Miguel Grau
Miguel María Grau Seminario (Piura, July 27, 1834-Punta Angamos, Mejillones, October 8, 1879) was a Peruvian military and political sailor, and posthumous Grand Admiral of the Navy of Peruvian War. During the Pacific War, he commanded the Huáscar monitor and kept the Chilean squadron at bay for six months, finally succumbing heroically in the naval combat of Angamos, faced with far superior forces. He is considered the "maximum hero of Peru." His generosity to the enemy on the battlefield earned him the nickname "Knight of the Seas." After a contest he was the winner of the title of “The Peruvian of the millennium.” He was part of the Seminario family of great historical importance in the department of Piura during the 19th century.
He was the son of Colonel Juan Manuel Grau Berrío from Gran Colombia (Peruvian national) and Peruvian lady Luisa Seminario del Castillo. He was born in Piura, but it was in the port of Paita where he lived a large part of his childhood and where he forged his seafaring vocation. At the age of nine he embarked as an apprentice cabin boy on the merchant ship Tescua. For ten years he sailed on different ships and visited different ports in Asia, the United States and Europe.
In 1854, he entered the Peruvian Navy as a midshipman. In 1856, with the rank of frigate lieutenant, he went on to serve on board the frigate Apurímac , fully integrating into the officer corps of the navy. He joined the conservative revolution led by Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco and participated in the attack on Callao in 1857.
After the Vivanquista revolution was defeated in 1858, Grau was expelled from the Navy, so he had to return to the merchant marine. In 1863, the Amnesty Law was proclaimed for the officers and members of the army and the navy, who participated in the vivanquista revolution of 1858. Grau presented the request for his reinstatement, and he was readmitted to the naval service as a second lieutenant. Shortly after, already as a first lieutenant, he was sent to England, commissioned to negotiate the purchase of naval units and supervise their construction. Back in Peru, he joined the restoration revolution of Mariano Ignacio Prado, and was promoted to captain of the frigate (1865). During the war against Spain, he acted in the combat of Abtao, in command of the corvette Union (1866).
He was in Valparaíso, with the Peruvian squadron, when, along with other sailors, he protested against the Peruvian government's decision to hire American Commodore John R. Tucker as commander of the Peruvian navy on a planned naval expedition to liberate Philippines under Spanish rule. Accused of insubordination, he was confined on San Lorenzo Island, where he was put on trial, to finally be declared innocent. For the third time, he returned to the merchant navy, working for an English company (1867). That same year he married the Lima lady Dolores Cabero y Núñez, from whose union ten children were born.
At the beginning of 1868, he was reincorporated into the naval service as commander of the Huáscar monitor, being promoted shortly after to the rank of ship captain. He signed, along with other sailors, a proclamation against the revolutionary coup of the Gutiérrez brothers (1872).
In 1873, under the command of the Huáscar, he made a cruise through southern Peru and the Bolivian coast, when there was a threat of an armed conflict between Chile and Bolivia over territorial issues. In 1874 he was commander of the Evolutions Squad, touring the Peruvian coast between Callao and Iquique, and collaborating in the debunking of the coup attempt by caudillo Nicolás de Piérola.
In 1875, he was elected deputy for the province of Paita, for the Civil Party, a parliamentary work that he temporarily interrupted to exercise the General Command of the Navy, between 1877 and 1878. In that capacity, he submitted to the National Congress a detailed report on the deficient state of the warships and the shortcomings of the Navy, formulating judgments that were a true warning, a year before the outbreak of the war with Chile.
When the Pacific War broke out on April 5, 1879, Grau resumed command of the Huáscar, to the detriment of the armored frigate "Independencia", which was then the flagship of the Peruvian National Navy, as it is considered a warship with the greatest firepower in Peru. Miguel Grau was appointed head of the first naval division, beginning his campaign in the month of May. During the following five months, he developed an intense activity, keeping the Chilean fleet in check. He won the Iquique naval combat on May 21, 1879, sinking the corvette Esmeralda and earned unanimous respect for his humanitarian action in rescuing the Chilean shipwrecked.
In the following months, Grau carried out several incursions into Chilean-controlled waters, attacking by surprise and harassing Chilean lines of communication, bombarding military installations in its main ports. He was promoted to the high class of rear admiral, reclining this high honor, because this position would take him away from combat and the defense of his homeland, having to direct naval actions from the offices, Miguel Grau continued with his rank of Navy Captain until his immolation in the Combate de Angamos. Thus, on October 8, 1879, facing Punta Angamos, the Huáscar was surrounded by two enemy divisions, engaging in an unequal combat. Grau died in the first minutes of the fight, due to the effects of a grenade fired by the battleship Cochrane , which destroyed his body. His officers and sailors continued the fight, until they were killed or put out of action. Only with the elimination of Grau and the Huáscar, which had acted as a true mobile wall of Peru, were the Chileans able to start the land campaign.
His remains, initially buried in Santiago de Chile, were repatriated in 1890 and transferred to the Crypt of Heroes in 1908. In 1946 he was posthumously promoted to the rank of admiral. As a former congressman, he retains a permanent seat in the Congress of the Republic of Peru.
Early Years
Birth
Miguel María Grau Seminario was born in the city of San Miguel de Piura, in a large house on Mercaderes Street, today Tacna No. 662. He was baptized on September 3, 1834, in the parish of San Miguel, by the priest Santiago Angeldonis, being his godparents Manuel Ansoátegui and Rafaela Angeldonis. His departure was registered with the number 953, in the respective book. It is stated in said document that at the time of his baptism he was "one month and seven days old", so it has been determined that his birth was on July 27, 1834.
However, in the port city of Paita the belief that Miguel Grau was born in that port is deeply rooted, although only a series of scattered and speculative indications have been given as support, but never a probative document. Sullana has also been postulated as another presumed place of his birth. Defenders of Paita as the hero's cradle say, for example, that the baptismal certificate only corroborates the place where he was baptized, but not that of his birth; that Grau was elected deputy for the province of Paita, and not for that of Piura; and that, when Grau, in his service record or in his marriage certificate, notes that he was born in Piura, they assume that he is only alluding to the department, but not to the city; among other speculations of this nature. In response, the historian Miguel Seminario Ojeda points out that, if he was born in Paita or Sullana, his baptismal certificate must have included the clause ex parroquia license (that is, baptized with a license from his parish, whether that of Paita or that of Sullana, as the case may be). In addition, this same historian, investigating in the archives, located the census carried out in Piura in 1840, where the Grau family (the father and his four children), where Miguel appears with the number 228, and as born in the city of Piura. Regarding the deputation for the province of Paita (which Grau won in 1876), it should be noted that, according to According to the Constitution in force at that time (the one of 1860, article 47), it was not a mandatory requirement that the candidate had been born in the province to which he was applying, but it was enough to be from the department in general (in this case, that of Piura, erected in 1861). It is certainly understandable the affection that Grau had for Paita, since it was in that port where he forged his vocation as a sailor, which would mark his entire existence.
His parents were Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Grau Berrío, a Gran Colombian (later nationalized Peruvian), a native of Cartagena de Indias, who arrived in Peru as part of the army of Libertador Bolívar; and María Luisa Seminario y del Castillo, Piurana by birth, daughter of the ordinary provincial mayor of Piura. He was the third of four brothers; the oldest were called Enrique Federico and María Dolores Ruperta; and the youngest, Ana Joaquina Jerónima del Rosario. The union of her parents was extramarital, since María Luisa was married to the Colombian captain Pío Díaz (who was in her country of origin at the time), with whom she had three legitimate children.: Roberto, Emilio and Balbina. It should be noted that, in the hero's baptismal certificate, the name of María Luisa Seminario does not appear like that of his mother, but that of Josefa Castillo, which has led to some speculation about his true affiliation; In this regard, it has been suggested that Luisa Seminario should have used the name of Josefa Castillo to hide hers, since she wanted to keep her relationship with Juan Manuel Grau hidden. Following the custom of the time, Miguel Grau never used or mentioned his second surname (Seminario), and it only appears on his marriage certificate, when he mentions Luisa Seminario as his mother (1867).
At that time, Peru was experiencing a time of instability and political intrigues that caused uprisings and attempted coups. The country had just emerged from the first civil war in its republican history (January-April 1834). In 1836 the war broke out for the establishment of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which exalted Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz as protector of said geopolitical entity; and after a brief period of calm, the war between restorers and confederates arose, which culminated in the triumph of the former in the battle of Yungay (1839). The Restoration took place then in Peru, assuming the power the marshal Agustín Gamarra.
Childhood
When the war between Peru and Bolivia broke out in 1841, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Grau Berrío (Miguel Grau's father), then retired from service and dedicated to commerce, judged that he should return to the Peruvian army to defend his second homeland. He wrote to Lima to his old boss and friend, General Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente, former Vice President of Peru. The response was favorable and in July 1842, Grau's father joined the secretary of said general, who assigned him to Ayacucho.
In June 1842 peace was celebrated with Bolivia, but once again, civil war and anarchy broke out in Peru. In November 1842, the new president of Peru, General Francisco de Vidal, appointed Juan Manuel Grau, customs officer in Paita, a port closely linked to the city of Piura. It was then, in 1842, when Miguel Grau began to live in Paita, along with his father and his three brothers, but without his mother, who remained in Piura:
Juan Manuel Grau's life with his children in the port of Paita is not simple, especially because of the absence of the mother and the lack of a home with an environment conducive to the formation of children. We have no further information on how the daily life of this incomplete family takes place in the port of Paita; in any case, it may be thought that the link between the father and the children is strengthened, and specifically the affective relationship between the father and Michael... From another angle, this time serves to stimulate in the child Michael the skills for marine life. Paita is an announcement of sea affairs. The delivery of Grau to the marine, which covers its entire existence, has in Paita its central and enabling environment.
The Grau house was located in the lower part of the city, which at that time had just over 5,000 inhabitants, but which had already seen the birth of great Peruvian heroes such as the brothers Manuel and Raymundo Cárcamo, who fought in the battle of Dos de Mayo. The La Haza family is also worth mentioning, from which many prominent sailors came (among them, the brothers José, Diego, Ciríaco, Manuel, Pedro and Antonio de la Haza Rodríguez).
First contacts with the sea
In Paita civil maritime activity was great. All the ships that did the traffic between Panama and Callao touched in its roadstead. The nautical school founded by President Agustín Gamarra in 1843, intended to train civilian pilots, operated in the port. Little Miguel, who was only eight years old, was fascinated by the immensity of the ocean. His naval vocation began to awaken from that moment on.
Miguel Grau followed the first years of his school training in Paita. The boy, clever and resolute, had been brought up harshly by his father to temper his character and sharpen his will.
Attracted by maritime life, Miguel, who was only nine years old, obtained his father's permission in March 1843 to embark on the Tescua, a civil navy brig dedicated to cabotage between Paita and other ports of the Peruvian coast and of the countries of the north up to Panama. The captain of the ship was Manuel Francisco Herrera, a compatriot and great friend of Juan Manuel Grau. It was the starting point of Miguel's nautical career, but it was unexpectedly cut short. The ship was wrecked off Gorgona Island and the would-be cabin boy was miraculously saved, having to return to home and school life in Paita.
In 1844, Grau once again obtained his father's authorization to embark. This time his marine career was definitively on track, sailing on different ships, sometimes with transitory returns to the homeland. On these trips he visited all the seas and the most important ports in the world, traveling through the Far East, Europe and North America, as well as such as the coasts of South America on several occasions. Grau himself has left a concise account of these trips, which took place between March 1843 and August 1853.
