Cazador (Chilean ship)

The Cazador was a steamboat built 1848 in France and bought 1851 by the Chilean Navy for the transport of military and cargo along the coast of Chile.

Sinking of Cazador
History
Name: General Castilla
Launched: 1848
Fate: Sold to Chile 1851
Chile
Name: Cazador
Commissioned: 1851
Honours and
awards:		 First Steamer in the Chilean Navy
Fate: Sunk on 30 January 1856 off Punta Carranza
General characteristics
Displacement: 250 bm
Propulsion: 150 ps, 3 masts, barque rigged[1]
Speed: 9 kn
Complement: 65

On 30 January 1856 Cazador sailed off Talcahuano bound for Valparaíso at 11:30 AM carrying the 2nd Company of the Battalion Maipo and their families. In addition, she carried supplies, horses and guns. She sailed 6 miles from the coast at 9 kn.

At 20:00 the ship was driven on reef off Point Carranza, 10 km south of Constitución.

The sinking of the Cazador resulted in the greatest single-incident maritime loss of life in the history of Chile.[2]

Sources disagree on the number rescued and final death toll. The ship's captain, Ramón Cavieses, in his report gives 23 rescued and 307 dead,[3] but author Carlos Lopéz Urrutia gives 400 dead.

References
  1. Wreck site, PSS Cazador (+1856)
  2. Carlos López Urrutia (29 February 2008). Historia de La Marina de Chile. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-0-615-18574-3.
  3. Cited in Tragedias marítimas de importancia en Chile, retrieved on 31 December 2012

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