Manuel Blanco Whitewashed
Manuel José Blanco y Calvo de Encalada (Buenos Aires, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, April 21, 1790 - Santiago, Republic of Chile, September 5, 1876) was a military man, Chilean politician and diplomat who had an outstanding participation in the war of independence between Chile and Peru. He was one of the forgers of the Chilean Navy and its first commander, and later upon entering the field of politics, he would be the first to hold the title of President of the Republic of Chile.
Biography
Son of the Galician Manuel Lorenzo Blanco Cicero and the Chilean Mercedes Calvo de Encalada y Recabarren. Spending his childhood in Buenos Aires, he traveled to Spain where in 1807 he joined the Royal Spanish Navy. He fought in the Spanish war of independence and was later sent to serve in Peru, where he was sent back for developing independence ideals. to Spain. Through his contacts, he managed to be later assigned to Montevideo, where he deserted from the Spanish navy to join the patriots. In 1813 he arrived in Chile to fight for the independence war of this country, joining the incipient military forces of the period known as the Patria Vieja that would be finally defeated in 1814, being confined as a prisoner in the Juan Fernández archipelago. With the beginning of the New Homeland in 1817, he was rescued from the archipelago and joined the United Liberation Army of Chile as an officer, standing out in the decisive battles for Chilean emancipation. In June 1818 he collaborated with the organization of the Chilean navy and became its first general commander and squadron chief, managing to capture a Spanish convoy from Cádiz in the first naval action under his command. In 1819 he participated as deputy chief of the Chilean squadron in the Pacific campaign under the command of the British sailor Thomas Cochrane, and then in 1822 he would join the liberating forces of Peru by order of the Chilean government, taking command of the Peruvian Navy. until the beginning of 1823 since he was later appointed Plenipotentiary Minister of Peru in the Río de la Plata. He returned to Chile in 1824 where he assumed a position in the army and then took command of a Chilean naval division to help Peru, joining with his naval forces those of that country and Gran Colombia, and putting himself in command of this fleet. combined to blockade Callao in 1825. In the middle of that year he withdrew from the blockade with his forces to participate in the Chiloé campaign under the orders of General Ramón Freire, who managed to take the last royalist bastion in Chile.
In 1826, after his successful performance in the liberation of Chiloé, he was temporarily elected President of the Republic, being the first person to hold that title, but he held that position for just two months and then left for a while from all political or military activity due to the conflictive environment that prevailed in the country. He returned to military work in 1836, at the outbreak of the war against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. As general in chief of the first military expedition of this war, he signed the Treaty of Paucarpata, which would be rejected by the Chilean government and would prolong the war until 1839.
Later, he made a trip to a large part of Europe, returning to Chile in 1846. The following year he received the position of Mayor of Valparaíso, and for the second time, that of Commander General of the Navy, performing these positions with great care and benefit for the structural and urban progress of the port. In 1851, when a liberal revolution broke out in the country, he put down a riot in Valparaíso, thus earning the gratitude of the government and being named a diplomat in France in 1853. He remained in Europe until 1858 and on his return he would hold some honorary posts. In 1865, because of the war with Spain, he served as a sailor and was entrusted with command of the Chilean-Peruvian squadron. In 1868 he carried out his last public activity, in which he was given command of a naval force. to repatriate the remains of General Bernardo O'Higgins who were buried in Lima. He died on September 5, 1876 in the city of Santiago at 86 years of age.
Childhood and entry into naval life
He was the youngest of five children of the Spanish oidor Manuel Lorenzo Blanco Cicero and the Chilean lady Mercedes Calvo de Encalada y Recabarren (daughter of the Marquis of Villa Palma de Encalada). His siblings were José Antonio, Ana del Carmen, Rafaela del Carmen and Ventura Blanco Encalada. His birthplace was in Buenos Aires, capital of what was then the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, part of the Spanish empire.
Blanco Encalada, when he was seven months old, lost his father who died exercising his magistracy in Buenos Aires so he was left in the care of his mother. He learned his first letters in his hometown, where he spent his childhood and then in 1803 at the age of 12 he was sent by his mother to Spain in the company of his uncle, the Count of Villa Palma Manuel Calvo Encalada, to provide him with an education and career. He embarked with his uncle in the corvette called Infante Don Francisco de Paula, commanded by Captain Juan Donesteves, where they were also accompanied by two illustrious persons who were the oidor Benito de la Mata Linares who passed to the Peninsula of Councilor of the Indies, and of the oidor Miguel José de Lastarria who was going to hold a position in the Royal Court of Seville. They arrived in La Coruña where they stayed at the house of the distinguished sailor José de Bustamante y Guerra. On that trip, Blanco would become fond of sea life.
Already in Spain, he managed to enter the Royal Seminary of Nobles in Madrid as a student, thanks to the influence of his uncle and the services of his late father. In this place he attracted the sympathy and respect of his classmates and teachers; and he had Ángel de Saavedra, later Duke of Rivas, as a classmate and close friend. Once his preparation in Madrid was completed, where he acquired a solid culture and distinguished himself in mathematics, in 1806 he entered the Royal Marine Academy of the Isla del León, opposite Cádiz. Because of his previous studies he stayed a few months, for which he was declared fit to embark and on February 27, 1807 he was given the offices of midshipman, thus joining the Royal Spanish Navy.
He first had to serve aboard an old carrack, and in 1808 at the outbreak of the Spanish war of independence, he was assigned to a subtle vessel called Carmen as his deputy, thus contributing in the naval action in front of the Poza de Santa Isabel, developed between June 8 and 14 of that year, in which the Spanish naval forces commanded by Admiral Juan Ruiz de Apodaca managed to completely surrender the French squadron of Admiral François Étienne of Rosily-Mesros that blocked the Bay of Cádiz, this being the first French defeat of the war. For his conduct in that action he received a medal of honor and would later be promoted to frigate lieutenant.
After that action, he was assigned to the Callao naval station in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He embarked on the war frigate Flora, commanded by Captain Fermín de Ezterripa, which sailed from Cádiz towards Buenos Aires on September 1, arriving at that port the following year, where he received at the age of 18 the effective rank of frigate lieutenant. From Buenos Aires he made the journey by land passing the mountain range to Chile, where he stayed until the month of May to share with his relatives, then embarking in the port of Valparaíso to go to Callao on the boat Piedad, ship that belonged to one of his Fuentes-Gonzáles cousins. In Callao, he served for three years as an assistant to his first cousin, Engineer Brigadier Joaquín Molina, who was commander-in-chief of the Navy there. In this post he also served together with his friend, Lieutenant Eugenio Cortés y Azúa, a native of Chile and who would in the future have an outstanding participation in the organization of the naval forces of Mexico and Peru.
