War of The Pacific
When the war broke out, Prat was assigned to assistant of the Navy General Command, a position he tried to reject.
When Don Rafael Sotomayor Baeza was required to go to Antofagasta with instructions from the Government, he requested an assistant, and Prat was assigned to the job. Being both of them aboard the armored Blanco Encalada, he was assigned to notify Iquique's authorities that they have been blocked by the Chilean army, which he did without letting the hostile position of the people daunt him.
He was assigned Covadonga's command. On 3 May the corvette Abtao, under lieutenant commander Carlos Condell de la Haza's command, and the Covadonga, under Prat's command, set sail towards Iquique arriving on 10 May.
To achieve the plan that Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo had conceived, consisting of attacking the Peruvian squadron in El Callao's port, he assigned as Abtao's commander Manuel Thompson, who commanded the corvette Esmeralda until then. Arturo Prat replaced him, and Carlos Condell de la Haza was designated Covadonga's commander.
On 16 May, the squadron set sail to Callao Port, with the intention of surprising the Peruvian warships, but the same day Peruvian monitor Huáscar and armored frigate Independencia set sail from that port, towards Arica, to carry reinforcements, armaments, ammunition and provisions, so both squadrons missed each other on their trips.
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