His father was the Spanish naval officer Manuel Cabieses Álvarez, and his mother was María Mercedes Alzamora Cantuarias.
[1] That same year, he joined the navy in the War of the Confederation on board the corvette Libertad, which captured the Socabaya, which was left under his command.
He commanded the ketch Magallanes in 1846 and the steamer Cazador from 1851 to 1856, which sank in one of Chile's worst marine disasters.
After the sinking of the Cazador, he faced a drumhead court martial[3] to determine his responsibility in the death of more than 450 people.
Public opinion at the time demanded his execution - however, thanks to his influence, his distinguished service in earlier naval campaigns, and that at the time there were few officials familiar with the coast of Chile, the Chilean Navy commuted his sentence, so that he could map and study the hydrography of the dangerous coast that existed south of the Guiatecas Archipelago.