On his return to America, he already expressed his closeness to the revolutionary ideas of the moment, as did several of his relatives in Chile and in the Río de la Plata, for which reason in 1811 he was sent by Viceroy José Fernando de Abascal de He returned to Spain despite having been appointed artillery captain in Chile by the Government Junta, at the request of his uncle Martín Calvo Encalada. Upon arriving in Spain that same year, he would have to participate in the siege of Cádiz, where he would demonstrate for last time his seafaring expertise in the Spanish navy in command of a gunboat. Later, in 1812, he would manage to return to America thanks to his contacts who could assign him to the Plaza de Montevideo. Thus, he was embarked as a naval officer in the corvette Paloma, which came to reinforce the forces of Viceroy Francisco Javier de Elío who at that time faced the patriots of Buenos Aires. He arrived at this port on September 17 of that year.
Later, he fled from Montevideo to Buenos Aires by land, when they tried to return him to Spain when they began to suspect his patriotic ideals, since he had twice refused to obey the orders of the naval commander of the Miguel de la Sierra station to raid and attacking the coastal beacons of Buenos Aires by alleging that his mother and his two sisters were in the city, although it was also for their ideals. In February 1813 he went to Chile to serve the cause of his homeland, arriving in the suburbs of Santiago in the last days of March.
Emancipation War
In the Old and New Homeland of Chile
Upon his arrival, he joined the Chilean army led by General José Miguel Carrera, with the previously conferred rank of artillery captain, before the landing at the end of March in San Vicente of the royalist army under the command of Brigadier Antonio Couple. At that time there was no navy in Chile, so he had to leave his status as a sailor to join the land forces, serving in the artillery branch where he already had some experience. It was Blanco Encalada's desire to come and render his useful services to the patriot cause in Chile, as he made it known at the time when he said:
“I only served six years in the Spanish Navy... To come to offer my weak efforts for the independence of my homeland... ”
He did not participate actively during the campaign, since he was entrusted with the organization of the first maestranza and the first weapons workshop in the country, and later he was appointed head of the artillery with the mission of reorganizing this branch that was in arrears deplorable. He would be promoted in August to artillery sergeant major and would serve in mid-November under the orders of Colonel Bernardo O'Higgins, before the deposition of General Carrera for the criticizable results of his military operations.
In March 1814 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and remains in the capital giving military instruction to recruits. He did not participate at first in O'Higgins' campaign against royalist forces now led by Brigadier Gabino Gaínza, who landed in Arauco on January 31 with reinforcements from Peru and Chiloé. Then he had to be part of an unfortunate act of arms that occurred on March 29 in which he had been given the order to recover Talca, which had been taken by royalist troops at the beginning of March and had left the capital cut off from the divisions of O'Higgins and Colonel Juan Mackenna that operated in the south against Gaínza. To execute the order, he was entrusted with the command of a division of 1,450 men with little discipline and 4 pieces of artillery, with these troops being resoundingly defeated in the first battle at Cancha Rayada by a smaller but better disciplined force commanded by the royalist officer Bald Angel. Due to the defeat, a court martial was held against him, from which he was acquitted when confirming, through subordinate officers and soldiers, the activity and courage displayed by Blanco Encalada in the confrontation, and because it was recognized that it would not have depended on him to avoid the disaster due to the inexperience and lack of discipline of the column, made up almost entirely of recruits taking up arms for the first time.
At that time the patriot cause seemed to be dangerously weakened by the mismanagement of the war, the lack of professionalism of the troops and officers, and the differences that existed between the patriot leaders such as Carrera and O'Higgins, who even faced each other on August 26 at the Ochagavía ditch, thus reducing the patriot army and giving the royalist army an advantage, which was being reinforced from Peru with new troops under the command of General Mariano Osorio.
Between October 1 and 2, the battle of Rancagua took place, where the royalists finally triumphed and the so-called Patria Vieja came to an end. With this debacle, the main patriotic leaders fled to Mendoza. Blanco Encalada also went to that place but was intercepted by royalist troops in Santa Rosa de Los Andes, and was later subjected to a process in which he was sentenced to death, not for his participation in the war, but for desertion. of him in Montevideo. However, this sentence was commuted to exile for five years in the Juan Fernández archipelago along with other distinguished Chilean patriots.
Blanco Encalada would later be rescued, after the defeat of the royalists in the battle of Chacabuco that occurred on February 12, 1817 before the army of the Andes commanded by General José de San Martín, thus ending the period of the Reconquest and beginning the period of the New Homeland, where a new patriotic government was established, preceded by O'Higgins as supreme director. O'Higgins would send the brig Águila to the archipelago, under the command of the Irish sailor Raimundo Morris, to free him and the other patriots in mid-March.
Back on the continent, he enlisted in the recently created united army led by General San Martín, with the rank of artillery sergeant major and in command of a Chilean battery with 12 pieces. He participated in the subsequent campaign against General Osorio's forces from Peru who landed in Talcahuano on January 10, 1818 with the mission of advancing to Santiago and reconquering Chile. He was present in the combat of Talca on March 15 and in the surprise of Cancha Rayada on March 19, where he managed to save the 12 pieces of his battery from the royalist attack with an orderly withdrawal of his men, and he returned to action with his unit in the battle of Maipú on April 5, standing out with the use of his artillery pieces on the right wing of the united army by making concentrated fire at a time when the patriot infantry was overwhelmed by the royalist infantry, achieving with his shots weaken and slow your progress until victory. For his conduct in Maipú he was promoted to lieutenant colonel a week after that battle, on April 14. In Maipú, the patriot domain in the central area of Chile was consolidated and the royalist army was forced to withdraw to the south, without the possibility of threatening this area again. At some point, within the independence process, he joined the Lautaro Lodge.
Commander General of the Navy and Chief of the Chilean Naval Squadron
After Maipú, the Chilean government was preparing the campaign to the south of the country to reconquer the squares of Concepción and Talcahuano. Supreme Director O'Higgins, from the beginning of his tenure, had watched with concern that royalist warships controlled the sea, and because of that, they easily obtained reinforcements and supplied their troops in port. from Talcahuano. To counteract the situation at sea, his government had authorized since 1817 the actions of Chilean privateers with their respective letters of marque, but this measure was not enough, work began in mid-1818 to create a national naval force capable of obtain command of the sea, for which they commissioned diplomatic agents abroad to be able to buy ships, weapons and also hire qualified personnel for the future Chilean navy. The economic situation of the country made it difficult to carry out this project but through good administrative management it was possible to carry it out.
