Time of Independence
During the time of Independence, the sea was the way by which the liberating forces arrived in Peruvian territory and have threatened the royalist forces to finally achieve the independence of Peru. However, the planning of this maritime operation, the most important held until then in South American Pacific waters, had its antecedents a few years before.
To maintain independence achieved both in Argentina and Chile, it was required to do the same in the Upper and Lower Peru, and for this the separatists in command of San Martin, forces were clear that to jeopardize the core of Spanish power based on Peru, would have to bring their own forces by sea, but first gaining control of the sea. Since 1816, Buenos Aires corsairs and Chileans had made several raids against Peruvian ports, and in 1819 Admiral Cochrane, British sailor serving the libertarian cause, by orders of St. Martin made two expeditions on the Peruvian coast successfully attacking the port of Callao , making it virtually neutralize the realistic naval forces.
Having taken this important step, in Chile, and in command of San Martin, one Liberating Expedition, whose squad under the command of Cochrane, was composed of eight warships and eighteen transports carrying was established on board a 4,500 soldiers. This naval force sailed from Valparaiso on August 20, 1820, and arrived at your chosen destination in the Bay of Pisco, south of Lima, on September 7, disembarking 8 and starting land operations to be dispatched an army column patriot into the country.
Then the main body of the expeditionary army moved on 26 October 1820 by sea to the north of Lima, establishing their base in the city of Huaura. Thence would ensure that the realists left the capital on July 6, 1821, then enter San Martin with his army and occupy the city, where Peru's independence was proclaimed on 28 March.
However, although the capital was in the hands of the patriotic forces, it did not happen with the port of Callao, which even until September was to remain under realistic domain. Regarding the establishment of the naval institution of the Republic of Peru, the government constituted under the protectorate of General San Martin, instructed the captain Martin George Guise, of British origin, the task of organizing a navy, naming him as its first General Commander. The nascent Navy, inherited the land and establishment of the Department Maritime port of Callao, adopting the Spanish naval regulations, except for what concerns the disciplinary rules on board, who were British.
The first ship to fly the national flag was the schooner Sacramento, captured on March 17, 1821 by Victoriano and Andrew Carcamo brothers, and renamed Castelli. In September the Belgrano and Balcarce brigs, who had served the royalist cause under the name of Guerrero and joined Pezuela. In November the squadron joined the Limeña corvette; in early 1822 did the schooner Macedonia and then the same kind Cruz, the brig Colonel Spano and finally the Protector frigate, which had served the king under the name Test.
The initial function of the Peruvian Navy was blocking the ports in the southern area still occupied by the royalists, and on which San Martin had conceived an operation that began on October 15, 1821, sending the Limeña corvette and Balcarce brigs and Belgrano to establish control of the coast between Cobija and Nazca. However, these vessels could not accomplish the mission, while the ignorance of the blockade joined by foreign ships hampered the task. In the meantime, at the end of 1821 the so-called First Expedition Intermediate Ports, capturing the Peruvian square the port of Arica. In 1823, the government of Jose de la Riva-Agüero ordered the command of the Navy to captain Jose Pascual de Vivero, seconded by Guise in front of the squadron, who held and the degree of rear admiral. Both were responsible for planning the Second Intermediate Ports Campaign.
Subsequently, in February 1824, Callao was retaken by royalist forces, which led to extend the blockade to the port of Chancay. Peruvian squadron, had a long lock in Callao for nearly two years, during which time several raids and a confrontation with realistic squad occurred. Although hostilities ceased with the Spanish capitulation after the triumph of the patriot army at the Battle of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824, still remain in the Castillo del Real Felipe a handful of Royalists under the Spanish General Ramon Rodil, who finally desist from resistance in January 1826, to surrender to the patriotic forces, disappearing with it the last vestiges of Spanish rule in Peru.
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