Battle of Chipana

The Battle of Chipana took place on 12 April 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. It was the first naval engagement between both navies and it took place in front of Huanillos, off the (then) Bolivian coast, as the Peruvian corvette Unión and gunboat Pilcomayo found the Chilean corvette Magallanes on its way to Iquique. After a two-hour running artillery duel, Unión suffered engine problems, the pursuit was called off and Magallanes escaped with minor damage. Magallanes was able to complete part of its mission of delivering commissioned papers to Iquique, but unable to complete its reconnaissance mission of finding if there were any guano ships still making commerce in the zone.