In 1905, Casma was lent to the Ecuadorian Navy to be used as a training ship, though in 1908, she was returned to Chile in exchange for the torpedo gunboat Almirante Simpson.

On 2 January, not far from Golfo Ladrillero, the ship hit a rock and buckled her plates, popping rivets and breaching several compartments.

The Casma was able to continue for a further 600 m and run aground on a sandy beach, far from the main shipping channel in a sparsely inhabited region.

In order to obtain assistance, and owing to the extreme desolation of these parts and the impossibility of traveling overland, Capitán Lagos sent one of the lifeboats, under the command of Teniente Luis Pepper van Buren, to the main channel.

They took with them water, food rations for several days, a compass, chronometer, navigation charts, binoculars, pocket lamp and a flare gun, as well as a rifle and Pepper's service weapon.