It involved two Balmacedist torpedo boats of the Almirante Lynch-class, and the Congressional armored frigate Blanco Encalada.

[2] The dissolution split both the Chilean Army and Navy, with some forces remaining loyal to Congress and others to the President.

[3] Supporters of those forces loyal to Congress, including members of the dissolved parliament and their backers among multinational nitrate interests, bought weaponry from Europe and the United States.

Better equipped than the forces loyal to the President, they rapidly captured Chile's northern provinces, which had recently been conquered from Bolivia and Peru during the War of the Pacific.

[3] Blanco Encalada arrived at Caldera Bay on 22 April, under the command of Captain Goñi, escorting several transports.

[6] When they were 500 yd (460 m) from Blanco Encalada, both boats came under fire by rapid-fire guns on board the frigate, which only had seven men stationed as guards.

[12] Almirante Lynch was slightly damaged in the battle, suffering hits to her steam-pipe and flooding in her aft compartment, but besides that, the two torpedo boats were undamaged.

Their army lost about 1,000 men, and three days later Congressional forces marched into Santiago, effectively ending the Chilean Civil War.

[16] Blanco Encalada underwent some re-floating attempts after the war, which were ultimately unsuccessful, and she was left in Caldera Bay until being demolished in 1954 when a new bridge was under construction.

[17] The battle had a wider impact on naval weapons development because Blanco Encalada was the first ironclad warship sunk by a self-propelled torpedo.

During the Russo-Japanese War, over 300 self-propelled torpedoes were fired, in one instance finishing off the already seriously damaged Russian flagship Knyaz Suvorov at the Battle of Tsushima.