Manuel Blanco Encalada

1st Commander of the Chilean Navy
1790 – 1876

He was born in Buenos Aires on April 21, 1790.

At the age of 12, his mother sent him to Spain, and by 1807 he was incorporated into the Spanish Navy as an Ensign.

Shortly thereafter, the emancipatory movement erupted in the Río de la Plata and then in Chile, with Blanco showing a predisposition in favor of this process from the very beginning.

In 1813, he made his way to Chile and immediately joined the patriot army. General José Miguel Carrera assigned him to the artillery and to the construction and repair of cannons and armaments, organizing the first armory and weapons workshop in the country.

After the Battle of Maipú on April 5, 1818, he was appointed effective Lieutenant Colonel of his branch. On June 28, 1818, with the rank of First Class Captain of the Navy, he was appointed interim Commander General of the Navy Department, based in Valparaíso. Later, the Government entrusted him with command of the entire Navy.

Blanco consented to be the second-in-command of the renowned Admiral Lord Thomas Alexander Cochrane, who arrived in Valparaíso on November 28, 1818. He was transferred to the army on June 7, 1820, assuming the role of interim Chief of Staff and Commander General of Arms of Santiago.

Blanco’s final campaign in the War of Independence was his expedition for the Liberation of Chiloé. Upon his return, after Freire’s term as Supreme Director ended, Congress elected Blanco Encalada as “President of the Republic” in July 1826.

Years later, during the War against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, Blanco was appointed Commander in Chief of the Army.

SOURCE: CHILEAN NAVY