Peruvian frigate Apurímac

In 1852, Peru had one of South America's most powerful navies. It had two steam warships, the paddle steamer Rímac and the screw frigate Amazonas, and was surpassed in the region only by Brazil, the United States, and the Pacific fleets of France and England (which had also recently been reinforced with steam warships). To prevent a European intervention—the Royal Navy having had several encounters with the Peruvian Navy in 1830 and 1844—a commission was sent to England to order three more steam warships: two schooners, and the screw frigate Apurímac. This was ordered in August 1852, and built in the Richard & Henry Green Shipyard in London[1] under the supervision of Chilean-born Captain Jose Maria Salcedo, who served in the Peruvian Navy. She was commissioned in August 1855, and arrived at the port of Callao on November 12, 1855.

On November 16, 1856 the frigate, anchored in Arica, was taken by two young officers in favor of Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco; these were Second Lieutenant Lizardo Montero and Lieutenant Miguel Grau, who took the opportunity to seize the ship when her commander, Captain José María Salcedo was on shore visiting the house of the local British consul.[2] The first action of the rebel ship was the release of political prisoners taken by President Ramon Castilla who were held in the hulks Caupolicán and Highlander in Arica.

Then Apurímac sailed north and stirred up an insurrection on the schooner Loa, sent by the government to intercept the rebel ship. By this point President Castilla had declared that the rebel ships were pirate ships, and set a reward of 200,000 pesos for Apurímac's capture. Therefore, the government sent the steamers Tumbes and Izcuchaca under the command of Captain Ignacio Mariátegui to capture the rebel ships. On November 17, however, Tumbes defected to the rebels, leaving the government with only the steamer Ucayali as the sole significant warship of the Peruvian Navy, because the steam frigate Amazonas was en route to Hong Kong for repairs.

Apurímac, anchored in Callao in 1855

On November 27, Apurímac and Tumbes raided and then left the port of Arica after the refusal of the garrison to resupply the rebel ships. On December 28, the fleet captured the Chincha Islands and the steamer Izcuchaca. By the end of the year, the original reward for her capture was raised to 500,000 pesos.

On December 31, Apurímac along with the schooners Loa and Tumbes began a blockade of Callao, which was defended only by Ucayali and the old colonial fortress of Real Felipe. After January 4, the blockade was sustained only by the frigate. She tried to capture Ucayali on January 28, but that steamer was well defended by Captain Mariátegui and the guns on land. Finally, Apurímac left the port by March 30 to resupply in Pisco.

She returned on April 30, carrying Vivanco and his army on board with the help of the steamer Huaras, disembarking all the troops the next day in the mouth of the Rimac River with the intention of capturing the port by surprise, but the assault was a complete failure and Vivanco with his remaining troops left Callao on April 26 to meet the rest of the rebel fleet in the Chincha Islands.

The Peruvian government took new measures to recover the control of the sea, and on May 21 signed an accord with representatives of Great Britain and France to allow their ships to protect the production of guano and their economic interests. At the same time President Castilla offered an unconditional pardon to the rebellious sailors. Knowing this, along with the fact that Apurímac could be defeated by the French and British steam frigates, the rebel officers decided to surrender the fleet, which left the Chincha Islands on May 22 and arrived at Callao two days later where it was seized by the government.

Renamed Callao by President Castilla on April 28, 1858,[3] the frigate participated in the blockade of Guayaquil under the command of Admiral Ignacio Mariátegui as flagship of the Peruvian Navy. This blockade started on November 4, 1858, and lasted for a year until the assault and capture of the port in November 1860.

After the campaign, the frigate was laid up in a floating dock near San Lorenzo Island, but on December 17, 1860, the ship sank along with the dock.[3] On board the ship was her commander, Captain Silva Rodríguez and the entire crew, including cooks, musicians and visitors from Callao. The ship rolled to port, killing 100 people, including crewman and dock operators, and leaving 88 wounded.

To recover the ship, the Plenipotentiary Minister of Perú in the United States, Federico Barreda, contracted the brothers Renton and Addison Crosby of Brooklyn to perform the difficult task for 100,000 pesos. The ship was almost raised on September 11, 1863, but the lack of hoses to extract water from the hull prevented the wreck from being completely raised, and she sank again.

