A full account of the sinking of the Chaim insurgent
iron- clad 'Blanco Encalada ' by the Government torpedo-boats
Condell ' and Lynch,' in Caldera Harbour on April 23rd, has been received from the New York World's correspondent, and published in Wednesday's Times. It shows that the iron- cl,td was taken unawares, with her anchors down and her fires
banked, and that fighting even under these great disadvantages she still made a very dangerous antagonist, landed a shell on the Condell ' which killed four men and carried away her rear smokestack, and another on the 'Lynch' which destroyed her fore-rigging. Also, some six or seven torpedoes launched against the Blanco Enealada' from the torpedo-vessels mis- carried and did no damage, though the last struck and sank the ironclad in two or three minutes. The advantages, however, secured by catching her in her unprepared condition were so great, that it is only wonderful she made the great fight she did. If the anchors had not been down and her steam had been up, it is probable that the result would have been re- versed. On a previous day, the Blanco Encalada ' had blown another torpedo-boat, the Mary Florence,' out of the water at a considerable distance, and the whole crew of the 'Mary Florence 'were killed. There seems to be no evidence of panic in the fighting on either side, though the destruction of life was necessarily very great.
