The Battle of Chipana took place on 12 April 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. It was the first naval engagement between both navies and took place in front of Huanillos, off the (then) Bolivian coast, as the Peruvian corvette Unión and gunboat found the Chilean corvette "Magallanes" on its way to Iquique.
For a while, the "Unión" was subjected to cross fire, then the "Pilcomayo" suffered boiler trouble, and dropped out of the battle. After a two-hour running artillery duel, "Unión" suffered engine problems, the pursuit was called off. "Magallanes" escaped with minor damage and had completed part of its mission, delivering commissioned papers to Iquique, but could not complete its reconnaissance mission of finding if any guano ships were still trading in the zone.
There were no injuries on either side.
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