esmeralda" was able to jump on the "Huaasca". "Esmeralda" slowly sank. By 9:50 a.m., it had completely sunk to the bottom of the sea. A total of 135 Chilean sailors were killed in the battle, and 62 soldiers who fell overboard were rescued on the orders of Miguel Grau. Grau expressed his grief over Pratt's death and saluted his opponents, ordering the captives to be clothed and fed.

On the other hand, the "Kovadonga" escaped from Ascension and successfully joined the main fleet, and the cruiser "Castia" found that the main fleet of intelligence made a decisive U-turn. At this time, the commander of the Chilean fleet, Juan Williams, had been hesitant to decide whether to fight a decisive battle after receiving the news that the Esmeralda might have been sunk. In the end, Juan Williams decided to enter the port of Bakodano to rest first, after all, the fleet was running out of ammunition, how to fight a decisive battle