José Alfonso Pizarro

When the Spanish government heard of the expedition of British Admiral George Anson to the Pacific, a fleet of two ships of the line and four frigates was despatched with a regiment of infantry for Chile.

Hearing that Anson was refitting in Santa Catharina for entering the Pacific by the Strait of Le Maire (off the southeast tip of Tierra del Fuego), Pizarro sailed at once to intercept him.

[citation needed] His squadron consisting of the ships Asia (64 guns), Guipúzcoa (74), Hermione (54) and Esperanza (50) and the frigate San Estéban (40).

From there, he despatched the frigate Esperanza to the Pacific, and crossed the Andes to Peru, where for some time he exercised the functions of naval commander-in-chief.

After the peace with England, Pizarro left the frigate on the Pacific station and returned overland to Montevideo, where he found his flagship, the Asia, refitted.