| Career (Chile) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Almirante Lynch |
| Namesake: | Patricio Lynch |
| Builder: | Laird Brothers of Birkenhead, Birkenhead |
| Laid down: | 1889 |
| Launched: | 1890 |
| Commissioned: | 1890 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 713 t (702 long tons) |
| Length: | 70 m (229 ft 8 in) p/p |
| Beam: | 8 m (26 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 1 m (3 ft 3 in) forward 6 m (19 ft 8 in) aft |
| Propulsion: | 2 steam engines, 3.38 MW (4,533 hp) 4 cylindrical boilers 2 screws |
| Speed: | 20.2 knots (37.4 km/h; 23.2 mph) |
| Range: | 2500 nm |
| Complement: | 87 |
| Armament: | 1890 : 5 × 356 mm (14 in) torpedo tubes 3 × 14-pounder Hotchkiss guns 4x3-pounder Hotchkiss guns 2 machine guns |
The gun torpedo vessels Almirante Lynch and her sister ship Almirante Condell, were purchased in England and launched in 1890.
Contents |
The vessels had a high forecastle and poop, and a ram on the bow. the hulls were steel. The principal armament was five Whitehead torpedo tubes, one in the bow and two in each broadside. They also had two fourteen-pounder guns in echelon on the forecastle and one on the poop, four 3-pounder guns, and two machine guns. [1]
Almirante Lynch was part of the small force of ships at disposal of José Manuel Balmaceda in the Chilean Civil War of 1891. During the war, on April 23, 1891, the Almirante Lynch and her sister ship Almirante Condell attacked and sank the rebel ironclad frigate Blanco Encalada (1875). Early in April a portion of the revolutionary squadron, comprising the Blanco Encalada and other ships, was sent southward for reconnoitring purposes and put into the port of Caldera. During the night of April 23, and whilst the "Blanco Encalada " was lying quietly at anchor in Caldera Bay, the Almirante Lynch torpedo gunboat, belonging to the Balmaceda faction, steamed into the bay of Caldera and discharged a torpedo at the rebel ship. The "Blanco Encalada " sank in a few minutes and 300 of her crew perished. This coup severely weakened the Congressional squadron. This was the first successful torpedo attack on a warship.[2]