During the voyages he made in the merchant marine, Grau trained in the science and art of navigation and began to learn the English language. Embarked in Paita as an aspiring cabin boy in 1843, he returned to Peru in 1853, become a first class pilot. He was 19 years old; he had traveled for ten years, in twelve different ships, by various and distant courses, although with brief intervals of stay on land.
His years in the Peruvian Navy
Midshipman
He settled in Lima, with a view to joining the Peruvian Navy. His brother Enrique Grau Seminario, who had also served in the merchant navy, had the same vocation. The father requested the incorporation of his two sons into the Navy, through a request signed in Lima, on August 18, 1853, since they were still minors. Meanwhile, Miguel enrolled as a free student at the poet's school Fernando Velarde, where he was until his entry into the Navy was verified, the same one that occurred on March 14, 1854, as a midshipman. General José Rufino Echenique ruled Peru at that time.
By then, the Peruvian Navy had increased and become more professional, under the encouragement of President Ramón Castilla (first government, 1845-1851), a ruler who was very concerned that his country had marine hegemony in South America. The Peruvian navy had its first steamship, the Rímac, built in New York, weighing 1,300 tons and armed with four cannons; the frigate Mercedes, the brigantines Guise and Gamarra and the schooners Peruana and Héctor. Castilla also acquired the frigate Amazonas, of 1,300 tons and 33 guns, which arrived in the government of his successor, José Rufino Echenique (1851-1856). This continued the policy of strengthening naval power with the acquisition in England of the mixed frigate Apurímac and the schooners Loa and Tumbes.
Midshipman Grau served successively on the steamer Rímac (6 months and 18 days, from April to September 1854); the pailebot Watchman (10 months and 21 days, from October 1854 to November 1855); and the steamer Ucayali (4 months and 12 days, from December 1855 to February 1856).
The Guardiamarina Miguel Grau efficiently carries out its obligations. It stands out among its companions as excellent practical and true knowledgeer of everything related to navigation. It also has the best attributes of the marine expert. He is a frank, sincere man of reposed temperament, with the tranquility of his own sufficiency, competent and skillful, courageous, determined and energetic. It is also distinguished by its reflective, austere moral character and acendrados religious principles.Geraldo Arosemena Garland
While on duty at the Vigilante, Grau had his first particularly harsh experience. It happened on June 10, 1855, when he was sailing towards Paita, between Máncora and Punta Sal, with a somewhat restless sea and cloudy skies: the naval candidate Manuel Bonilla fell into the water from the top of the command tower, and Grau, who was the officer of the watch, ordered the ship to stop immediately and search for the castaway. After three hours of fruitless effort, he called off the search. In the report that he passed that same day to the commander of the ship, the frigate captain Emilio Díaz Seminario (who was his half-brother), gave an account of the event, stating that "all his efforts were useless, since the aforementioned pilotin I didn't know how to swim."
At that time, Ramón Castilla returned to power, after defeating General José Rufino Echenique in the battle of La Palma, on January 5, 1855.
Frigate Ensign
On March 4, 1856, Grau received his first promotion, as frigate lieutenant, and formally joined the officer corps of the Navy. He was assigned to the Apurímac , the best ship in the squadron, which was under the command of Captain José María Salcedo (a native of Chile), and whose second commander was Lieutenant Emilio Díaz Seminario (brother Grau's mother).
Grau was in the south, aboard the Apurímac, when the revolution broke out in Arequipa on November 10, 1856, in favor of General Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco, former president and bitter rival of the President Castilla. The insurrection was of a conservative tendency, opposed to the liberal Constitution (promulgated the previous month) and to all liberal reforms, especially those of an anti-clerical nature.
The Vivanco movement spread throughout Moquegua. Soon, the Navy joined the rebels. The uprising aboard the Apurímac occurred in the Arica roadstead on November 16, 1856, fueled by Second Lieutenant Lizardo Montero Flores, a sailor who was highly inclined to politics. It is likely that Grau joined the rebellion under the influence of Montero, who was his friend and countryman. The Apurímac was joined shortly after by the Tumbes, the Loa, the Guise and the Izcuchaca i>.
In an official document dated November 20, 1856 in Arica, the commander of the Apurímac, José María Salcedo, informed the General Command of the Navy, recounting the details of the rebellion and mentioning the frigate lieutenant Miguel Grau as one of those who seconded her. The first actions of the rebels were to release the political prisoners who were in the Caupolicán and Highlander pontoons, and proclaim General Vivanco supreme regenerator of the Republic.
The revolution took on the characteristics of a civil war, one of the longest and bloodiest in Peruvian republican history. The Vivanquista squadron arrived in front of Callao in January 1857. The Apurímac remained there, in a kind of blockade of the port, while the rest of the squadron continued north, to encourage the citizens to get up. The vivanquistas took Trujillo and then Chiclayo, but, pursued by Castilla, they continued further north, to embark in Paita and fall in Callao on April 22, where they fought bitterly in the streets of the port. Defeated Vivanco, he withdrew to the south and entrenched himself in Arequipa, a city that resisted a long siege, to finally be bloodily taken, between March 5 and 6, 1858. Thus the civil war ended, with the triumph of the government forces.
One after another, the rebel ships surrendered. The last to surrender was the frigate Apurímac, which anchored in Callao on March 25, 1858 and made itself available to the Government. The mutinous sailors were separated from active service and erased from the official ranks.
Return to civilian life
Separation from service. Again in the merchant navy
Separated from the Navy, Miguel Grau returned to the merchant navy. From April 1859 to March 1862 he served on the schooner brig María Cristina, owned by José Antonio García y García, with which he sailed between the Peruvian ports, up to Guayaquil, in the north. In March 1862, he assumed command of the brig Apurímac, with which he made trips from Callao to Lambayeque, Paita and Guayaquil, the last one carried out on that route in September 1862, before setting sail. to Polynesia.
The purpose of the trip to Polynesia was to bring cheap labor under contract to Peru, which was scarce after the abolition of slavery given by Castilla in 1854. Miguel Grau did not participate in this business, but was only the captain of the ship contracted for such work. He left Callao at the end of September 1862, making a normal journey, until, upon reaching Humphrey Island, he suffered a strong storm that ran the ship aground (November 12, 1862). Grau and his crew saved themselves with great efforts, taking refuge on the island, being hospitably received by its inhabitants. A few days later they were picked up by the brig Trujillo, aboard which they returned to Peru. It is noteworthy that Grau was unable to bring any Kanaca or Polynesian, due to the loss of his ship. Other colleagues of his did achieve this objective, not hesitating to use deception and kidnapping to cover their quotas. The islanders, men and women, were made to sign work documents and then shipped them and brought them to Peru where said contract was not respected and in practice they became slaves. To contextualize this episode, it is worth knowing that this Polynesian immigration project sponsored by the Peruvian government lasted only seven months; During all that time, 33 vessels participated, including 27 Peruvians, 4 Chileans, one Spanish and one from Tasmania. They made 38 trips and transported 3,634 people. The project concluded on April 28, 1863, by decision of the Peruvian government itself, which suspended the licenses granted and approved the repatriation of the survivors to their place of origin.
While Grau was sailing on merchant ships, Peru and Ecuador faced a conflict (1858-1860), which culminated when President Castilla occupied Guayaquil and entered into the Treaty of Mapasingue with the local government. Domestically, Castilla convened a Constituent Congress that issued, in November 1860, the moderate Constitution of 1860, which suppressed some of the liberal reforms of the previous Charter of 1856. This Constitution governed Peru, except for brief interruptions, until 1920.
Reincorporation into the Navy
On April 11, 1861, the Congress of the Republic issued the «law of reparation for those separated or indefinite from military service», which ordered those deleted after the triumph of the 1854-1855 revolution to be re-registered in the ranks. By another law issued on May 25, 1861, the "Generals, Chiefs and Officers, who, whether or not they were in service, took part in the revolution that ended in 1858" were included in the effects of that law. Among the beneficiaries of this last law was Miguel Grau, who by appeal dated December 6, 1861, requested that the benefits that corresponded to him be declared indefinite. On April 24, 1862, his request was resolved favorably, ordering the registration of the "Frigate lieutenant Miguel Grau" in the "General Escalafon of the Navy" with "7 years and 27 days of service" and, at the same time, he was issued "indefinite leave certificate".
In this way, Grau solved his situation in the Navy, remaining as an officer with indefinite leave. Meanwhile, pending his reinstatement to active duty, he continued in the merchant marine. At that time, he concluded the second government of Castilla, which on October 24, 1862 gave way to the government of Marshal Miguel de San Román. In November of that year, Grau was on the aforementioned trip to Polynesia. After the shipwreck of his ship, he returned to Peru, arriving in Callao at the beginning of 1863. He presented a detailed report of his frustrated trip to the port captain, according to the newspaper El Comercio de Lima, dated January 7, 1863.
Shortly thereafter, changes occurred in the government. President San Román died on April 4, 1863, being temporarily replaced by the second vice president, General Pedro Díez-Canseco, until August 5 of that year, when the first vice president, General Juan Antonio Pezet, returned from Europe. The following month, Grau returned to active service in the Navy and was promoted to second lieutenant (September 13, 1863), being assigned to the crew of the steamer Lerzundi. Shortly thereafter he was promoted to graduate first lieutenant (December 4, 1863).
On commission to Europe
Grau remained aboard the Lerzundi four months and two days, time in which he strengthened a enduring friendship with the ship's commander, Corvette captain Aurelio García and García. Both bosses had suddenly suspend their services on board and travel to Europe, commissioned by the Government to negotiate the acquisition of modern naval units. This, because it urged to reinforce the national squad, before the alarm unleashed by the presence of the Spanish Pacific squad, which camouflaged under the name of scientific expedition, crossed the Peruvian coast threatening since July of the previous year. The Talambo incident, which occurred in August, in which a Spanish worker died, was the excuse for the Spaniards, protected by the cannons of their squad, insisted on establishing negotiations with the Peruvian government to receive satisfaction for alleged grievances.
Grau and Garcia departed from Callao on January 12, 1864. Days before, on January 8, the effectiveness of the degree of lieutenant first was granted. In February, both sailors were already in London, point central of the negotiations that should be carried out. Immediately, they made contact with authorities and naval construction companies. The negotiations had positive results. On March 30, 1864, it was signed in London, with the House J. A. Samuda & Amp; Brothers, the construction of the frigate Independence , whose cost was stipulated in 108,000 pounds sterling. The signatories for Peru were the Consul, Enrique Kendall, and the captain of Frigate Aurelio García and García.
On August 12, 1864, Peru admitted the proposal of the Birkenhead House Laird, in front of Liverpool, to build a solid ship with Bergantin rig. That other armored one was the Huáscar monitor, whose construction was monitored by the ship's captain José María Salcedo and the captain of Corvette Aurelio García y García.
Meanwhile, in Peru the conflict with Spain is aggravated. The Peruvian government refused to receive Eusebio Salazar and Mazarredo as extraordinary commissioner sent by the Spanish Court, because Peru was no longer a colony of Spain. In response, on April 14, 1864, the Spanish Pacific squad occupied the Chincha Islands (producers of the Peruvian Guano), unleashing a serious international incident. President Pezet appealed to diplomacy to solve the conflict, which was nothing but a way to gain time to properly assemble Peru. So it was necessary to expedite war acquisitions in Europe.
