on both sides had not been particularly noteworthy as only a small percentage of the shots had taken effect. A few minutes after ten o'clock the Blanco came within range and fired her first shot at the Huascar from a distance of 600 yards. On board the latter ship her senior surviving officer, Don Elias Aguirre, had assumed command on the death of Admiral Grau; a few minutes later his head was taken off by a shell from the Blanco, and the next officer in rank, Captain Carbajal, was severely wounded by the same shell. Lieutenant Rodriguez next took the command, but he too was killed before many minutes. Lieutenant Palacios succeeded him, but before the action was over he was severely wounded, and the command fell to Lieutenant Garezon. By this time the Huascar was quite disabled.
Her steam-steering gear was rendered useless by the same shell that killed the admiral, and from that time she was steered by tackles managed below; there were no speaking tubes from the deck to where the tackles were operated, and orders had to be passed by messengers, which caused much confusion and totally prevented rapid evolutions. One of the turret guns was disabled, and the turret could not be turned. The flag of the Huascar was shot away, and there was a cessation of hostilities, which were resumed as soon as the flag went up again; she made several attempts to ram her opponents, but each one failed, and the same was the case with the Chilian endeavors to destroy her in the same way. Both sides kept up a severe fire with machine guns, the Huascar being equipped with the Gatling while the Chilians carried the Nordenfeldt. Her machine-gun fire was silenced, whether by the superiority of the number of the Chilian guns, or their effectiveness, is a matter of dispute between the advocates of the rival systems.
At eleven o'clock, one hour and a half after the action began, the Huascar's flag was hauled down, and she was