After three years submerged, the ship was raised and beached on San Lorenzo Island on April 16, 1863, and renamed Apurímac again.[3] She received extensive repairs between 1863 and 1864, which included the addition of rail armor in the floating line and the protection of the hull with chains,[1] but these modifications reduced her speed to 7 knots (13 km/h) with steam, and affected her maneuverability. The start of the Civil War of 1865 caught Apurímac without masts, nevertheless the frigate participated in the bombardment of Arica that same year.[1]

Villa de Madrid and Reina Blanca firing against the allied fleet in Abtao.

Immediately after the declaration of war against Spain, Apurímac (still unmasted),[3] along with the steam frigate Amazonas, was sent to Chile under the command of Captain Lizardo Montero to join the Chilean schooner Covadonga in the Chiloé Archipelago, and to await the arrival of two new steam corvettes of the Peruvian Navy, Unión and America. During the voyage Amazonas was lost near Punta Quilque, and Apurímac suffered engine problems, but the fleet reunited on February 4, 1866, in the recently established Chayalhue naval post on Abtao Island, and was put under command of the Peruvian Captain Manuel Villar.

On February 7, the Spanish steam frigates Reina Blanca and Villa de Madrid appeared off the inlet of Abtao. The allied fleet, aware of the enemy presence, formed a line of battle in the opposite inlet, covering the three entrances to the naval post. The Spanish frigates slowly entered the cove but Apurímac started the battle by opening fire at 1,500 metres (4,900 ft), being followed by the rest of the allied fleet.[4]

The Spanish ships returned fire, but the accurate gunnery of the allied ships forced them to seek cover behind Abtao island, and continue the battle with elevation shots.[4] Finally, the Spaniards slowly retreated after two hours of battle and 1,500 shots from both sides. Apurímac received moderate damage, with three impacts in her floating line[4] and minor damage on the main deck. The ship remained in Chile until the end of the war.

After her arrival at Callao, the ship received general repairs and was finally masted, serving until 1873 when her boilers and engine became unusable and were removed.[1] The frigate was then recommissioned as a training vessel. In 1877, the rail and chain armor installed in 1865 was removed during a major repair, allowing the recovery of her original stability.[1]

Apurímac continued in that role until the start of the War of the Pacific, when the frigate remained in Callao harbor as a hulk during the first part of the war. She escaped damage from the continuous attacks of the Chilean Navy during the blockade of Callao between 1880 and 1881, but during the night of January 16, 1881, after the defeat of the Peruvian Army in the battles of San Juan and Miraflores, the Secretary of the Navy, Captain Manuel Villar, ordered the destruction of port defenses and the remaining ships of the Peruvian Navy[5] to prevent their capture by Chilean troops. This order was executed by the captains Luis Germán Astete and Manuel Villavisencio during the dawn of January 17, 1881, and the Apurímac was scuttled.

• Adamson, Robert E. & de St. Hubert, Christian (1991). "Question 12/89". Warship International. XXVIII (2): 199–205. ISSN 0043-0374.
• (in Spanish) Comisión Cultural del Centro Naval del Perú (1984). A la Gloria del Gran Almirante del Perú Miguel Grau, 3rd Edition, Centro Naval del Perú.
• (in Spanish) Carvajal Pareja, Melitón (2006). Historia Marítima del Perú, Tomo XI, volumen 2, Lima. Instituto de Estudios Histórico Marítimos del Perú. ISBN 9972-633-05-5.
• Warship International Staff (1975). "Question 84/73: Navies of Chile, Peru and Ecuador during the Spanish Intervention of 1866". Warship International. XII (4): 350–351. ISSN 0043-0374.
• (in Spanish) Yábar Acuña, Francisco (2001). Las Fuerzas Sútiles y la defensa de costa en la Guerra del Pacífico, Fondo de Publicaciones Dirección de Intereses Marítimos.
• "El Combate de Abtao – Los Partes de Guerra - 1". Cuadernos de Caicaen (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 16 August 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-10.