In effect, the Peruvian Government appointed Federico L. Barreda (before Paris and London), who acting with great speed and efficiency, managed to close the purchase contract on two French corvettes that had been built on request by order of the United States government during the secession war, but, not being canceled, they were seized and put in auction. It was the corvettes Shangay (it is in Saint Nazaire) and San Francisco (it is in Nantes). Once the purchase was formalized, they were renamed, calling them Unión and America, respectively. The corvettes went to Power of Peru between November and December 1864 and immediately prepared to leave for their new destination. In this regard, in the correspondence of Barreda Miguel Grau and Aurelio García and García are mentioned as the officers responsible for inspecting the ships, and whose reports decided to buy them.
Grau, appointed commander of the Unión , went immediately to Saint-Nazaire and took over the ship on December 15, 1864. For his part, the corvette captain Juan Pardo de Zela Urizar took over the command of the America .
Arrest in England
The corvette Union, under the command of Grau, left Saint-Nazaire flying the Peruvian flag on December 18, 1864, and anchored in the Thames on the 22nd of that month. Continuing her journey, she touched Greenhithe and on January 17, 1865, she was already in Plymouth. It is here where Grau was arrested by order of the British authorities, on suspicion of having violated the law that regulated the recruitment of personnel for the service of ships. The one that issued the arrest warrant was the Dartford court, in Kent County, where the detainee was transferred. The second commander of the Union , Lieutenant Felipe Pardo, addressed a note to Minister Barreda reporting the incident, which occurred when Grau was leaving the house of the chief admiral of the Plymouth station, whom he had just greet.
Informed of the event, Barreda, who was in Paris, went to London entrusting the defense of Grau to the British lawyer Tilfourd Slater, whom he asked to appear before the Dartford court to demand that Grau be released without conditions. For his part, Barreda addressed British Foreign Minister John Russell, a note of protest against Grau's arbitrary imprisonment, demanding his immediate release.
On January 20, lawyer Slater arrived in Dartford, where he found Grau imprisoned, learning that everything had originated when two workers, hired to work as coalmen aboard the Union, They had complained of mistreatment. During the hearing, it was revealed that Grau had fired these two workers for insubordination. After the trial was aired and the protest of the Government of Peru for the outrage committed was established, the judge expressed that "he found the testimony insufficient for the formation of a cause" and declared "that there was no place for detention", for which he ordered the immediate release from Grau. The Peruvian commander's prison had only lasted 48 hours.
Now it is known that behind this incident was the hidden management of Spanish diplomacy, which tried at all costs to prevent the arrival at their destination of the warships acquired by Peru, at a time when the Peruvian conflict was worsening- Spanish in Peruvian waters. This is confirmed by a confidential communication from the Spanish legation in London addressed to the first Spanish Secretary of State, dated January 19, 1865. There the Spanish diplomat clearly says to his superior that the arrest of the Peruvian commander in Plymouth was the "result of the indirect and reserved efforts that he had made with the authorization of Your Excellency."
Grau, in a letter dated January 23, 1865 and addressed to Barreda, explained all the incidents that occurred around his arrest. After the incident was resolved, Grau continued his trip to Peru.
The restoration revolution
While in Europe the representatives of the Peruvian government managed and expedited the purchases of ships and weapons, in Lima the impasse that arose from the Spanish occupation of the Chincha islands was negotiated diplomatically. Finally, on January 27, 1865, General Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco, as representative of President Pezet, concluded with the Spanish admiral José Manuel Pareja the so-called Vivanco-Pareja Treaty, by which Peru, although it recovered the islands Chincha, promised to pay three million pesos as compensation for the expenses of the Spanish squad. The agreement was rejected by a majority sector of the Peruvian citizenry who considered it humiliating and contrary to the interests of the country. Nor was it approved by Congress. On February 28, 1865, the restoration revolution led by Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado broke out in Arequipa. Another of the revolutionary leaders was General Pedro Díez-Canseco, in his capacity as second vice-president of Peru. They were soon supported from the north by Colonel José Balta. Part of the army, under the command of the frigate captain Lizardo Montero also joined the revolution.
Meanwhile, Grau, in command of the Union, left the United Kingdom on February 5, 1865. He was accompanied by America, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Juan Pardo de Zela Urizar. Of the 147 men that made up the Union crew, only four were Peruvians: Commander Grau; Lieutenant Felipe Pardo y Lavalle (brother of Manuel Pardo y Lavalle), who was second in command; and midshipmen Ricardo Vera and José Correa. The rest were British.
On February 15, Peruvian corvettes touched Funchal (Madeira Island) and on February 20 Cape Verde. On March 6 they arrived in Rio de Janeiro, where Grau dedicated himself to repairing the Union machine that had suffered damage on the journey. On March 26, the Union and the America left in convoy but, the next day, after sailing more than 100 miles, they were surprised by a furious storm. The Unión suffered serious damage to its aloft, for which reason it had to be towed by the América , back to Rio de Janeiro. There, due to the difficulties caused by the rains, the Union repairs were extended for two months, so the America chose to continue the journey alone.
Finally, on June 6, Grau and the Union put to sea; a month later, on July 6, she anchored in Valparaíso. Two months earlier, on March 31, President Pezet had promoted Grau to the rank of lieutenant captain. Learning of the civil war that had broken out in Peru, Grau announced his intention to join Prado's revolutionary forces. His elderly father, Juan Manuel Grau, traveled to Chile with the sole purpose of delivering a personal message from President Pezet., in which he asked him to remain loyal to the constitutional regime. But Grau, faithful to his political convictions, kindly refused the request, and at the command of the Union joined the rebel squad, which was commanded by his friend and countryman Lizardo Montero. Juan Manuel Grau, who was ill, died a few months later, while still in Valparaíso, on November 30, 1865.
Grau, as commander of the Union, supported the revolutionary forces that were fighting on land from the sea. He patrolled the coasts, moved troops, watched ports, transmitted reports, among other various commissions. In the midst of the revolution, on July 22, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of frigate captain by the second vice president of the Republic, General Pedro Díez-Canseco, who was at that time in the central highlands, along with Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado, after dominating the entire south. In the report written by Miguel Grau himself and submitted to the General Command of the Navy on October 5, 1865, while at anchor in the Chinchano port of Tambo de Mora, he record a statement of said promotion.
The government of Lima, for its part, dismissed Grau, along with other leaders and officers who had joined the revolution (August 16).
The development of the civil war leaned in favor of the revolutionaries. Colonel Balta won the north of the country, from where a large number of troops left to unite with the revolutionaries in the south in Chincha and jointly undertake the advance on the capital. The revolutionary armies entered Lima on November 6 and forced Pezet's forces to capitulate. After a short government in Lima by General Pedro Díez-Canseco, the dictatorship was installed, headed by Colonel Mariano Ignacio Prado, the leader of the triumphant revolution (November 26). The country headed firmly and surely towards war with Spain. On December 5, Peru signed an offensive and defensive alliance treaty with Chile (which had been at war with Spain since October 6), to which Bolivia and Ecuador later adhered. On January 14, 1866, Peru declared war on Spain.
Spanish-South American War
On the eve of the declaration of war on Spain, the Peruvian government hastened the formation of a naval division, under the command of captain Manuel Villar Olivera and made up of the frigates Amazonas and Apurímac and the corvettes Unión and América, recently arrived from Europe. Grau continued as commander of the Union, while Commander Manuel Ferreyros was commander of América.
At the end of December 1865, the Peruvian fleet sailed south to join the Chilean squadron, made up of the Esmeralda and the Covadonga, the latter recently captured at the Spanish. The mission of the Peruvian squadron was to go to the Strait of Magellan, where it was to stand guard awaiting the arrival of the recently built Peruvian armored ships Independencia and Huáscar, which came from Europe, under the command of commanders Aurelio García y García and José María Salcedo, respectively.
On January 15, 1866, at the Chayahué station, sheltered from the island of Abtao in Chiloé, the Peruvian and Chilean fleets joined. The Peruvian naval division suffered a significant loss when the frigate Amazonas ran aground on a sandy shoal off Abtao.
On February 7, the two most powerful ships of the Spanish squadron, the Villa de Madrid and Blanca, resolutely advanced towards Abtao, forming a battle line, secure to defeat the allied fleet, less powerful. The frigate Apurímac, commanded by Manuel Villar, opened fire, thus challenging the fearsome power of the Spanish cannons. The Peruvian ships, thanks to their lower draft, were able to maneuver more easily between the dangerous channels of Abtao and kept the Spanish ships at bay, so much so that they were forced to withdraw with some damage, after two hours of combat. Claudio Alvargonzález, commander of the Villa de Madrid, in the combat report, recognized the capacity of the Peruvian sailors, saying verbatim: «The most accurate shots, with the longest range and most effect were those of the two Peruvian corvettes América and Unión". For his part, Juan Williams Rebolledo, the head of the Chilean squadron (and at the same time of the entire allied fleet), congratulated Manuel Villar for the victory of Abtao.
After the battle at Abtao, the allied fleet passed to Huito, which had better defenses. The corvettes Unión and América left for the Strait of Magellan, in search of the Peruvian armored vehicles that came from Europe. But not finding them, they headed for Valparaíso, which days before had been bombarded by the Spanish fleet. The Union returned to Huito, where she stayed for two months, until on May 15 she left for Valparaíso again. She then met with the rest of the allied fleet in Ancud, awaiting the arrival of the Independence and the Huáscar .
Meanwhile, the war continued. The Spanish fleet headed for the coasts of Peru, ready to punish Callao, as it did with Valparaíso. But the Peruvian port was prepared to respond to the attack. On May 2, 1866, the battle of Callao was fought, which in Peru is known as the battle of Dos de Mayo. After more than four hours of intense bombardment, the Spanish squadron definitively withdrew, without having fulfilled its objectives. In this combat, the Minister of War and Navy of Peru, José Gálvez, died.
Finally, the Independence and the Huáscar arrived on June 7, 1866 in Ancud. With the entire Peruvian fleet assembled, on June 11 they all left for Valparaíso, a port where they remained anchored for nearly two months, under the orders of the captain of the ship Lizardo Montero.
Arrest on the island of San Lorenzo
The government of Mariano Ignacio Prado, excited for victory over Spain, and having been reinforced the allied squad with two battles, projected a naval expedition to the Philippines to free it from the Spanish domain. But he made an unexpected decision: with the idea of giving greater solidity to the Naval Command, he hired the retired comptroller from the US Navy, John R. Tucker, who arrived in Valparaíso in early July 1866 and assumed the command of the squad, In replacement of Montero.
Peruvian bosses and officers, aware that a foreigner would be given the command of the squad, wrote to the Government of Lima protesting that decision, because he left aside many capable bosses capable and of recognized merits. They requested that Tucker's appointment be revoked or, failing that, that his resignations were accepted to the service. Among those sailors were Lizardo Montero, Miguel Grau, Aurelio García and García and Manuel Ferreyros. In response, the Government of Lima sent Valparaíso to the Secretary of Finance and Commerce, Manuel Pardo and Lavalle (future president of Peru), invested with broad powers to solve the incident.
Pardo departed aboard the transport of war Callao , where the bosses and officers of the Navy were also embarked to replace the resigners, in case they persisted in their attitude. These, indeed, remained firm in giving up their positions if Tucker was not revoked, Pardo sent them the following circular order, dated August 5, 1866:
May the chiefs, officers and guardmen be present within 24 hours on board the ships to which they will resign, through regular channels, those who would not wish to continue in the service. Those who do not comply with coming will be declared deserters of the army at the head of the enemy.
