This engagement is noteworthy for the reason that in it the first automobile torpedo ever employed in war was discharged by the _Shah_ against the _Huascar_, and failed to reach its mark. The _Shah_ bore the brunt of the engagement with the _Huascar_. The latter almost ignored the _Amethyst_, whose small guns did no more harm to her sides than a mosquito would do to an elephant, but helped to make the mutineer’s deck guns useless, and the ironclad reserved her attention for her more formidable antagonist. Whenever the firing became unpleasantly severe, as it frequently did, the _Huascar_ steamed in front of Ilo, and the _Shah_ then hesitated to fire lest her shells should miss the _Huascar_ and hit the town, notwithstanding that the _Huascar_ then fired at the _Shah_. But the _Huascar’s_ aim was faulty, partly because of the poor shooting powers of her gunners, and partly because the _Shah_ kept rapidly on the move and so presented no steady mark to the Peruvian gunners. The _Huascar_ tried to ram her, but the _Shah’s_ speed enabled her to avoid the blow without difficulty, and give a telling shot at short range in return. Altogether the ironclad was hit nearly seventy times, but though she was badly dented, only one shell passed through her 3-inch armour to a sufficient extent to cause any injury to the interior of the vessel or to her crew. The hulls of the British ships were not struck once, though their rigging suffered a little trifling damage. They hoped to capture the _Huascar_ on the morrow, but by daylight she was out of sight, and during the morning was surrendered by her commander to the Peruvian Government ships. But her fighting days were by no means over. This battle was held by the experts in naval matters to demonstrate the value of armour and the weakness of the ordinary 9-inch muzzle-loader, and also the prime necessity of accurate shooting. The English gunnery was bad and that of the Peruvians was execrable.