The “Covadonga” now came up, and joined the other Chilian vessels, and Lieutenant Garezon, after a council with the surviving officers, determined to sink the “Huascar,” by opening her valves, and thus deprive his enemies of the satisfaction of taking possession of her. Chief Engineer McMahon succeeded in partially accomplishing this, by opening the circulating valve of the condensers, but to do this he had to stop the engines. They were at work on the main injection valve when Lieutenant Simpson, of the “Cochrane,” who had boarded her, interfered with the operation, revolver in hand. While this was going on, some of the “Huascar’s” men waved towels and handkerchiefs, and the Chilians, on seeing this, ceased firing, and the “Huascar’s” flag was then hauled down. It was at this moment that Simpson boarded her, and then came surgeons and engineers from the Chilians. On taking possession they found three or four feet of water in the hold. Some of the holes made by projectiles in her sides were nearly awash, and in a few minutes more the vessel would have sunk. She was also found to be on fire in several places, one of which was dangerously near the magazine. Fortunately the sea was smooth. The valves were closed, the steam pumps started, and the fires extinguished. The wounded and the prisoners were then transferred to the Chilian ships. The “Huascar’s” engines were uninjured, as were three out of her four boilers, and they were able to get her into port, at Mexillones, that same afternoon; and in two days, after temporary repairs, she was sent to Valparaiso. Here proper plates were found, which had been sent out from England for the “O’Higgins;” and by the 8th of the succeeding December she was in active service again under the Chilian flag. The scene presented on board the “Huascar,” when boarded by her captors, was most terrible. Hardly a square yard of her upper works had escaped injury, including her smoke-stack, conning tower, boats, davits, mast and chain-plates. Her bulwarks, poop, forecastle and hatch-combings were much injured, while her capstan was struck and knocked entirely overboard. During the latter part of the fight, indeed, the Peruvian had been little more than a floating target for the Chilian’s accurate fire. Eighteen dead bodies were taken out of the cabin, and the turret was full of the remains of the two sets of guns’ crews. The light wood-work, ladders and bulkheads were all destroyed. The ship’s log-book had been destroyed, but complete working drawings of the “Blanco” and “Cochrane” were found on board. The action lasted one hour and a half; and during this time the “Huascar” lost her commander and the three next senior officers, either killed or disabled, and had twenty-eight officers and men killed, and forty-eight wounded, out of a crew of about two hundred. [Illustration: (ENLARGED VIEW OF TURRET.) APPEARANCE OF THE HUASCAR AFTER CAPTURE.]