Then, he ordered the renouncing sailors to embark on the transport Callao , which had to transfer them to the Chalaco port. All of them obeyed and delivered the ships to the sailors coming aboard the same transport. Grau left the Union to the corvette captain Camilo N. Carrillo.
The resigning sailors arrived in Callao on August 15, being transferred to San Lorenzo Island, in front of Callao, as arrested. They were more than thirty. They were subjected to trial, accused of insubordination, desertion and betray port limits.
The trial lasted six months. On January 24, 1867, the bosses and officers arrested were taken from San Lorenzo Island to the port of Callao. The next day, the War Council, chaired by Marshal Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente and composed of the generals of Division, Manuel Martínez de Aparicio, and José Rufino Echenique and the Brigade Generals, Pedro Cisneros, Baltasar Caravedo,, Luis La Puerta and Nicolás Freire.
Grau had Luciano Benjamín Cisneros (brother of the poet Luis Benjamín Cisneros), conspicuous representative of the Lima Forum. The defense of Cisneros was very brilliant and was based on the fact that there was no insubordination, because Grau had complied with government orders by embarking on transport Callao ; that there was no rebellion, because he had not disobeyed orders but had only raised his resignation; And finally, that he could not be a deserter, because the government was the one who had separated him from his position. In addition, the fact of indiscipline was ruled out, having presented his request for resignation before Tucker took care of the squad command.
The defense of Cisneros, a jewel of the forensic oratory, contained the following moving words:
The sailors have not committed the slightest fault. If there is any, it will be the effect of a noble patriotism, but the exaggerations of patriotism are disguised, they are not punished... There is no crime, no criminals; there are only martyrs of conviction and duty that come to claim with perfect right, the right to be solemnly acquitted!
On February 9, 1867, the defenses ended and the Council went into secret session. On the 11th, the sentence was handed down and, by unanimous vote, all the defendants were declared innocent.
As for the projected liberation expedition to the Philippines, it did not come to fruition, mainly due to Chile's reluctance to commit to the plan. Rear Admiral John Tucker relinquished command of the squadron, receiving in exchange a commission to explore the rivers of the Peruvian Amazon jungle.
In the merchant navy again. Marriage
Replenished in his prerogatives and unscathed by his honor as a sailor, Grau requested a license from the General Command of the Navy, in an official letter dated March 30, 1867, to dedicate himself to the merchant marine "in the exercise of his naval profession." On April 2, the license was granted and, four days later, Grau requested permission to marry the Lima lady Dolores Cabero y Núñez, daughter of Pedro Cabero Valdivieso (member of the Higher Court of Accounts) and Luisa Núñez Navarro. Once the authorization was granted, the link was made in the parish of El Sagrario in Lima on April 12. General Miguel Medina and Mrs. Luisa Núñez de Cabero sponsored the wedding. The witnesses were three close friends of Grau, also sailors: Manuel Ferreyros, Aurelio García y García and Lizardo Montero. All this group of friends were already known as the Four Aces of the Navy, since it was common to see them chatting together.
Between 1867 and 1868, Grau dedicated himself to the merchant marine, commanding ships of the English Steamship Company, which plowed through the South American Pacific: first, the steamer Callao (whose command he assumed on May 1867, that is, the day after their marriage), and then the steamer Quito, ending its merchant activity on February 22, 1868. It was not common for a non-British sailor to assume the command of a ship of an English company. The English captains considered themselves the best in the world and their society was very closed; The fact that they accepted Grau was an indication that they held the nautical skills of the Peruvian sailor in very high regard. On the other hand, this merchant work allowed Grau to know the coast between Chile and Peru in detail.
Commander of the Huáscar monitor
While Grau was in the merchant navy, political changes took place in Peru. Mariano Ignacio Prado, whose dictatorship should only be temporary, wanted to remain in power and became constitutional president, proclaiming the Constitution of 1867. That same year a revolution broke out, led in the south by General Pedro Díez-Canseco and in the north by Colonel José Balta, in defense of the Constitution of 1860. After bloody battles, the revolutionary cause triumphed and Prado was forced to relinquish power. On January 22, 1868, General Pedro Díez-Canseco assumed the interim Presidency of the Republic for the third time, and it was under his mandate that Miguel Grau was called to rejoin the Navy.
On February 27, 1868, Grau was appointed commander of the Huáscar monitor, with the rank of frigate captain, a position in which he held for more than eight consecutive years and which he would only leave in 1876 when he joined Congress as deputy for Paita, to resume it later in 1879, at the beginning of the War of the Pacific. It was precisely while he was in command of the Huáscar, when Grau received his promotion to graduate ship captain on July 25, 1868, by decision of President Diez Canseco himself. He was only 34 years old.A week later, José Balta assumed the Constitutional Presidency of the Republic, and confirmed Grau in command of Huáscar . Grau and Balta were friends from a long time ago, from the days of the restoration revolution of 1865.
Grau already enjoyed international prestige, as a marine expert and a man of sound judgment, to such an extent that he was appointed arbitrator to rule on the responsibilities derived from a collision between two foreign warships, the British Glaid Maiden and the American Kit Carson. The newspaper El Comercio of Peru covered this event in its editions of November 5 and 12, 1868 and published Grau's ruling, which reads:
That the captains of both ships have had omissions and neglects in procedures and manoeuvres and have not acted with the right that they should; that although the damages resulting from the collision are reciprocal and greater that of one ship over the other, such damages are nonetheless attributable to one more than to the other captain; and that each one report his own faults for having been, reciprocally, causing the damages. And by this judgment, in justice, so I resolve, pronounce and sign, in Callao on November 10, 1868. Miguel Grau, Commander of Huáscar.
On January 26, 1869, Balta enacted the law of national gratitude to the winners of Dos de Mayo and Abtao. Grau, who participated in this last combat as commander of the Union, received the title of meritorious to the homeland in a heroic degree. The decoration was made of gold, enamelled, with the following inscription on the obverse: "he was one of my defenders"; and, on the back: "February 7, 1866" (date of Abtao's combat). On October 22 of that same year, Balta issued a resolution in which Grau was recognized as payment for his service time, the time he was sailing on merchant ships, adding three more years and five months in favor of he.
During the government of Balta, Grau was entrusted with various commissions, among them, the study of the hydrographic conditions of the Garita de Moche cove, where it was planned to open a new port, replacing the port of Huanchaco. also part of the commission in charge of the installation of lighthouses in fifteen points of the coast and presented, to the Advisory Board of the Navy, a project of internal Regulation of the ships of the squadron.
Grau was also concerned about the military training of the crew of the ship under his command, the monitor Huáscar, doing daily exercises.
In June 1870, Grau was commissioned to travel to Chile with his ship. He toured the southern ports of the Peruvian coast and the Bolivian coast, arriving in Valparaíso. The mission consisted of escorting the French brig Lucie, which was bringing a shipment of arms to Peru, acquired by the Balta government. He returned to Callao on July 27. While in Chile, he observed the warmongering atmosphere that existed in that republic and upon his return to Peru he gave personal reports about him to President Balta.
Balta was a president who was very concerned about the Navy. During his tenure, several ships of the squadron were repaired, and the boilers of the monitors Manco Cápac and Atahualpa, acquired by the government of Mariano Ignacio Prado, were retubed. These monitors, recently arrived in Peru in 1870, in tow from the United States, were designed for river navigation, so they were a poor acquisition and were only used as pontoons or floating batteries.
Upon learning that Chile had contracted the construction of two powerful armored ships in England, Balta met with his council of ministers on February 14, 1872 and agreed to contract in Europe the construction of two armored ships, more powerful than the Chileans, as well as two coast guard gunboats. Commander Manuel Ferreyros was commissioned to England to negotiate the contracting of the Peruvian armored vehicles. However, this operation was frustrated, when the Dreyfus House refused to provide the necessary funds, if the pending accounts that the Peruvian State had with it (which had contracted a series of loans with said House on account of the profit) were not settled beforehand. of guano, by the so-called Dreyfus contract). However, Balta, aware of the danger that Chile's naval superiority entailed, insisted on negotiations, until shortly before his tragic death. Although these continued, they no longer had the impulse that Balta had given them, being finally suspended by the government of his successor Manuel Pardo y Lavalle. From Balta's negotiations, only the acquisition of the two gunboats, which were the Chanchamayo, materialized. (wrecked in 1876 at Punta Aguja) and the Pilcomayo (which played an important role in the Pacific War).
The Gutiérrez revolution
In the general elections of 1872, Manuel Pardo y Lavalle, the first civilian president in the republican history of Peru, was elected. But before the change of command took place, Colonel Tomás Gutiérrez, then Minister of War and Navy, carried out a coup, supported by his three brothers, Colonels Silvestre, Marceliano and Marcelino Gutiérrez. President Balta was arrested and confined in a barracks in Lima. Congress was dissolved. Tomás Gutiérrez proclaimed himself supreme chief (July 22, 1872).
To subdue the squadron, Tomás Gutiérrez sent an order to the Commander General of the Navy, Captain Diego de la Haza, which read as follows:
Mr. Commander General of Marina. You order that the Squad secunde the movement that has been made in Lima. He's been thrown into Congress and don José Balta is in jail. His affection friend Tomás Gutiérrez. Lima, July 22, 1872.
The message was rejected by the heads of the Navy, and the same thing happened with another sent by an insistent Tomás Gutiérrez. Miguel Grau, who had ordered the ignition of his ship's boilers, outraged by the transgression of the Constitution perpetrated by the Gutiérrezes, suggested that the commanders of the ships meet on board the steamer Marañón, to deliberate on the action to take. In said meeting it was agreed to mobilize the squadron and set sail towards the head of San Lorenzo Island, to make the final decision with wide freedom.
On July 23, the commanders and officers of the squadron, including Grau, signed a proclamation against the revolutionary coup and reaffirmed their decision to fight for the restoration of order and law.
Signed the proclamation, it was circulated through Callao and Lima. The squadron withdrew from Callao and anchored on July 24 in the Chincha Islands. Continuing the journey south, the 26th reached Islay. That day, President Balta was vilely assassinated in the San Francisco barracks, where he was being held. When the town found out about this crime, his reaction was tremendous. Colonels Gutiérrez fell dead one after another, at the hands of the popular fury, with the exception of one of them, who took refuge.
While these events were taking place in Lima, Miguel Grau, from the Huáscar, anchored in Islay, sent an extensive circular to the prefects of Arequipa, Cuzco, Puno, Moquegua and Tacna, to the sub-prefects of Arica and Islay, the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of Arequipa, Puno and Moquegua and the municipal mayors of Tacna and Tarapacá. The circular gave an account of the events that occurred in Lima and the position of rejection of the dictatorship assumed by the Squad.
On August 1, once order and normality had been restored in the country, Commander Grau sent the Minister of War and Navy a detailed report on the events that had occurred in the Peruvian Navy since the July 22 explosion the revolution. In that report, Grau reported that on July 29, at seven in the afternoon, in the port of Pisco, he learned of the assassination of President Balta and the restoration of order in the capital, for which he immediately set sail for to Callao.
On August 5, after the constitutional order had been restored and President Manuel Pardo was already in office, Grau sent the Commander of Orders of the Department, captain Ezequiel Otoya, the list of all the heads, officers and crew members of the ships de la Escuadra, who embarked on the Huáscar, on the night of July 22, ready to fight against the coup plotters.
