Carlos Condell Carlos Arnaldo Condell De La Haza ( August 14 , 1843 in Valparaíso – November 24 , 1887 in Quilpué ) was a prominent Chilean naval officer and hero of the Battle of Punta Gruesa during the start of the War of the Pacific . Possessing a great sense of strategy and analysis in battle , he was always underestimated by the contemporary media due to his Peruvian origin ( on his mother ' s side ) . His victories in unbalanced conditions were decisive to the triumph of Chile in the War of the Pacific . Early years . Carlos Condell was born August 14 , 1843 in Valparaíso , Chile . His father was the Scottish merchant marine Federico Condell , and his mother was the Peruvian aristocrat Lady Manuela De la Haza . His uncles were Diego and Antonio De la Haza , both rear admiral s of the Peruvian Navy . Therefore , he had several cousins who were Peruvian naval officers . Condell did not have familial ties to Chile , and this fact resulted in ostracism and criticism during his life . He was the sixth of ten children . His first and second brothers were born in Peru . He studied in Valparaíso , first at the " Colegio de los Sagrados Corazones " ( " School of the Sacred Heart " ) between 1849 and 1854 , and then at the " Colegio Inglés " ( " English School " ) . Military career . At the age of fifteen ( July 29 , 1858 ) , Condell joined the navy as a cadet , forming part of the renowned " Curso de los Héroes " ( " Class of the Heroes " ) together with Arturo Prat , Juan José Latorre , Jorge Montt and Luis Uribe . Three years later ( July 15 , 1861 ) , Condell achieved the rank of officer cadet ( " guardiamarina " in Spanish ) . First years of service . His first naval engagements were the Battle of Papudo ( November 26 , 1865 ) and the Battle of Abtao ( February 8 , 1866 ) in the Spanish - Chilean War , in which he fought allied with Miguel Grau and other Peruvian officers , who would become Condell ' s enemies the next decade . In April 1867 , Condell decided to withdraw from the Chilean Navy and become a merchant . He opened a store in Valparaíso which only lasted for 7 months : he returned to the navy and was assigned to the ship Esmeralda . In December 1868 , he participated in the honorable mission to return the remains of Bernardo O ' Higgins back to Chile . Later , he served in the ships " Abtao " and " Chacabuco " . In the following years , he sailed to the islands of Juan Fernández and to the south of Chile . Ending 1876 , aboard the corvette Esmeralda , he travelled to Easter Island and Tahiti . Civilian hiatus . In March 1872 , Carlos Condell again decided to withdraw from the navy , seeking again the merchant life of his father , but his business never achieved good results . In Valparaíso , he met a young woman of only 16 who became his future wife , Matilde Lemus Valdivieso . They married on September 26 , 1877 . They had four children . March 1876 , after four years of civilian life , he returned to Navy and again was assigned to the ship Esmeralda . War of the Pacific ( 1879 - 1883 ) . At the beginning of the War of the Pacific ( April 5 , 1879 ) , Condell was already promoted to Corvette Captain in charge of the corvette " Abtao " , and was commissioned the blockade of the port of Iquique , a Peruvian possession at that time . The next month , Condell was in charge of the schooner Covadonga , together with Arturo Prat , in charge of the slightly larger corvette Esmeralda , two of the older ships in the Chilean navy . They were left behind by the rest of the fleet heading to the main Peruvian port of El Callao to attempt a definitive assault . On May 21 , these small ships engaged the Peruvian armoured frigate Independencia and the monitor Huáscar ( respectively ) . While Prat lost his battle and died heroically in Battle of Iquique , Condell managed to escape to the south , pursued by the " Independencia " ( captained by Juan Guillermo More ) , which possessed size and firepower in this encounter . Nevertheless , Condell managed to pin the enemy ship into the coastal reef , bombard back , and get away while the monitor " Huáscar " showed in the shipwreck scene to assist the trapped crew of " Independencia " . After this battle , the balance in the War of the Pacific was broken , since only the " Huáscar " remained as a menace to the Chilean naval power . Condell was promoted to Frigate Captain and set in charge of the gunboat " Magallanes " . On November 2 , 1879 , Condell participated in the assault and takeover of the port of Pisagua , the blockade of Arica , and afterwards , the combat against the fortresses of the same city and the ship " Manco Capac " . In 1880 , he took charge of a well - known enemy ship captured in the Battle of Angamos : The " Huáscar " . He used the monitor to siege and block the port of " El Callao " and other conflicts of the War of the Pacific . The rejection and animosity among the Peruvian people was on the rise due to several combat encounters in which Condell emerged triumphant . Exactly three years after the battles of the Iquique and the Punta Gruesa ( May 21 , 1881 ) , Condell was promoted to Captain , and sent to Europe in December . He returned in 1884 , when the War of the Pacific ended in Chile ' s favor . Last Years . In 1884 Condell was designated as an aggregate of the Ministry of the Seas ( " Ministerio de Marina " ) and put in charge of the armoured frigate " Cochrane " as Commodore . Starting in 1887 he was transferred to the frigate " Blanco " ( on April 4 ) , where he assumed the position of chief of the national navy , a position he had to leave due to a serious disease . Nevertheless , on August 17 he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral ( " Contraalmirante " in Spanish ) . Carlos Condell died in Quilpué , on November 24 , 1887 , at the early age of 44 . His remains were carried to the " Crypt of the Naval Heroes " ( " Cripta de los Héroes Navales " ) in Valparaíso . References . Much of the content of this article comes from ( retrieved January , 2009 ) . The following references are cited by that Spanish - language article :