Capture of the Reina María Isabel

28 October 1818, Talcahuano, Bay of Concepción

Chilean victory; the frigate and several transports captured

In May 1818 the frigate Reina María Isabel sailed from Cádiz escorting a convoy of transports carrying some 2,000 troops to reinforce the royalists in Chile and Peru. Soldiers aboard one transport, Trinidad, mutinied and took her into Buenos Aires, giving away the convoy's orders and its rendezvous at Isla Santa María. Chile's new squadron sailed from Valparaíso under Manuel Blanco Encalada to meet it, and found the frigate at anchor at Talcahuano. As San Martín and Lautaro came in, the Spanish cut their cables and ran her aground; her crew went ashore, and the Chileans boarded and worked her off under fire from the beach. Over the next days, still flying Spanish colours, the squadron took the transports one by one as they reached the rendezvous. The frigate became the Chilean O'Higgins.