Chilean corvette Independencia (1818)

History
United States
Name: Curacio
Owner: Paul Delano
Builder: Forman Cheeseman, New York
Cost: USD$157,000
Launched: July 1818
In service: 9 September 1818
Fate: Transferred to Chile
Chile
Name: Independencia
Commissioned: September 1819
Out of service: 1 April 1826
Honours and
awards:
Freedom Expedition of Perú, Expedition to California (capture of Spanish San Francisco Javier, definitive capture of Chiloé)
Fate: Sold to Argentina for $40,000
Argentina
Name: Montevideo
Cost: $ 40,000
Commissioned: 1 April 1826
Fate: Sunk in Talcahuano, refloated and sold to Peru
Peru
Name: Independencia
Cost: $ 40,000
Fate: Sunk in Callao
General characteristics [1]
Type: Corvette
Tons burthen: 850 tons bm
Length: 130–138 ft (40–42 m)
Beam: 37 ft 4 in (11.38 m)
Draft: 18 ft (5.5 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Crew: 200-256
Armament: 26 guns

Independencia was a 26-gun corvette of the First Chilean Navy Squadron.

Construction

The 851 ton ship was built in 1818 at the Forman Cheeseman Shipyard of New York under the name Curacio for the Chilean revolutionary government. The ship was launched in July 1818 and towed from Corlear's Hook in East River to the Hudson River to continue work there. It was officially registered on the Register of Ships on 30 July 1818, with build number 203, under the ownership of American captain Paul Delano, in order to prevent confiscation under U.S. neutrality laws. The ship, still unarmed, set sail for Buenos Aires on 9 September, together with the Horatio (under Captain Joseph Skinner), built in the Adam and Noah Brown shipyard under the same circumstances, and with the Sachem following with their respective war materiel.

Chilean career

In Buenos Aires the Curacio set sail for Valparaíso, where she arrived on 23 June 1819 to be renamed Independencia and commissioned to the First Chilean Navy Squadron under the command of Captain Carlos F. Foster (also Robert Forster) and up to 1821 Wilkinson.

She was flagship of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald's expedition to California in 1821. On the way she, together with the Araucano, captured the Spanish brigantine corsario San Francisco Javier. She ran aground near El Realejo without heavy losses.

In summer 1822/23 she was refitted in Valparaíso and participated in the blockade of Chiloé. In 1823 she transported Jorge Beauchef and his regiment from Valdivia to Talcahuano in order to support the Putsch of Ramón Freire against Bernardo O'Higgins.

In 1826 she participated to the blockade and conquest of Chiloé under the command of Paul Delano.

Argentine career

On 1 April 1826 she was sold for $40,000 to Argentina (for the war against Brazil) and renamed Montevideo, but her bad condition impeded the rounding of Cape Horn, and she sank in Talcahuano. She was refloated and sold to Peru.

Peruvian career

She was sunk in Callao.

See also

References

  1. Etcheverry, Gerardo (2011). "Listado de buques de guerra a vela de Chile". todoababor.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 July 2012.


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