When these works were carried out, Blanco Encalada had been called to Valparaíso to serve in the navy and put himself under the command of Captain 2nd Class Juan Higginson, an English sailor at the service of Chile. The Chilean navy had at that time the frigate Lautaro and the brig Águila which were in charge of Higginson. On June 26, Blanco Encalada had been appointed interim commander of the Department of the Navy with the rank of 1st class captain. This appointment caused discomfort in Higginson because he now had to put himself under the command of an individual he considered a soldier and not a sailor, since until then he had only served on land as a gunner. Future quarrels he would later have with some foreign sailors who would question his ability and experience as a sailor, but without any success since these insinuations to his person were due more than anything to the haughtiness or arrogance that they generally professed..
Later, Blanco Encalada in a letter to O'Higgins in which he asked him to honor him with the command of a ship when the squadron went out on a mission, would argue about its naval capacity that:
“If I was a sailor, I could go through artillery without making mistakes that they deserved note, I presume to be able to return from artillery to marine with a well-being hope.”
In that position, he collaborated with O'Higgins and the Minister of War José Ignacio Zenteno in the organization of the Chilean squadron. Under his direction, the equipment and recruitment of personnel for the warships that were being purchased by the government were carried out. He also carried out the creation of a marine infantry battalion and a sea artillery brigade. In the absence of a marine regulation, the government entrusted him with the preparation of a list of orders and general provisions that he had to extract from the ordinances of the Spanish navy, in the parts that were considered analogous for use in the country. He also proposed some ideas that would be approved by the government, such as the change in the denominations of the officer grades, a uniform regulation and the creation of an academy to train the officers, among other things. On August 4, Blanco Encalada obtained the signing of the transcendental decree that created the first naval school for officers of the nascent Chilean Navy.
In the following days, Blanco continued with the enlistment of the squad. The greatest difficulty he encountered at that time was being able to complete the crews of the ships due to the competition that the corsairs made him to engage people, since these offered higher salaries than the State and also the free life of the corsican was more pleasant for them. than rigorous service in a regular naval force. By a request that he sent to O'Higgins about this problem, the government abolished privateering licences. On August 11, the young sailor reported with great enthusiasm on the readiness of the squadron:
“The squad is ready, supported by everything, mated, green, with watered for six months in. There's nothing left but pouring food, people, some cannons and throwing it into the sea. His strength is such that he can own the Pacific and frustrate any subsequent expedition from Spain. You can take Talcahuano, destroy Callao and strike so important that they admire Europe and ensure the freedom of America.”
On September 17, Blanco Encalada with the rank of captain of the ship assumed the effective command of the Chilean squadron and Higginson, due to this, retired from the service of the navy. In the general command of the navy, Lieutenant Commander Juan José Tortel Maschet took over from Blanco. The squadron was ready and made up of the ship San Martín (insignia), the frigate Lautaro, the corvette Chacabuco and the brigs Araucano and Pueyrredón (ex Águila), with a total of 158 guns and manned by 1,249 men. O'Higgins rewarded the zeal shown by Blanco in the organization and readiness of the squadron by naming him a non-commissioned officer of the Chilean Legion of Merit.
Capture of the Spanish convoy from Cádiz
Meanwhile in Spain, taking advantage of the general peace with France since 1814 and the return to the throne of Ferdinand VII, it had been planned to send reinforcements to America to be able to definitively subdue the provinces that still resisted Spanish rule, but the calamitous situation of the peninsular economy and the instability of his government due to anti-monarchical ideas had prevented his immediate execution. In the middle of 1817, the Spanish government planned to send a division of about 2,000 soldiers to Chile to reinforce the army of General Osorio, who had to reconquer the place, and it was also decided to send an army of about 15,000 men under the command of General Enrique José O'Donnell to reconquer the Río de la Plata. This last expedition would be suspended, while the one that was projected for Chile would take place in mid-1818 due to the delay in military preparations.
The Spanish expedition to Chile was made up of 2,080 soldiers and was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Fausto del Hoyo. This force was made up of the Cantabria regiment with two battalions, a cavalry corps of dragoon hunters, a company of sappers and an artillery detachment with 4 pieces of 4 pounders. The ships that transported it were the Trinidad, Especulación, Escorpión, Atocha, San Fernando, Dolores, Magdalena, Elena, Jerezana and Carlota; and to escort these ships was Queen María Isabel under the command of the ship's captain Manuel del Castillo. The point to which this reinforcement should go was the port of Talcahuano to meet with the forces that the now Viceroy of Peru Joaquín de la Pezuela had sent under the command of Osorio.
On May 21st, the Cádiz expedition set sail for Chile, ignoring the unfavorable events that had occurred in this place for the royalist cause. Upon reaching the height of the Canary Islands, Captain Castillo suffered paralysis and had to be disembarked in Tenerife and replaced in command of the naval convoy by Lieutenant Dionisio Capaz. When the convoy was sailing near Buenos Aires, the Trinidad mutinied and surrendered in that same port to take refuge from the patriotic authorities, falling into their hands the signal plan of the ships, some weapons and the documents that indicated the place to which they were going. The Government of O'Higgins was able to find out about the approach of this convoy thanks to this event and ordered the newly formed Chilean squadron under the command of Blanco Encalada to intercept them, leaving only the Pueyrredón in Valparaíso before any eventuality. This first mission of the Chilean squadron was not exempt from difficulties, since apart from the fears of being their first outing, the rookie crew still needed discipline, and some foreign officers questioned Blanco Encalada's experience and marine knowledge in order to have command. of the fleet In addition, there were communication problems between sailors and officers due to its heterogeneous composition in which English and Spanish were spoken, depending on their origin. However, the Commander-in-Chief did his best to resolve these setbacks by establishing order, calming down the spirits, training the members of the fleet during the voyage and encouraging them to achieve success in this mission.
Blanco Encalada sailed with the squadron on October 9 from Valparaíso to go to Talcahuano, taking seventeen days to arrive due to bad weather, which allowed three Spanish transports; the Escorpión , Atocha and San Fernando disembarked the troops that he had in the port of Talcahuano and then continued to Callao to take supplies to that port; and that also on October 14, the corvette Chacabuco, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Francisco Díaz, separated from the patriot division during a strong storm that lasted two days. The three remaining ships of the Chilean squadron finally reached the vicinity of Quiriquina Island. Blanco Encalada immediately dispatched the brig Araucano, under the command of Captain Raimundo Morris, to reconnoiter the coast and locate vessels from the Spanish convoy while he headed for Santa María Island where he took prisoners 5 men from the Spanish frigate Reina María Isabel which had already been anchored since the 22nd in Talcahuano and had left those men there to communicate with the Spanish transports that were lagging behind.
