 Commander Arturo Prat. |
The figure of Commander Arturo Prat faithfully represents the commitment of the Chilean seamen with their country, due to his exemplary heroism in the Iquique Naval Combat, May 21, 1879, during the War of the Pacific against Peru and Bolivia. On that day, Arturo Prat, entrusted with blockading the port of Iquique, commanded a fragile wooden ship, the corvette “Esmeralda”, which together with the small gun sloop “Covadonga” in the early hours of that day, faced two newly arrived Peruvian ironclads, the powerful monitor “Huascar” and the frigate “Independencia”.
Commander Prat, in spite of the inferiority of his forces decided not to withdraw but to confront the “Huascar”, giving up his life in battle together with more than one hundred members of his crew who decided to fight to the very end instead of surrendering.
 His address to the crew of the “Esmeralda” before the Iquique Naval Combat has been preserved in the Chilean history: “Mates, the odds are against us. Our colors have never been lowered to the enemy, and I trust this will not be so today. As long as I live that flag shall fly high in its place and, if I die, my officers know how to do their duty”. Such words are a message that has been passed on from generation to generation and has been preserved among Chilean traditions deeply engraved in the motto of all Chilean warships “Victory or Death”. |
Commander Prat became legendary when the "Huascar" rammed the almost motionless corvette “Esmeralda”, after four hours of fighting. Precisely at that moment Prat jumped over the railing to board the Peruvian monitor while calling on to his men to follow. Only Sergeant Juan de Dios Aldea followed him, since due to the clamor of combat, his other men did not hear Prat’s call and had only to watch helplessly as the Huascar backed away with Commander Prat falling on the enemy deck under a volley of rifle fire. After two more rammings from the Huascar, the Esmeralda sank without lowering the national colors.
Arturo Prat and his crew’s daring sacrifice deeply impacted Chilean public opinion of that time, awakening a patriotic fervor that prompted thousands of youngsters to volunteer for the war, marching with Prat’s example towards victory reached four years later.
Besides his gallant behavior in combat, Prat is remembered as an integral, intellectual, righteous officer endowed with solid moral values who formed an exemplary family together with his wife, Mrs. Carmela Carvajal, and their three children. He was also the first Chilean Navy officer to receive a university degree, after studying Law with great effort, at the same time as he performed his Navy duties.
