[4]: 285  Immediately, President Mariano Ignacio Prado, who had traveled on the Oroya, ordered the Huáscar and the Independencia to go to the port of Iquique to lift the blockade maintained by ships from the Chilean squad.

On the 25th, at 6:45 am, he began to pursue a steamer for 4 hours which turned out to be the Itata, which was heading to Tocopilla to tow the schooner Covadonga to Antofagasta but the chase was to no avail.

The Huáscar returned to Iquique to disembark the frigate captain Ramón Freyre, who had been injured by shrapnel in the legs, along with the senior surgeon Santiago Távara, who gave him medical treatment.

But when the Huáscar returned to Iquique, she sighted the ironclads Blanco Encalada and Almirante Cochrane, the corvette Abtao and the gunboat Magallanes at the entrance to the port on May 30.

In the early hours of June 3, between Huanillos and Punta Lobos, near Iquique, Huáscar's lookout spotted smoke on the port side.

At 6:15 a.m., the fog lifted and with the Blanco Encalada at a distance of 8 km , the Huáscar turned west and then towards Arica, trying to elude the pursuit at full speed.

At that time, the young Antonio Cucalón slipped from the deck of the Huáscar, who was a passenger and whose fall into the sea no one saw, since then all those who travel in an indefinite condition have been nicknamed "cucalones".

As soon as they arrived in Pisagua, they embarked all the crew members who remained in Iquique and who had made the trip on horseback all day and the previous night, and once again the Huáscar put to sea with a northerly bow, sailing 15 miles from the coast.

Both Peruvian and Chilean ships, anchored in the ports of operations, used to go to sea at night, returning the next morning, so they planned to attack or capture a transport off Antofagasta.

The unknown ship entered the Mejillones roadstead and the Unión stood in front of it, offering one of its bands ready to unload its artillery: the colors of France slowly rose on the unidentified warship.

According to the reports available to Commander Grau, the telegraph from Antofagasta to Mejillones had been laid, so it was assumed that upon entering the port, the surprise incursion had ended.

While the Unión sails to the Pan de Azúcar cove, the Huáscar captured the Adriana Lucía, loaded with metals, which was also illegally flying the Nicaraguan flag.

The Huáscar was assigned to sink the ironclad Almirante Cochrane, which, according to intelligence reports, had its boilers in terrible condition however this wasn't true.

Grau ordered 2nd Lieutenant Enrique Palacios to disembark to notify the governor of Taltal of the Huáscar's intention to sink all the Chilean ships so that their crews could be saved.

Upon the return of Lieutenant Palacios, Grau learned of the resignation of Rear Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledoto, the General Commander of the Chilean squad.

If it were possible to sink the Blanco Encalada, the transport Oroya, which was traveling in convoy with the Huáscar , would go to Arica to tow the monitor Manco Cápac to Antofagasta and the 3 assembled ships would order the surrender of the Chilean Army.

On August 22 at 3:30 am, the Huáscar left Arica in convoy with the Oroya and at 8:30 pm, was anchored at Iquique, picked up the two Lay torpedoes and embarked Peruvian and American engineers Felipe Arancibia and Stephen Chester to operate them.

At 6 pm, the Ilo was intercepted and Frigate Lieutenant Ricardo Herrera reported that the gunboat Magallanes, the corvette Abtao and the transports Limarí and Package de Maule were in Antofagasta, while the whereabouts of the ironclad Blanco Encalada were unknown.

[9] The current carried the torpedo back to the Huáscar and it was able to collide and sink the Peruvian ship, but 2nd Lieutenant Fermín Diez Canseco jumped into the sea, diverting its trajectory, and Lieutenant Carlos de los Heros and Marine candidate Manuel Elías Bonnemaison went out in a boat to pick up the torpedo.

While the Huáscar and the Unión, both under the command of Grau, would travel to Tocopilla where they would arrive at night to sink one of the Chilean ironclads or ship if it were stationed there, for which they would use a Lay torpedo, operated by the American engineer G. Haight, and if it were not possible for the clarity of the night, Grau would commit all possible hostilities between Tocopilla and Coquimbo leaving the ships at risk under his command.

On October 1 at 3:10 am , the Iquique convoy sailed north, but at 5:30 am , the Huáscar and the Unión headed west and then south, while the Rímac continued to Arica, making scale in Pisagua.

At 9 am on the 7th, the Huáscar stopped 60 miles from the coast to repair a breakdown in his engines, taking advantage of the time to receive 25 tons of coal from the Unión, which was visited by Rear Admiral Grau.

Although the fleets succeeded in their tasks at the respective ports (bombardment, capture and sinking of boats), the public reception of the events were different.

Initially, after the Chilean attacks, which were carried out before those of the Huáscar, popular demonstrations in Peru demanded that the government send the squad to avenge the wrongs.

[10]: 208 Jorge Basadre writes about the Huáscar and its attacks in Chile: It was an inferior ship to any of the enemy ironclads, and yet, it kept up the fight as master of the sea.

Gonzalo Bulnes wrote after the account of the events that occurred in April, in Guanillos,, Pabellón de Pica and Pisagua: It was a sad war.

The balance of April was reduced to this: a powerful squad condemned to carry out secondary operations [...] For Peru the economic consequences were devastating but the political use was positive.