The role played by Grau in the suppression of the Gutiérrez revolution was very important, as it influenced the rebellion not to spread in the Navy and in the rest of the country. His figure was already beginning to be recognized even abroad; An Argentine journalist, Héctor F. Varela, published an article in El Americano of Paris in which he praised the behavior of the Peruvian Navy, and in particular, made a portrait of Grau, with praiseworthy expressions:
Noble, frank, loyal, intelligent, kind and brave like all the men of conviction, Commander Grau who commands the magnificent battleship “Huáscar”, is an officer who honors his homeland
This article was reproduced in its entirety in the edition of El Comercio of Lima on August 17, 1872.
Member of the Navy Advisory Commission
The President of the Republic, Manuel Pardo, a few days after taking office, decided to seek advice from expert advisors on everything related to the needs of the Army and the Navy. To that end, on August 14, 1872, he issued a supreme decree, by which he created the Advisory Commissions of War and Navy. The Navy Commission was made up of eight sailors, one of them was the captain of the ship Miguel Grau. This Commission was installed on August 26 and was made up of the following officers: Rear Admiral Domingo Valle Riestra, captains of the ship Manuel J. Ferreyros, Aurelio García y García, Miguel Grau, José R. Carreño, Camilo N. Carrillo, Juan Pardo de Zela and José Elcorrobarrutia. The captain of the ship Lizardo Montero, senator from Piura, also attended as a special guest.
Grau and the Huáscar Monitor
El Huáscar, heading south
On September 1, 1872, the Huáscar 5. Grau carried government instructions, in the sense of seeking reliable information about the events that, due to borderline reasons, occurred at that time among the republics of Bolivia and Chile.
The border difficulties between Bolivia and Chile came from the exploitation of guano and saltpeter by Chilean companies, in the Bolivian deserts of Atacama. In 1866, after the end of the Spanish-Sudamerican war, both countries signed a treaty of limits, which set the 24th parallel as a dividing line between the two countries and established that between the 23rd and 25th parallels the signatory states Guano gains and exploited minerals would be distributed in equal parts (mutual benefits zone). The dictator Mariano Melgarejo, a very friend of Chile, ruled in Bolivia. To the fall of Melgarejo, in January 1871, the government of his successor, General Morales, annulled the acts of the administration detained and decided The territory of Bolivia and exploit its wealth. In order to diplomatically resolve the tense situation created between the two countries, the Bolivian government sent as a plenipotentiary minister and extraordinary envoy in Santiago to Rafael Bustillo, who was uncompromising in defending Bolivian rights over the territory in dispute, which led to a entrepreneur In negotiations. Chile, eager to reach an arrangement with Bolivia that does not alter the substantial bases of the 1866 treaty, and seeing that he would not achieve it with Bustillo, he sent La Paz, like his minister, Santiago Lindsay, to resume conversations. Being Bustillo for returning to Bolivia, in July 1872, Bolivian General Quintín Quevedo, a supporter of Melgarejo, armed an expedition in Valparaíso and landed in Antofagasta advancing until Tocopilla, where the Bolivian forces rejected him. Quevedo and his men took refuge in the Chilean corvette Esmeralda , anchored in the port. Everything indicated that the Chilean government supported Quevedo's revolutionary attempts, even if it was officially denied.
From Iquique, Grau wrote a note on September 6, 1872 to the Minister of War and Navy, informing him about the events around the expedition of Quevedo and leaving in it evidence that most of the expeditionaries were Chilean and that the Chile squad was in Mejillones.
Without having more important news to inform, Grau undertook the return to Callao, arriving on September 30, 1872.
Meanwhile, in La Paz the efforts between Chilean Minister Lindsay and Bolivian Chancellor Casimiro Corral continued, to determine the new arrangement bases on the pending issues of the 1866 Treaty. On December 5, 1872, both diplomats signed The protocol known as the name Lindsay-Corral, by which the 24-year- The saltpeter, Boraxy Sulfates. The agreement also argued the rejection of Bolivian public opinion, which considered the advantages obtained by Chile excessive. The Bolivia Assembly refused to approve the protocol, which kept the problem pending.
Cruise for the Bolivian coast
When they fear an armed conflict between Chile and Bolivia, the Peruvian government ordered Grau to show the south again with the Huáscar , in order to know the situation closely, as well as to prevent others political disturbances that threaten the Peruvian Republic. On March 4, 1873 the monitor sailed from Callao, heading to Bolivian waters.
On March 13, from Iquique, Grau sent a report to the Minister of War and Navy, letting him know about tranquility in the coast, not finding "nothing that can threaten a disturbance in the political order" and adding that " I will not neglect any measure leading to the best performance of my commission ».
On March 24, the Huáscar arrived at the port of Cobija, where he stayed three days. On 28, already in Iquique, Grau wrote again to the Minister of War, informing him of the affectionate reception that Bolivian authorities had on behalf of:
As I indicated to V.S., in my office of the 24th of the present I have stayed three days in the port of Cobija, having returned to this in the afternoon of yesterday. During my stay in these waters I have been very satisfying the reception of the Bolivian authorities, who have given me all kinds of attention, not omitting any circumstances to express their feelings of adherence to the Government and people of Peru.
On April 4, from Iquique, Grau sent another report to the Minister of War, where he assured "that the south continues without incident." The Peruvian government then authorized him to carry out reconnaissances on the southern coast of the Republic when he deemed it appropriate and issued the legislative resolution of April 23, 1873, by which Grau was promoted to effective ship captain.
On May 28, the Huáscar arrived again in Cobija. The following day, Grau wrote to the General Command of the Navy, reporting his arrival at that port and informing that the entire coast was in order. On June 2, he wrote to the Minister of War, informing him of the unfavorable reception given to the Corral-Lindsay protocol by the Bolivian people; furthermore, he informed him of the cordial reception he received:
Moreover, the reception made by that official, as well as by the authorities of this port, and the various circumstances that I have had the opportunity to give them affectionate and careless attention, as soon as it has been possible, have only narrowed the links and conditions that those Bolivian authorities and people sincerely express by the Government and people of Peru, not omitting the opportunity to prove it practically, once they have had the opportunity to do so.
It should be noted in this regard, that on February 6, 1873, the Defensive Alliance Treaty between Peru and Bolivia had been secretly signed in Lima, so it is to be assumed that the cordial reception that Grau enjoyed in Cobija from the Bolivian authorities obeyed in part to instructions from the government of La Paz.
Back in Iquique, Grau was commissioned to carry out a study of the harbor roadstead, in order to facilitate the development of port activities. In July 1873, the Huáscar arrived in Callao, thus ending her second cruise along the Bolivian coast, which had lasted a total of four months. By then the Bolivian-Chilean dispute had calmed down, and the international environment had calmed down. However, the Huáscar did not stay long in Callao, since at the end of the following month he was commissioned again to the southern Peruvian coast, returning in September of the same year.
Evolution Squad Leader
On June 10, 1874, Grau was appointed Chief of the Evolutions Squad. This figure consisted of the ships of the squadron putting into practice the movements of naval tactics, consigned in the respective manual of the Naval School. According to the historian Melitón Carvajal Pareja, this way of working with the squadron would have its origin in the concerns of Grau himself. This squadron was made up of: the monitor Huáscar, the frigate Independencia, the monitors Atahualpa and Manco Cápac, the corvette Union and transportation Chalaco. To assume command of the squadron, Grau had to momentarily leave command of the Huáscar to Lieutenant Commander Leopoldo Sánchez.
The squadron of evolutions carried out its activities from June 12, 1874 to January 22, 1875. It left Callao on June 18 and toured the Peruvian coast, touching the Chincha, San Juan, Islay, Arica, Ilo, Pisco, Mollendo, among other points. In the exercise of his high office, Grau ordered the execution of all kinds of maneuvers to train the crews in knowledge of naval tactics and artillery management. By then, Grau sensed the threat posed by the arms race developed by Chile, which had ordered the construction of two powerful armored vehicles in the United Kingdom; For this reason, he considered it necessary to carry out these types of exercises to always keep the Navy personnel prepared.
On the other hand, Bolivia and Chile seemed to settle their differences by signing a new boundary treaty on August 6, 1874. The border remained at the 24°S parallel and the system of exploitation and sale by mutual agreement continued between parallels 23°S and 24°S. Likewise, Bolivia pledged not to increase taxes on Chilean individuals, capital and businesses for 25 years. Failure by Bolivia to comply with this last clause would be the trigger for the subsequent War of the Pacific.
The signing of the 1874 treaty momentarily dissipated the dangers of war between Bolivia and Chile. In October of that year, the Peruvian government learned of the presence in Peruvian waters of the Talismán, a small ship chartered in England, and in which, according to what was stated, was Nicolás de Piérola (the former Minister of Hacienda de José Balta), with a group of revolutionaries, whose plan was to overthrow President Manuel Pardo (episode known as the Expedition of the Talisman).
Grau and the Evolution Squad received the mission of capturing the Talisman, which, according to government information, had tried to land in Pacasmayo. After an active search, the Talisman was seized by the Huáscar in the bay of Pacocha, near Ilo, on the morning of November 2, 1874. The crew was seized and a good part of the confiscated cargo, but Piérola managed to escape to Moquegua; he would later be defeated by the government troops in the combat of Los Angeles.
Grau sent the Talisman to Mollendo, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leopoldo Sánchez, and sent a report to the Minister of War and Navy, dated Pacocha, giving an account of the facts.
His mission accomplished, the Huáscar immediately left for the south to continue safeguarding order. In December 1874, the Evolution Squad arrived in Iquique and then returned to Callao, ending their training. On January 20, 1875, Grau relinquished command of the squadron and continued as commander of the Huáscar.
Deputy for Paita (first legislature)
In 1872, Miguel Grau was elected as a substitute deputy for the province of Paita. The relationship that Miguel Grau had maintained with the port of Paita, where he spent his childhood, led its inhabitants to elect him as titular or owner deputy in 1875 to represent that province in Parliament, as a member of the Civil Party. For this reason, on July 5, 1876, Grau left the command of Huáscar (which he had exercised for more than 8 years) and enlisted to take possession of his congressional seat, for a period of six years, although, in fact, this would be reduced to two legislatures, of six months each (August 1876-February 1877 and July 1878-February 1879).
On August 2, 1876, the constitutional government of General Mariano Ignacio Prado, successor of Manuel Pardo, was installed. On the 4th, the Chamber of Deputies approved the opinion of the Powers Commission that empowered Grau to join as deputy owner for Paita. The following day, Grau took the oath of law in the Chamber and became a member of the Navy Commission, chaired by his countryman and comrade-in-arms, Camilo N. Carrillo. His parliamentary colleagues also included Elías Malpartida, César Canevaro, Manuel María Gálvez, Luciano Benjamín Cisneros, Ramón Ribeyro and Juan Francisco Balta.
His activity as a legislator was active and effective. He was the author of the initiative on promotions in the Navy that recognized the merits of commanders and officers to access higher ranks. He also proposed the reorganization of the Ministry of War and Navy, and also requested that the Chamber meet twice a week in night sessions.
At the request of the Executive, in October 1876 he was granted a temporary license to be part of the Council of War that was to judge the loss of the Chanchamayo gunboat.