On October 28, Blanco Encalada, after obtaining the necessary information, went with the San Martín and the Lautaro to Talcahuano where the Queen was María Isabel, approaching her with the English flag and then hoisting the Chilean flag as she was at a prudent distance to attack her. The Spanish sailors, noticing this and after a medium-sized cannonade, ran the ship aground and abandoned it. Given this, Blanco Encalada proceeded to board and unravel the ship, having to face bad weather and the attacks made by the royalists from land; and that they also asked Colonel Juan Francisco Sánchez for reinforcements from Concepción, for which reason Blanco Encalada had to send an infantry detachment to the mainland to hinder his movements and once this was achieved, they returned to embark. Finally, the following day, in view of the enemy's expectation, it was possible to remove Queen María Isabel and take effective possession of the ship. Blanco Encalada in the official part of it addressed to O'Higgins and dated November 5 noted about this latest event:
“You can’t imagine the surprise that caused the enemies to see the captured ship float. The fire suddenly ceased, and some and others did nothing but look at the frigate until the cry of, Long live the Homeland, resonated at the same time on all boats. The enemies did not interrupt their silence, but they did not shoot more than a single shot. ”
After this action, Blanco Encalada met on October 31 with the corvette Chacabuco and the brig Araucano on Santa María Island and with the information he was handling, they He arranged to wait in that position for the rest of the Spanish convoy. On November 5 he dispatched the Araucano to Valparaíso to inform the government of the events. On November 9, the brig Galvarino joined the squadron, which was acquired by the Chilean government in Buenos Aires and had anchored in Valparaíso a few days after the Chilean squadron left that port to the south to intercept the Spanish convoy, being immediately dispatched to that direction to support it. On November 12, the intrepid River Plate brig from Buenos Aires also arrived on the island, to put itself at the service of Chile.
The six remaining Spanish transports, dispersed by the storms of the South Seas, went separately arriving in the area on November 11, 12 and 14, and deceived by the Spanish flag that the chief of the squadron in the Reina María Isabel, the transports Dolores, Magdalena and Elena were placed alongside, being Captured by the Chilean Navy. Blanco Encalada, faced with his success, left the corvette Chacabuco in the area and sailed from that place with the rest of the squadron to Valparaíso, anchoring on November 17 and being triumphantly received. On the 18th of that month, off Mocha Island, the Chacabuco captured the Carlota and the Jerezana and returned to Valparaíso on the 22nd., thus completing the naval operation. The Speculation was not caught as she made the trip directly to Callao.
The fate of the Spanish expedition was disastrous. Of the ten transports that left Cádiz, one mutinied and surrendered in Buenos Aires, four continued to Callao, in which one of them went directly to that port, and the remaining five were captured by the Chilean squadron that saw Its scarce crew of ships increased, in addition, with a war frigate, the Queen María Isabel.
The triumph of Blanco Encalada and the Chilean squadron had disrupted the last royalist expedition against Chile, thus preventing the royalist forces from strengthening in the south of the country. It had also wrested control of the Chilean coasts from Spain to establish it now in this new country, while momentarily instilling the necessary confidence and optimism to face the hard sacrifices required by the next expedition to be sent to Peru. On the other hand, the viceroy of Peru had managed to find out about the events, causing him considerable concern, making from that moment the decision to assume a totally defensive attitude, taking great care not to risk the naval forces he had and prevent them from being captured by Chilean patriots.
These were good times for Blanco Encalada, who had also married on November 26, after his triumphant arrival, the lady from Santiago, Carmen Gana López, with whom he would have six children: Florencio, Félix, Carmen, Mercedes, Teresa and Adolf.
On December 2, the government of O'Higgins awarded Blanco Encalada and his men, as stated in the decree granting him "the highest honor that is given to a republican country& #34;, and decrees that all those who participated in the action carry a sea-green cloth shield on their left arm with a trident fringed in laurels with the motto "His first essay gave Chile the domain of the Pacific", for its success in capturing the five transports and the frigate Reina María Isabel, which by law of December 9 was renamed O' Higgins.
In Cochrane's naval campaign in the Pacific
The Chilean squadron had achieved a magnificent triumph with Blanco Encalada on this occasion, but due to the demands required by the future and enormous undertaking that would be undertaken, that is, to destroy the Spanish fleet stationed in Callao and then lead the troops that they will give freedom to Peru, the service of an experienced sailor was needed. Thanks to his representative in the United Kingdom, José Antonio Álvarez Condarco, the government managed to contact Lord Thomas Cochrane, who was a British sailor who had become famous for his exploits in the Napoleonic wars. He was then hired to assume command of the Chilean squadron.
Upon Cochrane's arrival at the end of November 1818, the government faced the difficult dilemma of removing Blanco Encalada from command of the squadron to hand it over to Cochrane despite his recent triumph, which made him well deserving of continuing in the position, but he, understanding the government's situation, voluntarily left his position as squadron leader to gladly place himself under the command of the illustrious British sailor with whom he would also establish a friendship that would last until the end of the days of both sailors. Thus, the government finally issued a decree on December 12 in which command of the squadron was given to Cochrane with the rank of vice admiral and Blanco Encalada was left as second in command of the squadron, being promoted to rear admiral at his 28 year old. Both sailors would now be responsible for ensuring the success of the naval operations that would be carried out on the Peruvian coasts.
In 1819, during the preparations for Cochrane's first naval expedition to the Peruvian coast, a mutiny broke out in one of the ships of the squadron when it set sail from the port. Blanco Encalada had to calm down the spirits of the crew so that the expedition could came out without a problem. He stayed on land, not participating at first in those operations in which Cochrane attacked and blocked Callao, capturing some ships and sowing panic in the royalist ranks, but on March 17 he would leave Valparaíso for the Peruvian coasts with the brigantines Galvarino and Pueyrredón arriving on the island of San Lorenzo on March 28, where he learned from Captain Thomas Carter of the corvette Chacabuco, which was blockaded Callao from that position, that Cochrane, after having severely attacked that port, had gone to harass the north coast of Peru, for which he headed north, finding it on March 31 in Huara where he placed himself under his orders to begin the following business plans. After resupplying all the ships in that place, Cochrane decided to separate the squadron into two divisions, leaving under the command of Blanco Encalada the ship San Martín, the frigate Lautaro, the corvette Chacabuco and the brig Pueyrredón with the mission of blocking Callao, while Cochrane with the frigate O'Higgins (insignia), the brig Galvarino and the ships seized by him from the royalists in Callao dedicated themselves to attacking the coastal towns of northern Peru and spreading patriotic propaganda.
