Battle of Caldera Bay 1891
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 23 April 1891 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1891 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Chile | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | South America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Chilean Civil War of 1891 | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | -27.0600, -70.8275 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Caldera Bay, or the Sinking of Blanco Encalada, was a naval engagement fought in the Caldera Bay during the 1891 Chilean Civil War between Balmacedist and Congressional naval forces on 23 April 1891. It involved two Balmacedist torpedo boats of the Almirante Lynch-class, and the Congressional armored frigate Blanco Encalada.
After both torpedoes from Almirante Condell had missed, Blanco Encalada was hit by a torpedo from Almirante Lynch and sank in minutes, with the loss of 182 men. The loss of Blanco Encalada hindered the Congressional forces, but they ultimately defeated the Balmacedist forces that August. Blanco Encalada was the first ironclad warship lost to a self-propelled torpedo. The engagement prompted countries to rapidly grow both their torpedo boat and torpedo boat destroyer forces (the latter commonly referred to as destroyers).
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Caldera Bay (revision 1370435856), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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