Battle of Chipana

The Battle of Chipana took place on 12 April 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. It was the first naval engagement between both navies and took place in front of Huanillos, off the (then) Bolivian coast, as the and gunboat found the on its way to Iquique.
After a two-hour running artillery duel, "Unión" suffered engine problems, the pursuit was called off. "Magallanes" escaped with minor damage and had completed part of its mission, delivering commissioned papers to Iquique, but could not complete its reconnaissance mission of finding if any guano ships were still trading in the zone.