Blanco Encalada maintained a tight blockade in Callao, preventing the resupply of the port and leaving the Spanish squadron commanded by Commander Antonio Vacaro locked up, who also refused to give battle, staying protected under the batteries of the port. But due to the lack of food and the lack of means to obtain them on the Peruvian coasts defended by the royalist garrisons, it was forced to lift the blockade without order on May 3, heading directly to Valparaíso where it anchored on the 25th of the same month, and then Cochrane It would arrive in a few more days. The government, upset by this event, put him on trial but would eventually be acquitted.
In September he participated in the second Cochrane expedition to the Peruvian coasts made up of the same ships mentioned above, but adding to them the recently acquired corvette Independencia, the schooner Moctezuma captured from the Spanish in the previous expedition, and also the transports Victoria and Jerezana that were to be used as explosive ships. Blanco Encalada was on board the ship San Martín which was commanded by ship captain Guillermo Wilkinson.
On the 28th of that month they arrived at Callao where Cochrane, to attack the port and destroy the Spanish squadron, had designed a skilful and even fantastic plan that was the use of Congreve rockets together with the explosive ships. These did not give the expected result, a situation that Cochrane attributed to the fact that the Chilean government had them built by monarchist prisoners, who took the opportunity to sabotage them. However, the squadron blocked the port, and after some fighting, seized a few ships. As time passed, Cochrane ordered that while he remained in Callao, a part of the squadron under the command of Captain Martin Guisse went to Pisco to get provisions, which he actually obtained after taking the port in a furious attack on the 7th of November.
At that time, the arrival of a Spanish naval division from Cádiz, under the command of Brigadier Rosendo Porlier y Asteguieta, was expected to reinforce the Pacific squadron. This division was made up of the ships of the line Alejandro I and San Telmo, the frigate Prueba and the merchant ship Primorosa Mariana with provisions and weapons. This division was not lucky in its trip since the Alejandro I had to return to Spain when it was near the Equator due to the poor condition of its hull and the San Telmo It sank in Cape Horn along with Polier on board, and only the frigate Prueba and the merchant ship Primorosa Mariana successfully passed that southern zone. Cochrane found out about this and that the Test had headed for Guayaquil, so he set out to go to that place, but he also decided to send Blanco Encalada with part of the squadron back to Valparaíso. due to the lack of provisions, the number of patients and also to encourage the government to speed up the preparations for the liberating expedition. He left with the ship San Martín, the corvette Independencia and the transport Jerezana, the latter converted into a hospital ship. He arrived in Valparaíso in December and Cochrane would do so at the beginning of the following year, since he had first gone to Guayaquil on November 25 where he captured the armed frigates Águila and Begoña, and later he ventured into the southern zone of Chile where, after requesting infantry troops from General Ramón Freire in Talcahuano, he took in a surprising attack the system of forts located in Corral Bay between February 3 and 4, and seized the towns in the area such as Valdivia and Osorno, with the exception of the island of Chiloé.
Aid to Peru in 1822 and 1824
When the Liberation Expedition of Peru set sail on August 10, 1820, Blanco Encalada remained in Chile, since the government had appointed him Chief of Staff and General Commander of Arms of the Plaza de Santiago that he requested, and in September of that year he was appointed field marshal of the land army. In that period, with the approval of the government, he created a charitable board in his own house called Society of Friends of the Country , where respectable men of independence participated. During one of the meetings of this society that he preceded, he made some criticisms of the O'Higgins government that did not go down very well with the Supreme Director himself when he found out, and added to the despotic atmosphere and distrust that existed in the government against the Opponents, Blanco Encalada would be considered a conspirator for which he was arrested and subjected to a process from which he was finally acquitted of all charges, although he did not return to his position as general commander of arms. But despite this situation that arose between him and O'Higgins, trust and friendship between the two would soon be restored.
In 1822 Blanco Encalada, by order of the Chilean government, had joined the independence forces fighting in Peru. At that time, the Protectorate of San Martín had already established itself in that place, Lima was in patriotic hands, the sea was also controlled by the patriotic and the royalists now led by Viceroy José de la Serna had withdrawn to the mountains to reorganize.. On the other hand, the Chilean squadron led by Cochrane had withdrawn from the Peruvian coasts in mid-1821, as this chief had disagreements with San Martín regarding the pay of the sailors and the protector's attempts to peruanize or send the entire Chilean squad to Peru. The point of greatest tension between the two soldiers was when Cochrane took part of the money that corresponded to the squad from the Peruvian public treasury deposited by San Martín in a transport in Ancón, which was worth the expulsion from Peru. With this, San Martín was left without naval support for military operations, so on October 8 of that year he organized the nascent Peruvian Navy, remaining under the command of Martín Guisse. But the following year Blanco Encalada arrived in Peru, assuming the command of the Peruvian squadron on February 7 with the rank of vice admiral, replacing Guisse who remained as his second in command. In this position and aboard the frigate Protector, the flagship of the Peruvian squadron, supported the conduction by sea of almost all the expeditions that left Guayaquil and Callao under the command of commanders such as Rudecindo Alvarado, Andrés de Santa Cruz, Antonio José de Sucre and other chiefs for the various ports of the Peruvian coast. During these commissions he had the opportunity to meet General Simón Bolívar with whom he became friends, but due to the characteristics and impulses of the Venezuelan, he expressed to O'Higgins in a letter dated December 9 that:
“...By the frankness that the Liberator has given me and the many conversations I have had with him, adding his conduct, that I have witnessed, have made me know him; and on my return to that I will make you the most impartial portrait of his character. Baste only to tell you as a friend and as a Chilean, that I consider it a dangerous enemy of whom much needs to be kept.”
He held his position as chief of the Peruvian squadron until the beginning of 1823, when he was appointed by the new Peruvian government of José de la Riva Agüero as plenipotentiary minister of Peru before the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata so that he could support of that government.
