The
protected cruiser
Protected cruisers, a type of naval cruiser of the late-19th century, gained their description because an armoured deck offered protection for vital machine-spaces from fragments caused by shells exploding above them. Protected cruisers re ...
''Blanco Encalada'' was purchased by the Chilean Government for £333,500 during the
Argentine–Chilean naval arms race
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the South American nations of Argentina and Chile engaged in an expensive naval arms race to ensure the other would not gain supremacy in the Southern Cone.
Although the Argentine and Chilean ...
. She was the second ship named ''Blanco Encalada''. (The previous ship was the
armored frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
''
Blanco Encalada'' sunk in the
1891 Chilean Civil War).
In December 1906 she was involved in the repression of the workers movement in the Saltpeter mines, railroads and harbour in
Antofagasta
Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669.
After the Spanish American wars ...
.
[Luis Vitale, ''Intervenciones militares y poder fáctico en la política chilena, de 1830 al 2.000'', Santiago, 2000]
On 17 December 1907 she brought troops from Arica to Iquique to repress thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's north to appeal for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions. These troops committed the
Santa María School massacre
The Santa María School massacre was a massacre of striking workers, mostly saltpeter works (nitrate) miners, along with wives and children, committed by the Chilean Army in Iquique, Chile on December 21, 1907. The number of victims is unde ...
.
See also
*
South American dreadnought race
A naval arms race among Argentina, Brazil and Chile—the wealthiest and most powerful countries in South America—began in the early twentieth century when the Brazilian government ordered three dreadnoughts, formidable battleships whose ca ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco Encalada (1893)
Cruisers of the Chilean Navy
1893 ships
Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth
Ships built on the River Tyne