After the legislature ended in February 1877, Grau worked for a few days as an attaché to the Department of the Navy, and in that same month, he requested a two-month license to travel to Valparaíso, in order to bring back the remains of his father, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Manuel Grau y Berrío, who died in that port in 1865. He embarked on the British steamer Eten, taking with him his second son, Miguel Gregorio, 8 years old, who fatefully died in Valparaíso, as a result of an accident.
On his return to Peru, Grau complied with informing the government of Chile's war preparations and the manifest superiority in which the squadron of this country was with respect to that of Peru, which he himself was able to verify in situ, upon seeing the powerful armored Almirante Blanco Encalada and Almirante Cochrane anchored in the waters of Valparaíso, far superior to any of the best warships Peruvians.
On March 7, 1877, Grau was appointed member of the Board of Review of Naval Ordinances, a position he held until May 30, when he was appointed General Commander of the Navy.
General Commander of the Peruvian Navy
On June 1, 1877, Miguel Grau assumed the highest function in the naval service: that of Commander General of the Navy. He was then 43 years old. In this condition, on January 2, 1878, he submitted a detailed report on the state of warships and the needs of the Navy, an important document known as the Memory, which ended with the following reflections:
Some time ago the Navy has made no advance of any material, except for the increase it has received with the transport of Limeña; far from this its importance has deserved much, since being our main ships built at a time when the armor and thick artillery did their first trials, they have already been far behind the powerful warships that are built on the day.This novelty that has become an urgent need in all nations proportionally to their demands, makes me call the preferential attention of your excellence that so much knows how much a good squad, the interests, the tranquility and sovereignty of the nation is established. Too much I know the distressing situation of our erarium, however, in view of the above considerations, I believe my duty to claim the prestigious influence of your excellence to strengthen our squadron with the vessels that it illustrates are necessary.
Making V.E. the previous order, just and convenient, is that it is because of the deletion of ships that, due to their low march or their state of deterioration or inutility, only increase the expenses of the Squad, without profit and with detriment of the conservation of the other ships.
In said memory, Grau made an accurate diagnosis of the situation of the National Navy and formulated judgments that were a true warning, one year after the outbreak of the War of the Pacific; however, his requests were not duly evaluated and the Chamber arranged to acknowledge receipt and send to the archive. The government's reason for neglecting the Navy in this way was that the country was in a terrible economic crisis.
Despite budget limitations, Grau knew how to carry out his high position efficiently. He ordered the repairs and cleaning of the bottoms of the warships, he tried to provide them with supplies and weapons; but he could not achieve what he most vehemently desired: the acquisition of armored ships, to surpass, or at least match, the power achieved by the Chilean fleet.
At the beginning of 1878, he had to preside over the Examination Jury of the Preparatory School and Naval School, leaving a record, by official letter of February 4, 1878, of "...the achievement that all the students have achieved, in the various branches that have completed...", significant progress in the professional training of seafarers, which contrasted with the lack of modernization of Navy ships and equipment.
On July 10, 1878, Grau made his position as Commander General of the Navy available to the government, since he had to rejoin the Ordinary Congress, as a new legislature was about to begin, scheduled for July 28, 1878. His successor in the Navy Command was Rear Admiral Antonio de la Haza.
Deputy for Paita (second legislature)
Again as a parliamentarian, Grau continued in the Navy Commission, where he waged a real fight so that the budget items of the Navy's specifications would not be lowered, given that he had not been able to increase them. On the other hand, he fought against the Piuran intentions of turning Paita into a district of Piura, outlining his phrase: "Not only as a representative of Paita, but as her son, I will fight for the permanence of Paita as a province" (October 1878), thus remaining the staunchest opponent of Piura's intentions and even making Piura's political enemies, but winning in return the hearts of all Paita.
When, in November 1878, his friend and his political boss, former president Manuel Pardo (at the time president of the Senate), were assassinated, Grau delivered an emotional and laconic speech, and approved the resolution that imposed the state of siege and declared the homeland in danger.
In February 1879, after the legislature ended, Grau went back to serve in the Ministry of War and Navy as an attaché, but he held the position for only 50 days, as the winds of war were blowing in the south. On March 28, Grau returned to be commander of the monitor Huáscar. On April 5, 1879, Chile declared war on Peru.
On August 2, 1879, in the middle of the naval campaign in the south, Grau asked to be relieved of the exercise of his parliamentary function and that the substitute Manuel E. Raygada take over, so that his province would not be harmed.
Naval campaign of the Pacific War
The War of the Pacific (1879-1883) was an armed conflict that pitted the Republic of Chile against the Republic of Peru and the Republic of Bolivia. It has also been called the Guano and Saltpeter War.
The Peruvian and Chilean squads
Due to the characteristics of the Bolivian coast and the extreme south of Peru, in which the Atacama desert extends, and taking into account the experiences of the War of Independence and against the Confederation, Chile knew that it was necessary to avoid sea this territory to be able to move his troops and invade Peruvian territory. For this he would have to achieve mastery of the sea. Peru, for its part, also understood that this was the logical move for Chile to adopt. In this way, both nations began the naval campaign as the first part of the war.
The Peruvian squadron, commanded by captain Miguel Grau, was made up of the armored monitor type Huáscar, the armored frigate Independencia, the corvette Unión , the gunboat Pilcomayo and the transports Chalaco, Oroya, Limeña and Talismán. The latter would have to play a very important role during the conflict, keeping the Peruvian supply route open with continuous trips between Callao and Panama, as well as to other points on the coast, transporting troops, supplies and ammunition, outwitting the powerful enemy squadron.. Added to them were the ancient coastal monitors Manco Cápac and Atahualpa with almost no displacement, which reduced them to being just floating batteries.
The Chilean squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo, was made up of the armored Almirante Blanco Encalada and Almirante Cochrane, the corvettes Chacabuco, O'Higgins, Abtao and Esmeralda and the gunboats Magallanes and Covadonga, as well as several armed transports such as the Loa and Amazonas. His fleet was completed by fast transports that ensured the logistics of his troops stationed in Antofagasta and his squadron, such as the Itata, Lamar, Rímac, Copiapó and the charcoal burner Matías Cousiño. The balance of power was favorable to the Chilean navy, since its ships, especially the two armored ones, had better artillery, higher nominal speed and armor, compared to the Peruvian ships.
The approach was very clear on both sides. The Chilean fleet was materially superior to the Peruvian, not only in number but also in the quality of its ships. He should then search for it and destroy it as soon as possible. The Peruvian squadron, for its part, given its inferiority in means, had to prolong its presence as long as possible as an effective threat at sea, not so much for the Chilean squadron but for the maritime traffic of that country, engaging in combat only when it was in superiority of conditions or when this is unavoidable. The time that was gained in this would be in benefit of the preparation of the defenses in southern Peru and the acquisition of new ships and weapons.
Naval campaign preparations
The Peruvian squadron, caught by surprise by the declaration of war, was not prepared to go into campaign immediately. The Peruvian people, who were unaware of the true situation of the navy, felt optimistic about the confrontation with Chile and demanded that the Peruvian ships leave immediately.
Grau made it clear that it was necessary to do some maneuvering and artillery exercises beforehand, since the recently recruited foreign sailors barely knew their obligations. As some said that the Huáscar was strong enough to successfully face the Chilean squadron, Grau responded by saying that the monitor was undoubtedly a very strong ship, but that it could never counteract a single one of the Chilean armored vehicles, far superior in terms of armor, mobility and firepower; but that even so, if necessary, she would do her duty, even if she had the assurance of her sacrifice.These words were prophetic.
Finally, the pressure of public opinion weighed more heavily and the departure of the squad was agreed. This was divided into two divisions:
- The first, made up of the monitor HuáscarThe frigate Independencemonitors Manco Cápac and Atahualpaand transportation Chalaco, Oroya and Limeña.
- The second, made up of the corvette Union and the cannon Pilcomayo.
Grau was appointed commander of the Naval First Division. The Navy's badge corresponded to being in the Independencia for being the ship of greatest power, but Grau preferred to raise it in the Huáscar , a ship to which he knew very well for having her commanded for eight years. He even later removed the bow mast, leaving only the stern, to make him more maneuverable in the use of the canyons of the rotating tower.
President Mariano Ignacio Prado was appointed supreme war director. The Second Naval Division of Peru, commanded by the captain of the ship Aurelio García y García, was the first to leave to the south. The first action took place just seven days after the war declared, on April 12, 1879, when the corvette union and the guns pilcomayo attacked and persecuted the Chilean corvette Magallanes in front of Punta Chipana.
For its part, the Chilean squad bombed the Peruvian ports of Pisagua, Mollendo and Iquique, before heading to Callao with the purpose of attacking the Peruvian squad by surprise and destroying it. They were blocking the port of Iquique La Corveta Esmeralda and the gutter covadonga , which were the weakest ships of the squad. But on the same day (May 16) when the Chilean squad left Iquique towards Callao, the Peruvian ships of the Naval First Division sailed from Callao, heading to Arica (then Peruvian port), carrying President Prado on board. Both fleets crossed without seeing, because the Peruvians were navigating near the coast and the Chilean sea inside. The journey of the Chilean fleet to Callao was thus fruitless, not finding the Peruvian squad in the bay, while in Iquique a naval combat was fought.
Iquique Naval Combat
Representation of the confrontation between the Peruvian monitor Huáscar, in command of ship captain Miguel Grau, and the Chilean corvette EmeraldCommander Arturo Prat.
On May 20, 1879, the Peruvian fleet arrived in Arica, where President Prado landed, as director of War, since it was considered that the headquarters were near the theater of operations. Almost immediately they were dispatched to Iquique the monitor Huáscar , the gutter covadonga and the transport lamar .
On May 21, 1879, the monitor Huáscar, entered the Bay of Iquique and faced the aforementioned Chilean wooden ships, commanded, respectively, by Arturo Prat Chacón ( Esmeralda ) and by Carlos Condell de la Haza ( covadonga ). The transport lamar raised American flag and set up south.
The Huáscar broke his fires on the covadonga ; For its part, the Independence attacked the Emerald ; The latter maneuvered to stand in front of the population of Iquique, with the purpose of putting it at risk of Peruvian projectiles. Taking advantage of a high by the Huáscar to attend to a boat that brought information, the covadonga fled towards the S.E.; Grau then ordered the Independence go in his persecution, because it was more speed. Meanwhile, the Huáscar stayed in Iquique guning the Esmeralda , and sweeping its cover with its gatling machine gun, causing many casualties. But due to the impericia of its gunners, the shots of the Huáscar The first spolonazo of the Huáscar did little damage to the port of the Esmeralda ; It was at that moment when the Chilean commander Arturo Prat made a frustrated approach, dying on the monitor deck. The second spur caused to the Chilean corvette a great breakdown in the starvation.
Finally, with a third spur, Grau managed to sink the Chilean ship, whose survivors threw themselves into the water. The fight had lasted four hours. The Peruvian commander, in a humanitarian gesture to which he was not obliged, rescued the Chilean shipwrecks, thus wasting a precious time that would have served to help the Independence in his persecution of the covadonga In combat the first lieutenant Jorge Velarde, the first Peruvian naval hero of the contest died.
