Year 1840 - Triumph of the Steamboat

El capitán George Peackock

The Strait of Magellan was almost the only route used by ships on their voyages from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Few dared to sail around Cape Horn, because they always encountered contrary winds, and therefore preferred to use this route on their return, when winds were favourable.

The Pacific Steam Navigation Company had built two steamships, which were propelled by side wheels instead of propellers. These vessels were the amusement of old sailors, who ridiculed them because they did not use sails and sailed through the sea, sending smoke from their funnels, as if they were on fire. They were called "Chile" and "Peru" in homage to the two Pacific shipping countries and made their first voyage to the Straits, in search of Valparaiso, in 1840.

They came from Plymouth, under the command of Captain George Peackock, and here they landed in the bay of San Felipe, called at that time Puerto del Hambre.

The English sailors stayed in the area for five days. They landed at Punta Santa Ana, where they placed a beacon with an inscription that read "God Save the Queen." Under the beacon they buried coins and a document, leaving a record of their passage through this region, which they recognized as Chilean territory. The landing in the Strait of Magellan of these ships, "Chile" and "Peru", is mentioned under the name of

"The Triumph of Steam."

The fact that we note was remembered after 125 years by the PSNC that erected a monolith in Punta Santa Ana, very close to the site where the English sailors raised the beacon in 1840.

The arrival of these ships in that area worried the Government of that time and moved President Manuel Bulnes to take effective possession of the Strait, knowing that foreign ships often passed through it.

Thus, the voyage of the schooner "Ancud" was organized, in San Carlos de Chiloé.