Carlos Condell

Carlos Arnaldo Condell de la Haza (August 14, 1843, in Valparaíso – November 24, 1887, in Quilpué) was a 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 father was the Scottish merchant marine Federico Condell, and his mother was the Peruvian aristocrat Lady Manuela De la Haza.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Condell in 1880