Meanwhile, the Independence , conducted by More, persecuted the covadonga , which was very close to the coast. The Peruvian frigate, in her eagerness to spur the Chilean ship, crashed with a rock, near Punta thick, opening her helmet in the flotation line, so she began to sink. As soon as he noticed this, Commander Condell of the covadonga aground. The Independence , semihundida, did not surrender and responded to the attack with all the power of fire. The fight ended when the covadonga , seeing approaching the Huáscar , retired from the place. Peruvian historians usually contrast Grau's attitude, saving the Chilean shipwrecks of The Emerald , and that of Condell by machine -called the Peruvian shipwrecks of the Independence in any case, that is the Peruvian version of the fight; Instead, Condell says in his part that he only fired two cannons on the Independence , since he still kept his flag to the top, an indication that followed in combat, and that he immediately raised the flag of Parliament and asked for a boat; And that being at that treaty the silhouette of the Huáscar of the ship.
Subsequently Grau, in a gesture of gentlemen, wrote to Carmela Carvajal, widow of the Chilean naval hero Arturo Prat Chacón, commander of the Emerald , dead on the deck of the Huáscar >, a letter in which she praised her husband's performance and sent her some of her personal garments, including her sword. In turn, in the response to this letter, the widow of Prat thanked such a gesture, ensuring that given the nobility shown by Grau when associated with her pain, she understood that the death of her husband was a consequence of the war and that if there were Status in the hands of the captain of the Huana , it would never have taken place.
Wikisource contains original works of or about Miguel Grau.
Naval combat of Angamos
The incapacity of the Chilean naval commanders against the continuous incursions of the Huáscar caused great discomfort in Chile. All this worsened with the capture of the Rímac transport, after which there were popular protests, interpellations in congress, resignations of ministers and changes in the headquarters of the army and the squadron.
The Chilean commanders, faced with the impossibility of starting the land campaign to invade southern Peru, determined that the capture of the Huáscar was a priority and essential to carry out their plans. One of the first measures was the replacement of Rear Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo in command of the Chilean squadron, being replaced by the ship's captain Galvarino Riveros, who arranged for the ships to undergo boiler and fairing repairs to clean their bottoms and prepare to hunt down the Huáscar. For this purpose, they drew up a plan to capture him, organizing their squad into two divisions, the first, made up of Admiral Blanco Encalada, the second Covadonga and Matías Cousiño, and the second, made up of Admiral Cochrane, Loa and O'Higgins. The idea was to lay siege to the Huáscar, in the area between Arica and Antofagasta.
Unaware of all that concentration of the enemy to hunt him down, Grau received orders to set sail from Arica with the Unión and the Rímac heading south, with the purpose of harassing the Chilean ports between Tocopilla and Coquimbo (October 1). Meanwhile, the two Chilean divisions left Mejillones to the north, in search of the Huáscar, arriving in Arica on the morning of October 5, not finding their objective there.
The Huáscar, meanwhile, after leaving the Rímac in Iquique, arrived in the company of the Unión at the Sarco cove, the 4th of October. There they captured the schooner Coquimbo, to later reach the port of the same name and continue further south, reaching the Tongoy cove. They were a few hours from Valparaíso, but Grau and his ships preferred not to risk it, and considering their mission accomplished, they began the return to Peruvian waters.
As the Peruvian ships sailed north back, they ignored the movements of the Chilean ships. The two enemy divisions were advancing from different directions, in an open position, ready to surround their objective.
At dawn on October 8, 1879, the Huáscar off the Angamos isthmus was sighted by the first Chilean division, forcing Grau to turn southwest and then return to the north, at the maximum possible speed trying to outrun their enemies. Shortly after, the Huáscar and the Unión met the Chilean second division off Punta Angamos, which was sailing in a fan pattern. Realizing that the Huáscar could not evade combat due to his short gait, the Union, with a greater gait, by order of the admiral, made its way to the north. By proceeding in this way, Grau complied with the instructions given by the Director of War, President Prado, which obliged him not to compromise the ships under his command, and that, in the event of finding himself surrounded by superior forces with no possibility of retreat, he should do your duty.
Then, at 9:40 in the morning, the meeting being unavoidable, the Peruvian monitor strengthened his combat flag and fired the cannons of the tower on the Cochrane, a thousand meters away. Grau was determined to present combat, knowing that the chances of getting out of the ambush were nil. The Covadonga and the Blanco Encalada at that time were at a distance of six miles in the direction of the Huáscar, while the O& #39;Higgins and the Loa were after the Union, a pursuit that would prove fruitless. The Cochrane did not initially answer the shots, but closed the distance thanks to his greater speed; Being 500 meters away, a broadside from the monitor hit the side of the Chilean battleship, causing it to swing for a few moments, but without major damage. When it was 200 m to the port side of the Huáscar, the Cochrane fired its first shots, perforating the hull armor and seriously damaging the monitor's steering system, which had to be restored with tackles that were pulled manually by several men.
Grau in his tower, sensing the inevitable and bending down towards the floor grate, said goodbye to Diego Ferré in a fraternal handshake. Meanwhile, the Chilean gun sights were aimed at the vital parts of the monitor. Around 10:00 a.m. m., a projectile from Admiral Cochrane hit the command tower and when it exploded destroyed Rear Admiral Miguel Grau and left his companion First Lieutenant Diego Ferré dying.
In this circumstance, lieutenant captain Elías Aguirre took command of the ship, who continued the combat with the Chilean ships. Cochrane came to the aid of Blanco Encalada, who, in his eagerness to put an end to the monitor once and for all, got too close and narrowly avoided colliding with the other battleship. This circumstance was taken advantage of by the Huáscar to carry out a skilful maneuver that allowed him to place himself in the middle of the two battleships, firing his cannons on both alternately. But the battleships quickly shifted their position, their twelve guns wreaking havoc and death on the monitor.
Despite suffering serious damage to its vital points, the Huáscar did not surrender. His commander, Aguirre, tried to spur the Blanco Encalada , to no avail, and shortly after he was killed by a shot from the Cochrane , when he was on the command bridge directing the combat. His successor in command was First Lieutenant José Melitón Rodríguez, who also heroically succumbed, when he was sticking his head out of the porthole of the revolving tower to aim one of the cannons, at which time an enemy projectile blew off his head, falling his body inert inside. The frigate captain Melitón Carvajal and second lieutenant Enrique Palacios were wounded. Likewise, the Peruvian flag fell twice to the ground, when the halyard was cut due to the effects of enemy shrapnel, being hoisted as many times, as a demonstration of the determined purpose of its crew members to never surrender.
Until, having reverted to the command of First Lieutenant Pedro Gárezon Thomas, only 28 years old, this officer, seeing that it was no longer possible to continue the fight due to the conditions in which the ship was found, with its cannons Disabled, its rudder broken, and with part of its crew dead or wounded, he gave the order to open the bottom valves to flood the monitor and thus sink it to prevent its capture. This order was transmitted by the frigate lieutenant Ricardo Herrera de la Lama, to the ship's 1st engineer, Samuel Mac Mahon, who got down to work.
When the Peruvian flag fell for the third and last time, again as a result of enemy shots on the halyard, the Chileans waited a short time to consider it a surrendered ship, since on two previous occasions they had rushed to celebrate the supposed surrender of the ship. Seeing that there was no longer any resistance, at 11:10 a.m. m. the Chilean battleships suspended the cannonade and sent an armed crew in boats to proceed with the boarding. This task was made easier because the Huáscar had to stop the movement of his machine, which was necessary to hasten the submersion of the ship. When the Chilean sailors came on board, the Huáscar already had 1.20 m of water and was about to sink from the stern. Revolver in hand, the Chilean officers ordered the engineers to close the valves and later forced the prisoners to put out the fires that were consuming various sectors of the ship. The ship, already disabled for defense, thus ended up being boarded by the enemy.
The fight was over and the Huáscar was captured. Of the 216 crew members of it, 31 died and the rest were mostly wounded. None of the prisoner officers handed over their sword to the victor, as they threw him into the sea before the boarding took place. Although the Chileans found the fallen Peruvian flag, Gárezon explained to First Lieutenant Policarpo Toro of Cochrane that the canopy was on the deck, together with the peak, because the wooden halyard that supported it had broken and not because it had been lowered on purpose.
The remains of Grau
After the fight at Angamos, First Lieutenant Pedro Gárezon Thomas, the last commander of the "Huáscar", did not want to leave the monitor until he had exhausted the search for the remains of Admiral Grau. Seeing his insistence, Chilean Lieutenant Goñi allowed him to carry out said search in the command tower, which was destroyed. Garezón entered through a large hole opened by the bombs and after an exhaustive search, he finally found among the rubble the only remains of Grau: "a piece of white and hairy leg, only from the middle of the calf to the foot, which was shod with a leather boot." Gárezon certified that it was an authentic remains of the admiral. Placed in a box, he was taken to Mejillones, where he was honored with a mass officiated by Monsignor Fontecilla. Then, on October 14, by express order of the Chilean government, he was transferred to Valparaíso, aboard the Blanco Encalada . Commander Óscar Viel, who was Grau's brother-in-law and compadre, obtained permission from his government to bury Grau's remains in his family's mausoleum in Santiago, where he remained for some years.
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Grau's remains, along with those belonging to other Peruvian fighters fallen in the war, returned to Peru during the first government of Andrés A. Cáceres. They arrived at Callao aboard the cruise Lima , on July 13, 1890, being buried in a provisional grave in the presbyter Cemetery master of Lima. In 1908 they were transferred to the crypt of the heroes of the Pacific War, opened by President José Pardo and Barreda in said cemetery.
In Chile, a fragment of the Tibia of Grau remained that was exhibited in a Santiago museum, along with a cap and other personal belongings of the hero. This rest was returned to Peru on March 20, 1958, in solemn ceremony held in Santiago with the presence of the president of Chile, Carlos Ibáñez del Campo. The next day, they arrived at the air to Lima, where they were received by President Manuel Prado Ugarteche, who, in part of his ceremonial speech expressed the following:
The figure of our little Admiral embodies one of the legitimate glories that exalt not only our annals and those of America, but the whole world. His life and sacrifice are paradigms of knighthood and self-denial.
Then, the remains were taken to the building of the old Naval School at La Punta, where they were deposited in a living room.
Finally, on October 7, 1976, Grau's bone remains were transferred in a solemn ceremony to the cenotaph built in the crypt of the Naval School, where they remain with a permanent honor guard. On July 25, 2003, the hero's sword and decorations were deposited there.
Family
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MARRIAGE AND DESENCE
Miguel Grau married Dolores Cabero and Núñez, on April 12, 1867 in the Cathedral of Lima. Marriage had ten children:
- Enrique (Lima, 24 May 1868-Miraflores, 22 July 1954), consul of Peru in San Francisco.
- Miguel Gregorio (Lima, 9 March 1869-Valparaiso, 15 July 1877), died in an accident in Chile while his father repatriated the remains of Juan Manuel Grau.
- Oscar (Lima, 3 February 1871-Ib., July 31, 1929), he was prefected by Piura, who resigned as a protest after the murder of his brother Rafael.
- Ricardo Florencio (Lima, 12 February 1872-Chanchamayo, 7 March 1899), a professional engineer, died in an accident while building a bridge and his body was dragged down the river. It was never found.
- María Luisa (Lima, 5 March 1873-Ib.8 December 1973) remained single. He had descended with the Lambayecan surgeon Francisco Muro Pacheco (first of Alfredo Solf and Muro and Manuel Antonio Mesones Muro). The painter Ricardo Grau was born from this union (Ricardo Muro Grau). María Luisa inherited the sword gifted to her mother by the Peruvian ladies in Europe. He then donated it to the Peruvian government.
