it, forcing Huáscar to shoot with a parabolic trajectory to avoid hitting the Peruvian village, whose people gathered in crowds to watch the battle. General Buendía, commander of the Peruvian garrison of Iquique, had artillery cannons placed on the beach and sent an emissary in a fast rowing boat with a warning to Huáscar that Esmeralda was loaded with torpedoes. Grau stopped from her and began shooting with the 300-pound cannons, not hitting her for an hour and a half, owing to the Peruvian sailors' inexperience in the handling of the monitor's Coles turret. The Chilean crew answered with their 30-pound cannons and gunfire, shots that rebounded uselessly from Huáscars plated armour. At the coast, the Peruvian Army garrison in the town began to bombard the Chilean ship. A grenade reached her, killing three men. Prat ordered the warship to move, slowly maneuvering at scarcely 4 knots, for her engine was defective and one of her boilers had burst. He stopped 1,000 m from the city and 250 m from land, where they would stand until their sinking. This move allowed Grau to see the absence of the torpedoes that supposedly filled Esmeralda. One of Huáscars shots hit directly on board, beheading the ordering bugler and mutilating the gun crews. The position of Esmeralda was desperate. At 11:30am, Admiral Grau, seeing the useless slaughter and wanting to end the combat, which had been nearly four hours long, ordered his ship to ram into Esmeralda. The monitor backed to get enough impulse and charged bow-first into starboard side of the ship. When Prat saw the enemy warship colliding into his, near the stern, he raised his sword and cried his final order: "Let's board, boys!", but due to the roar of the battle, only the Marine Artilleryman and Prat's personal escort in battle, Petty Officer Juan de Dios Aldea and Seaman Arsenio Canave heard it, and both of them and Prat jumped aboard Huáscar. Arsenio unfortunately slipped and fell down because of the impact, so only the two officers got to the monitor. Aldea received a burst from the artillery tower and fell mortally injured. Only Prat continued advancing, amazing the Peruvian crew with his tremendous courage. Grau gave the order to capture him alive. Prat got to the enemy's deck and advanced towards the command tower, but he was hit by a bullet, bringing him down to his knees. Another