The Torpedo Men

In August 1879, the Chilean consul in Panama again protested the departure of the Limeña with torpedos for Peru. Chilean spies worked for the Panama railroad. It was almost impossible to secretly ship arms, because the Chileans knew when they would arrive on the other side of the isthmus.

By August, there were three groups of torpedo men from the U.S. in Peru: the Lay, the U.S. Torpedo Co., and the Herreshoff men. A "rowdy, hard-drinking lot", they drew their pay in gold, and consorted with ladies at the Callao waterfront.

On the 15th, the Chileans detained an armored torpedo boat leaving Pisagua for Iquique with four crew members under orders of Peru. The Chileans arrested them and placed them on board an armored ship the same day. The crew included William Alfred Scott, 41, the British commander of the vessel who had contracted the other members, Abraham Johnson of Jamaica, Cosem Espiro, 31, a Greek,and John Shertzer. a U.S. engineer. Before they were arrested, they threw overboard two booms 15 feet in length, each one with a torpedo full of dynamite. The government of Peru was paying them ten soles daily with the promise of paying them 10,000 soles for each armored Chilean ship that they sunk with their torpedos, through Casa Grace. They had made four large torpedos, capable of holding 200 pounds of dynamite, as well has two 90 pounds ones and four smaller ones of four pounds. They were also to earn 5000 soles for any wood boats they were able to sink. Their contract was time-limited, and extended two months from the time they left Callao. (Lopez, 1930, pg. 307, 308)

On the 20th, Charles W. Read, an ex-confederate recruited by Charles Flint, sailed for Peru. During the Civil War, Read commanded a Confederate torpedo squadron on the Mississippi River. Read brought with him an engineer, John H. Smith. After previously testing torpedos in Narragansett Bay, they followed the munitions down and across the isthmus and to Peru. The Peruvian Navy commissioned Read as a commander and offered him a substantial amount of prize money if they sunk the principal Chilean war ships.

A dispute arose amongst the Peruvian officers, when they heard that a prize would be awarded to Read for sinking the Chilean ships. The naval commandant at Callao told Read that no prize money would be forthcoming, so Read headed back to the United States. W. R. Grace was disgusted with this handling of affairs and felt the torpedo men had made a poor use of the weapons.

Resources
Lopez, Jacinto. 1930. Historia de la Guerra del Guano y el Salitre o Guerra del Pacifico entre Chile, Bolivia y El Peru. New York: De Laisne & Rossboro.

Arms Shipments Under U.S. Neutrality

The World Book of 1952 said that "no important problems in foreign relations arose" during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. He and his Secretary of State, William Evarts, are said to have maintained an outwardly neutral stance toward the war. Some said that the Europeans welcomed the war, as they had endured a long period without seeing any return on their capital nor interest in their debt. Their interests were more aligned with Chile, also a debtor, but not to the extent that Peru had reached.

After the Civil War, American military forces were downsized and ex-military officers looked for new opportunities. Peru sought foreign expertise and munitions developed during that war. A young Union naval engineer named John Louis Lay made what is known as a spar torpedo, an explosive charge on the end of a pole twenty or thirty feet long. After the war, Lay became a torpedo manufacturer and developed a new torpedo that could be sent against a target a mile away. The United States Torpedo Co. manufactured a somewhat similar instrument.

For use with these torpedos, Navy officers preferred a small boat made by the shipbuilding firm of Herreshoff of Bristol, Rhode Island. Grace took a ride on one in Long Island Sound. He decided that the only thing to save Peru was torpedo launches, and bought it for $18,500, billing the craft to the Compañía Cargadora del Perú, guano dealers of Callao.

The boat was 50 foot in length. It was difficult to disguise, so delivery to Peru was problematic. It is implied that the purchase of two steamers by the Peruvian government from the Pacific Steam Navigation Co. was required to effect the delivery of this boat and five others. Herreshoff boats were shipped in sections as "carriages" all ready to bolt and put back together. The first launch arrived in Peru in August of 1879.

Grace, acting as an agent of Peru, sent several torpedos and torpedo boats to Peru along with experts from the two companies. W.W. Rowley of the Lay Company went down to direct the proposed plan, traveling under the name of H. J. Patchen.

Meanwhile, Charles Flint wrapped torpedos in oil cloth and sent a thousand rifles masquerading as agricultural equipment to Peru. Flint decided that by shipping through Colombia, they could avoid having to cross Panama, where there was likelihood that the munitions would fall into the hands of the Chileans. Ten dirigible torpedos from Pratt and Whitney were slipped into the center of ten cases of oil-cloth.

Flint determined that oilcloth shipped by itself weighed about the same as two layers of oilcloth with a torpedo inside. "Peru did a surprisingly large business in oilcloth during those days" Cartridges surrounded by lard were sent in lard barrels. (Flint, 1923)

Resources
Flint, Charles R. 1923. Memories of an active life: men and ships and sealing wax. Putnam. 349 pp.