Fulfilled that commission, he returned to Chile in 1824 to perform the functions of major general of the army, which he performed until the middle of that year, since Cochrane was absent from command of the squadron, he received that position again and was promoted in July to vice admiral being already 34 years old. In November he was entrusted with the command of a naval division made up of the frigate O'Higgins, the corvette Chacabuco, the brig Galvarino and the schooner Moctezuma to help Peru from the sea, since a naval expedition had been sent from Spain under the command of Commodore Roque Guruceta that had retaken control of those coasts after beating the Peruvian squadron commanded by Guisse and break the blockade that he exercised in Callao. With the withdrawal of that Spanish naval division due to the catastrophe that the battle of Ayacucho meant, which strengthened Peruvian independence, Blanco Encalada's division joined the squadrons of Peru and Gran Colombia, acting as head of the combined squadron, and on January 7, 1825, they faced the port of Callao, which had been in royalist hands since a military uprising that occurred on February 5 of the previous year and was now commanded by Brigadier José Ramón Rodil. The combined naval force under the command of Blanco Encalada resumed the naval blockade that day, complementing the land siege that the royalist garrison was already suffering. During the blockade, Blanco Encalada managed to capture the only subtle units that the royalists had in Callao and attacked the royalist redoubts on land without pause, causing considerable havoc in their ranks. In addition, he negotiated with Rodil the release of some Chilean officers imprisoned since the uprising of the pro-independence garrison. During these actions, he was under the orders of Bolívar, who was ruling Peru as a dictator at the time.
After spending a few months blockading the port of Callao, he withdrew from that place in June heading with his ships to Valparaíso to warn the Chilean government of Bolívar's intentions to annex Chiloé. The maritime and land siege of Callao would continue until January 23, 1826, in which the royalist forces of that port would finally capitulate.
On the second expedition to Chiloé
After learning that the government of Simón Bolívar in Peru proposed the seizure of Chiloé and having given himself a strong opinion of annexing the archipelago for himself, Blanco Encalada abandoned the blockade of Callao with the Chilean ships to go to Valparaíso.
When the supreme director Ramón Freire communicated these claims upon the arrival of Blanco Encalada, the organization of a new expedition was immediately arranged. now a second would be sent to defeat the royalist forces of that island commanded by Governor Antonio de Quintanilla who was reluctant to negotiate with the patriots and preferred to fight to the end.
In this campaign, Blanco Encalada commanded a fleet of 5 warships and 5 transports with which he led the Chilean troops to Chiloé. When the operations against the royalists began, Blanco Encalada helped establish the beachheads for the landing of the troops and successfully fought inside the Ancud bay with the cannons of the forts that defended the place, being one of the The most powerful defenses are those of Castillo San Miguel de Agüi.
When the army managed to enter the interior of the island to fulfill the objective of taking the city of San Carlos de Ancud from land, it found the strong defenses that Brigadier Quintanilla had made in Poquillihue that made an attack dangerous from anywhere. point, which put the campaign in a difficult position. Blanco Encalada, faced with the difficult situation, planned to attack the gunboats that were defending the royalist positions from the coast of Pudeto. The attack on the Pudeto boats was carried out on January 13, resulting in complete success in capturing the enemy boats. The next day, when he saw a weak point from the sea in the royalist fort, he ordered that with the same boats captured the royalists they attack the defense of Poquillihue, managing to disrupt the position and that finally General José Manuel Borgoño began the final attack with the army, completely defeating them in the battle of Bellavista.
With the defeat of the royalists, Quintanilla, in agreement with General Freire, signed the Treaty of Tantauco that marked the definitive incorporation of the archipelago into the Republic of Chile. With this transcendental event, the emancipation war ended for Chile, for what was carried out the disarmament of the Chilean squadron in 1827 before the economic impossibility of maintaining it.
Step through politics
After O'Higgins' resignation in 1823, the country entered a period of political instability that lasted for a decade. General Ramón Freire, who assumed the position of Supreme Director in 1823, tried to solve the problems that existed in the legislation, but the constant political disorder in which the country found itself, added to the prevailing economic crisis, caused the fall of his government..
In an environment dominated by economic problems and quarrels between political factions, on July 8, 1826, the National Congress proceeded to elect Freire's successor. Product of his distinguished performance in the war of independence, in said election Manuel Blanco Encalada was the winner who assumed command the following day, after being sworn in before Congress, thus becoming the first person in Chile to officially hold the title of "President of the Republic" (Provisional President of the Republic). His short government was marked by the dominance of the federalist group and the promulgation of the Federal Laws of that year. These measures were considered impractical for the country and rejected, for which Blanco Encalada resigned on September 9. This generated a succession of presidents with short periods of government due to the still latent instability.
.svg){kind=small} of the Acting Government of Manuel Blanco Encalada | ||
|---|---|---|
| Ministry | Owner | Period |
| Ministry of the Interior and Foreign Affairs | White Encalada Ventura | 1826 |
| Ministry of War and Marina | Thomas Obejero | 1826 |
| Ministry of Finance | Manuel José Gandarillas | 1826 |
After his resignation, he moved away from active politics and military life, dedicating himself only to caring for his family and interests from his farm El Conventillo, for which reason he did not take sides during the war civil war that broke out at the end of 1829, in which the conservative side led by General José Joaquín Prieto and the charismatic Diego Portales triumphed.
With the conservative triumph, the Chilean Philanthropy Lodge (the first Masonic attempt in the country) that Blanco Encalada had founded four years earlier and which had a certain importance in the formation of the incipient liberal thought in Chile, was dissolved. However, the seed of the Order was not lost.
In the war against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation
In 1836, strong tension arose between Chile and the newly created Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which was seen as a threat on the American scene, even more so after supporting opponents of Joaquín Prieto's government, such as the liberal general Ramón Freire who received support in organizing an expedition to Chiloé to overthrow the Chilean government.
Minister Diego Portales saw in this aid the intentions of the protector of the confederation, Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz, to destabilize Chile, so when he disrupted Freire's expedition, he sent 2 warships to the port of Callao in charge of Victorino Garrido to seize the ships of that country and force the Confederation to go to war. Although 3 Confederate ships were captured on the night of August 21, the second objective was not achieved and the conflict was left pending.
It is in the midst of this situation that Manuel Blanco Encalada returned to active service as a soldier, being appointed commander of the squadron to lead an organized naval force of 5 warships, to take the plenipotentiary minister Mariano Egaña to the port of Callao to achieve a negotiation favorable to Chile. But these negotiations failed and on December 28 Chile declared war on the Confederation, for which Blanco Encalada began naval operations to destroy the Peru-Bolivian Confederate Navy. Blanco Encalada's operations lasted until the beginning of 1837, and during these he had a few small clashes with the Confederate ships and blocked the ports of Callao and Guayaquil since the Confederate squadron refused to present battle and evaded the Chilean squadron at all times..