- Carlos Pedro (Lima, 30 April 1874-Paris, 1940).
- Rafael (Lima, 20 January 1876-Cotabambas, 4 March 1917), a Peruvian politician and one of the founders of the Civic Union party, was vice president of the House of Deputies and later Minister of Education, Justice and Religion. He was also several times mayor of El Callao. As a deputy for Cotabambas, Apurímac, and in the midst of his re-electoral campaign he was killed by Santiago Montesinos, his electoral contender. The province of Grau, in Apurímac, received this name in his honor at the request of his brother Michael.
- Victoria (Lima, 21 January 1877-Paris, 19 May 1914), died unmarried.
- Elena (Lima, 21 January 1877-Ib.December 24, 1877), Victoria's twine, died at 11 months of age.
- Miguel (Lima, 23 January 1879-Ib., October 31, 1976), he was senator for Amazonas in 1917 and Callao in 1919 and later consul of Peru in Brussels. He also accused President José Pardo and Barreda as the indirect cause of his brother's death by failing to give him guarantees for his life despite having asked for them. He also proposed that Grau be called to the province of Cotabambas in honor of his brother. Reconciliated with Pardo, he postulated as his second vice president in the 1936 elections, but the elections were overturned and President Oscar R. Benavides extended his term for another three years.
Among its descendants is also the Comptroller of the Navy of Peru and former president of the Benemérita Sociedad Founders of Independence Fernando Grau Umlauff, as well as the lawyer Miguel Grau Malachowski.
Tributes
Peruvian authors, of the most varied ideologies and social conditions, have recovered the overwhelmed praise of the Angamos hero, considered as the first national hero of Peru.
There are times when a whole town is personified in one individual: Greece in Alexander, Rome in Caesar, Spain in Charles V, England in Cromwell, France in Napoleon, America in Bolivar. Peru of 1879 was not Prado, La Puerta or Piérola: it was Grau... Human to excess, he practiced generosities that ended in the fragrance of war by subserving our anger. Today, in recalling the implacable sana of the Chilean winner, we deplore the exaggerated clemency of Grau on the night of Iquique. In order to understand and apologise to you, you need to make an effort, stagger the wounds between open, see the events from higher. Then it is recognized that the tigers who kill for killing or hurt for hurting are not worthy to be called great, but men who even in the vertigo of the struggle know how to save lives and save pain.Manuel González Prada, “Grau”, 1885.
Miguel Grau Seminar was a man committed to his time, his country and his values. He was honest and loyal with his principles, defended the constitutional order and was the enemy of dictatorships. The hero of Angamos was always on the line of affirmation of the moral norms and traditions of the republic. Honored in the cabin and in the command tower, it is also in the living room and in the home.Jorge Basadre Grohmann
As coal comes the diamond, so the blackness of this war comes Grau. The posterity has pardoned her infatuated generation because the commander of the Huáscar (...) When studying what he did, it is necessary to remember what elements he worked and to ask what would have been of Peru with Grau on a boat like the Cochrane or the White Encalada..."Jorge Basadre Grohmann, “Efigie de Grau”, inserts in History of the Republic of Peru.
Grau was and will be, therefore, the symbol of Peru, the Peruvian hero par excellence, because he had among his cardinal virtues some that were his, as a miraculous outbreak of the heroic genius —health, strength, tenacity, prudence, robustness of the body and soul — and others that were the imprint of our spirit and ours, but and crystallized in his mixture of bravura and nobility, in hisRaúl Porras Barrenechea
- You were the homeland on the sea,
- Under heaven
- and beyond the horizon,
- and unite the legend and the song
- to example
- like a new Quixote.
- Blue reflection of divine goodness,
- for you, the red war had;
- You sank ships and saved lives;
- Even the enemy you gave love,
- and between the blood and the shrapnel
- pure you passed, the soul erected
- by the hand of God.
- ...
- You had to fall!
- Like in a Greek myth,
- the whole horizon was made of blood,
- and rose up like a half-god
- those with you to the holocaust were.
- You had to fall!
- The whole horizon was made of blood,
- but the sea, as never, was the color of laurel!.
José Gálvez Barrenechea, “Oda a Grau”.
There is a tomb without crosses in Punta de Angamos. A memory of light that a handful of sailors erected forever for the glory of their homeland. Beyond the value and tangible limits you wrote Admiral, a wave of nobility that honors the war and shadow of its trophies. Your people, thankful, pronounce with respect the name of that vessel of immense memoration: Huáscar.Rear Admiral Fernando Casaretto Alvarado, The Peruvians of Angamos (Theatrical work, 1976).
Miguel Grau is remembered not only in Peru, but also in Chile and Bolivia. His name is present in the streets of Santiago de Chile in recognition of his nobility. For this reason, he is known as the gentleman of the seas, title coined by all those involved, by his altured values, his courage and despite war, humanity, temper and gallantry he showed before His enemies on the high seas.
In Talcahuano, Chile, the Huáscar monitor is preserved and in it, the figure of Grau is present in an honor sit -in in its cabin and officers.
On the low floor of the Hemicycle of the Congress of Peru, located in the central part of the Board of Directors and in front of the entire hemicycle there is a replica of the seat that Miguel Grau will occupy in the nineteenth century as a national deputy. Grau, being a parliamentarian, requested a license to serve Peru in the war with Chile and as he died in this during the fight of Angamos, he never returned to Parliament. As a sign of respect and a tribute, Miguel Grau's name is the first one called at the time to pass the congressmen.
Ascent to the high class of Admiral
When the war with Chile exploded, Grau held the class of ship captain. For his outstanding action in the Maritime Campaign he was promoted backwards, by law of the Congress of the Republic of August 26, 1879, but he never wanted to use the badge of that degree, because he wanted to remain as commander of the Huáscar . Thus he remained until his glorious death in the fight of Angamos.
in a posthumous manner, the Congress of the Republic of Peru issued Law No. 10869, which was promulgated on October 26, 1946 by the constitutional president of the Republic José Luis Bustamante y Rivero, for which, by will National, was promoted to the backward Grau to Almirante's high class.
Miguel Grau monument in Piura
Located in the Óvalo Grau, in Piura, it is a modern-style monument made in homage to the greatest hero of the Peruvian navy, Miguel Grau Seminario. On the sides of the hero there are two columns, symbol of the strength, courage and energy that held up the homeland. In front of her are two cannons and two allegorical figures that represent serenity and action. On the back, a naked god who raises a cross in his right hand, representing faith, and in his left hand a sword representing the genius of the Peruvian navy. In 2019 it was remodeled, placing a series of plaques around the main monument with information on Grau's biography.
Monument to Admiral Grau in Callao
On November 21, 1897, President Nicolás de Piérola inaugurated in El Callao the column that the Italian sculptor Fabio Lanzarini modeled in Genoa. The base and the capitel are marble and the set is crowned by the statue of Grau, standing and with the extended arm pointing to the south. In his speech, Piérola expressed the following:
The piece of granite and bronze that we surround at this moment and that the benemerite Chalaco people has raised in this porch of the national home, commemorates a truly Peruvian glory; but as in the great things, bright and wide, vivifying and fertile, lasting, with the timeless duration.Nicolas de Piérola, 1897.
In January 1940, President Manuel Prado Ugarteche commissioned the Peruvian sculptor Luis F. Agurto, the execution of a monument in honor of Grau, destined to rise in the main square of Piura. This monument was inaugurated on October 8, 1943.
Monument to Miguel Grau in Lima
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Prado also commissioned another sculptural work of the hero from the Spanish artist Victorio Macho, to be elevated in the center of Lima. This monument was inaugurated by President José Luis Bustamante y Rivero on October 28, 1946, in the square that has been named after him ever since, located between Paseo de la República, Avenida Grau and Paseo Colón. It is a set of granite and bronze, on whose front you can read the legend: "To the glory of Admiral of Peru Miguel Grau." President Bustamante read a speech on that occasion, which ended like this:
Admiral:The dimension of your feat has enlarged over time. In the distant perspective is Angamos a symbol of giant outlines and present teachings. You had limited and fragile means; but your breath was able to give them efficiency and greatness. Your tiny ship has grown, Admiral; and there is a subtle power of fire that envy the cannons in the austere silence of the dismantled decks. Your sacrifice was not unsuccessful, nor a vain gesture of immolation of those who with you fell into the bregae. Your august shadow presides over our seas; and there is an altar for your bust in every ship of our fleet; and a corner of emotion in every breast of our sailors. The Peruvian Navy encrypts its pride in your memory and the Nation, spiritually assembled at the foot of this monument, tells you with an accent of shocking gratitude:
Glory to you, Admiral!José Luis Bustamante and Rivero, 1946.
Hyperrealistic statue of Grau from the Callao Naval Museum
In tribute to the centenary of his birth and within the framework of the celebrations for the bicentennial of Peru, the Naval Museum of Callao, administered by the Peruvian Navy, presented on July 27, 2021 a hyper-realistic statue of Miguel Grau. Created by the artist Walt Wizard, this monument was made with the help of artificial intelligence to have better details of the character's face, using a material almost identical to human skin and research that since 2018 has been dedicated to contrasting photographs and objects used by the "Knight of the Seas". The figure of Miguel Grau, along with nine other statues, are part of the "Mi Perú Hiperrealista" project, a private initiative that has the Bicentennial Seal.
Other monuments
- In Peru
Monument at the Peruvian Naval School.
I'm looking at the Navy General Command in La Perla, Callao.
Monument in the park Miguel Grau in Miraflores, Lima.
Monument in El Rimac, Lima.
I'm looking at San Ignacio de Loyola University.
Statue in Pucallpa.
I'm looking at Plaza Grau de Casma.
Monument at the Alameda Grau de Huaraz.
Statue in Trujillo.
I'm looking for Trujillo.
Statue in Arequipa.
Bust in Arequipa.
Bust in Puerto Maldonado.
Monument in Ilo.
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- Out of Peru
Bust in Plaza Peru in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Monument Miguel Grau Plaza La Paz, Bolivia.
Monument in Plaza Perú de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
I'm looking for the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico.
I am looking for the Alameda de Cádiz, Spain.
Bust in Bogotá, Colombia.
Statue in Cartagena, Colombia.
Bust in Cartagena, Colombia.
Bust in Annapolis, United States.
I'm looking for Lake Forest Park.
Bust in Genoa, Italy.
I'm looking at Birkenhead Town Hall, England.
I am looking at the Peruvian Embassy Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.
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Grand Admiral Grau Order
The Grand Admiral Grau Order was created on August 13, 1969 by Supreme Decree, during the revolutionary government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado, as a decoration of the Peruvian Navy. The order is granted by Supreme Resolution by the President of the Republic in the degrees of "Special Grand Cross" and "Grand Cross" and by the Ministry of Defense, as Chancellor of the Order, in the other grades. On March 29, 2010, the Government House issued a statement modifying the granting of the degrees of the order.
In fiction
Miguel Grau has appeared as a main or secondary character in various productions dealing with the War of the Pacific:
| Year | Country | Title | Type | Actor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Peru Peru
| Our Heroes of the Pacific War | television series | Luis Carrasco |
| 2009 | Chile Chile
| Heroes | television series | León Murillo |
| 2010 | ChileChile
| The Emerald, 1879 | movie | Roberto Prieto |
| 2011 | Peru Peru
| Bad intentions | movie | |
| 2014 | Peru Peru
| Grau, knight of the seas | miniserie | Carlos Alcántara |
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