Blanco Encalada would return to Valparaíso by order of the government to take command of the expeditionary army that was going to destroy the confederation. In a letter that Diego Portales addressed to Blanco Encalada, he gave him the motivations for the war and his emphasized firmness to dissolve the Confederation. Portales told him that with the victory of the forces that he would command, he would give Chile a second independence since if the Peru-Bolivian Confederation prevailed, the country would be drowned by it and would remain in the background. Before leaving for the war, on June 6, on the plains of Cerro Barón de Valparaíso, he defeated the mutinous troops of Quillota commanded by Colonel José Antonio Vidaurre, who had organized a military uprising to capture Minister Diego Portales who was coming to review the troops and that when he was captured he would end up being shot. This fact provoked a greater fervor and conviction in society to go to war, when the theory was given that the uprising was instigated by Santa Cruz.
Finally Blanco Encalada as general and commander in the campaign, and with an army of 3,194 men, among which was a Peruvian column of exiles of 402 men under the command of Peruvian General Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente, set sail on the 15th of September in 16 transports and convoyed by seven warships of the Chilean squadron under the command of Captain Roberto Simpson.
The expedition passed through Iquique on September 22 and on the 24th of the same month it arrived in Arica, where the adhesion of the Peruvians was expected, however, they were disinterested in the cause. Then, the commander went to Islay and began the landing there and marched towards the city of Arequipa where he was not very well received by the people and was surrounded by the army of Santa Cruz that amounted to approximately 5,000 men. In this situation, Santa Cruz entered into negotiations with Blanco Encalada to avoid bloodshed, sending Generals Ramón Herrera and Anselmo Quiroz. In these negotiations, he with the nobility of the ancient knight, proposed to Santa Cruz a combat or duel between chosen troops, of equal and reduced number for each army, but it was not accepted by the protector.
Finally, due to the failures and logistical losses suffered that prevented him from facing the superior army of the confederation in good conditions, he signed on November 17, in mutual agreement with Santa Cruz and due to the Americanism and friendship of both chiefs, the Treaty of Paucarpata in which peace was agreed between Chile and the Confederation and demanded a series of conditions that the Chileans requested as a guarantee from their country and the forces in the campaign. Subsequently, this agreement was ignored by the Chilean government since Blanco Encalada was not able to reach agreements other than those established by his government.
Blanco Encalada's experience in the war was not at all gratifying. In enemy territory, his forces were in a numerical minority and decimated by epidemics and desertions, they had also been misinformed of the situation in Peru, since the population in general did not favor the restoration expedition. Upon returning to Valparaíso with his forces, he resigned from command before a court martial on December 31 and was later subjected to a military trial from which he would finally be acquitted on August 20, 1838 when the reasons for not being declared in the sentence were declared. blamed, of which we can mention the difficulties that occurred in the expedition that were not within the reach of its commander, and that if he had not acted as he did in the final phase of the expedition, the expeditionary army would have been fruitlessly sacrificed.
Before the failure of the expedition, a second expedition was sent in mid-1838 under the command of General Manuel Bulnes who, after several actions, defeated Santa Cruz on January 20, 1839 in the battle of Yungay, achieving the dissolution of the confederation and the hegemony of Chile in the South Pacific.
Travels to Europe and their assignments in Chile
After his misfortune in the war, he withdrew from active service and in 1844 visited the main countries of Europe with his family, thanks to obtaining a temporary retirement on February 21. Being already 60 years old, he returned to Chile in 1846 soaked in all the progress of fashion, aedility and the social culture of that continent.
On June 25, 1847, he was appointed by the minister Manuel Camilo Vial, during the growing government of Manuel Bulnes, general commander of the navy and mayor of the port of Valparaíso. With this last position, he promoted various renovation works of public utility in the port, such as hospitals, improvement of street pavements, gas and drinking water contracts, and the first stone of the railway from Santiago to Valparaíso.
In 1851, when a liberal revolution broke out against the government of Manuel Montt, the vice admiral and mayor of Valparaíso Blanco Encalada personally participated in the quelling of a mutiny in the port on October 28 of that year. Once the revolution was defeated, he was appointed Minister of Chile in France before the court of Napoleon III, on January 27, 1853, as a reward for his services to the State. With this, he visited Europe for the fourth and last time with his family.
In France, he was closely linked by kinship and friendship with the most elite of the French nobility and also with the imperial family due to an old and close friendship that united him with the family of Empress Eugenia de Montijo, being the father of Empress Cipriano Palafox y Portocarrero, a companion of Blanco Encalada's in Spain during his youth. During his mission in France, his son Florencio married the Russian princess Olga Basilevna Trubetzkoy and his daughter Teresa married Francisco Echeverría Guzmán, the godparents of the latter couple being Napoleon III and his wife, Eugenia de Montijo.
In 1854 he was commissioned together with Rear Admiral Roberto Simpson to study the proposals and contracts for the construction of a warship in Europe. This ship, which would be a corvette, began to be built in December of that year in England, at the Enrique Pritcher shipyards, Northfleet, Kent County. Then, in June 1855, he was officiated at a special mission in Rome, before the Holy See to adjust a concordat on matters of religious freedom, but no agreement was reached.
On June 26, 1855, regarding the corvette that was being built in England, it was named with the legendary name of Esmeralda, in memory of the ship captured by Cochrane in the Callao roadstead, and it was given the motto of "Gloria y Victoria" that served as a watchword for the boarding division of the aforementioned action. The cost of the corvette was 217,461 pesos at the time, and on September 18 she was thrown into the water, being her godparents Blanco Encalada and Mrs. Tránsito Yrarrázabal de Guzmán. The ship sailed under the command of Simpson de Falmouth, arriving in Valparaíso on November 7, 1856. In that year, Blanco Encalada, thanks to his diplomatic skills to carry out his functions in Europe and his relationship with high-ranking figures of the time, was awarded by Queen Isabel II of Spain with the Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III.
After completing his ministry in France, he returned to Chile in June 1858 and the following year he acquired the farm of Apoquindo, in whose house he would remain for long periods of time. When he and his family returned from France, they had brought to Chilean society the "esprit" of the Second French Empire, expressed in their social activities. Also upon his return, he held several honorary positions in the country, the most prominent being that of senator in 1864, despite his advanced age of 74 years. He then had to voluntarily leave office due to the illness that afflicted him at the time and which did not allow him to take part in debates.
In the war against Spain
In 1865, due to the war against Spain, he offered his services to the country. This conflict originated the previous year, when the Spanish squadron under the command of Admiral Luis Hernández-Pinzón Álvarez seized the Chincha Islands of Peru after an incident at a hacienda in that country, where Spanish residents were affected. These islands were one of the main guano-producing centers of Peru. In Chile, as in other countries of Spanish America, this fact was considered an unjustified aggression by Spain, it was even feared that these events were the beginning of an adventure that sought to reconquer the former colonies. The Chilean government made the decision to deny all kinds of supplies to the Spanish squadron and to support Peru. This led the commander of the Spanish squadron, Vice Admiral José Manuel Pareja, who succeeded Pinzón and the Spanish minister in Chile, to demand that the Chilean government lift the restrictions on his squadron and give due satisfaction to Spanish honor, if it did not accept them, he would proceed with his squadron to blockade and harass the Chilean coasts.
These demands and threats would lead the Chilean government to declare war on Spain on September 24, despite the disadvantages faced by the Spanish naval forces since Chile at the beginning of the war only had two warships that They were the propeller corvette Esmeralda and the armed steamship Maipú. The Chilean government also formalized a military alliance with Peru, causing this country to join its naval forces with those of Chile to face the Spanish. In the same way, other countries of the continent were invited to form a South American alliance against the Spanish, responding to the call of Bolivia and Ecuador, which declared war on Spain at the beginning of 1866. Although these last two countries did not actively participate in military operations, its ports could not now be used to resupply the Spanish squadron.
Blanco Encalada, who had offered his services to the country, also directed with great energy the Society of the American Union, which rejected Spanish aggression. He because of this conflict would say:
“I am seventy-five years old, but I am willing to sacrifice the few days of grace that the sky reserves me, before I see the star of Chile emptied in that sea that their heroic children conquered. ”
The Chilean government had offered him a position, although not the one he wanted since he was left as a counselor. However, Blanco Encalada, in view of the lack, demanded an effective position to be able to fight in the war, so when an alliance was finally agreed with the Peruvian government of General Mariano Ignacio Prado Ochoa and when a treaty was signed on January 14, 1866, he was He gave command of the combined Chilean-Peruvian squadron on April 23, but he could not take command of this force immediately since the captain of the ship Juan Williams Rebolledo who temporarily exercised command of this allied squadron since before the appointment of Blanco Encalada, it was in the Huito cove awaiting the arrival of the Peruvian armored vehicles Huáscar and Independencia to balance the forces and openly confront the Spanish at sea.
With the withdrawal of the Spanish squadron under the command of Brigadier Casto Méndez Núñez (who succeeded Pareja due to his suicide due to the capture of Covadonga and the bad Spanish situation) after the bombardment of Valparaíso and the combat of Callao, Blanco Encalada he was able to embark in Valparaíso in the Peruvian corvette Unión and set sail for Chiloé where he met with the binational naval force and took effective command of them, returning with the entire fleet to Valparaíso to reconcentrate his forces and wait for the arrival of the two Peruvian armored vehicles. Once these armored vehicles arrived, offensive operations against the Spanish were expected to begin, but finally these government ideas ceased and later, in 1871, an armistice was reached with Spain.
His last mission and death
At the end of 1868, Congress issued the authorization for the repatriation of the remains of the liberator Bernardo O'Higgins who were buried in Lima. Blanco Encalada requested and was commissioned to preside over the commission of soldiers and officials who would go to Peru. Upon arriving at that place, he received a very good reception from the Peruvian authorities who held him in high esteem for being one of the men who fought for the independence of their country and for his good record.
The Chilean ships that participated in the repatriation directed by Blanco Encalada were the war corvettes Esmeralda, Chacabuco and O'Higgins, the latter being the flagship. With all the honors of the case completed, the ships set sail from the port of Callao escorted by two Peruvian ships, the monitor Huáscar and the propeller frigate Apurimac. They were joined by French, English and North American ships. Finally the convoy arrived in Valparaíso on January 11, 1869, escorted by the Peruvian frigate Independencia. Back in Chile, Blanco Encalada would deliver the official speech at O'Higgins' funeral, on February 13.
Finally, after a long period of service on September 5, 1876 in Santiago, Vice Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada died at the age of 86, having achieved throughout his life to be a sailor, military, politician, diplomat, first president of the republic and head of the first national squad.
Acknowledgment
Monuments
In Valparaíso, as a tribute to this hero, a monument was inaugurated in October 1917, which is the work of the famous Spanish sculptor Antonio Coll y Pi.
Naval Units
.jpg)
The Chilean Navy has also honored this sailor by naming various naval units after him over the years to remember him. The first of the ships was named after him just 10 days after his death, changing the name of the armored frigate from Valparaíso to Blanco Encalada. This ship would later participate in the War of the Pacific and would be present in the victory in Angamos on October 8, 1879, in which the Peruvian monitor Huáscar was captured, and would later participate in the civil war in 1891., where it would be sunk on April 23 in the Caldera combat. She would be the first warship in the world to be sunk by a self-propelled torpedo.
The second ship to bear his name was a protected cruiser that was ordered built in 1892, to replace the aforementioned armored frigate. She served as a training ship, a station ship in Magallanes and as an Artillery School. She was decommissioned in 1940. The third was an American Fletcher-class destroyer delivered to the Chilean navy in 1962, and was decommissioned on June 8, 1982. The fourth ship in the navy to bear the name of Blanco Encalada was a destroyer helicopter carrier purchased from England on September 7, 1987. With more than 450 crew members, it was the flagship of the squadron until December 12, 2003, the year it was withdrawn from service.
Currently the ship named after the admiral is a Karel Doorman Class frigate purchased from the Netherlands and transferred to the Chilean Navy at the Den Helder naval base on December 16, 2005, as the frigate Almirante Blanco Encalada (FFG-15), this ship being part of the Puente II modernization project that envisioned obtaining 8 frigates for the navy.
Odonyms
As a way of honoring the memory of Admiral Blanco Encalada, in several Chilean cities - Santiago, Talcahuano, Quilpué, San Antonio, Quillota - he is remembered with the names of streets and avenues.
Others
- Logia."Manuel Blanco Encalada"No. 84 of the city of Santiago (Gran Logia de Chile)
Distinctions and decorations
Nationals
Official of the Mexican Legion of Chile (
Chile).
Foreign
Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (
Spain, 3 June 1856).
.svg){kind=small}
Electoral history
Chilean presidential election of 1826
- Interim Presidential Election of 1826
| Candidate | Covenant | Votes | % | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manuel Blanco Encalada | Indep. Pro-Bando Pipiolo | 22 | 57.89% | Chairman |
| José Miguel Infante | Bando Federalista | 15 | 39.47% | |
| Casiano Arce Vásquez | Indep. | 1 | 2.63% |
Contenido relacionado
Wesley-clark
Bolivian Politics
Cliometrics