Beside the purchase of five new warship in foreign shipyards (Union and America in France; Huascar and Independence in the United Kingdom; and the Colon in the United States), and in order to save money, it was decided to build ironclads with local technology. The result was the Loa and the Victoria
The Loa was originally built in the United Kingdom in 1855, but as a wooden vessel. In early 1864 Peruvian engineers began to transform her into an ironclad, similar in design to the American Confederate casemated rams of the Richmond class. The warship was finished in 1865. Under her new design, she displaced 648 tons, was 55 meters long, had a beam of eight and a half meters and a draft varying between six and a half and seven meters. She was armed with One 110-pounder and one 32-pounder. Her armor was made of railroad iron and was 3-inch thick. Unfortunately, on February 5, 1866, while attempting to steam around the bay, the Loa run aground in Callao harbor.
On July 30, 1864, another ironclad, the monitor Victoria, was commissioned into the Peruvian Navy. She was finished in early 1866 and her construction marked the beginning of the activities of the Peruvian Navy engineering corps. This ship was designed, built and equipped with Peruvian technology by the Ramos brothers, Jose Tomas and Manuel Jose, at the shipyards of the “Maestranza Naval de Bellavista”, located in the port of Callao. She displaced 300 tons and was powered by a train engine. Because of this the ship was very slow. Her deck, only 20 feet above the surface, was 50 meters long, 10 meters in beam and 4 meters in draft. She was protected with 3-inches of armor and was armed with a smoothbore 64-pound Vavasseur gun. She had a crew of 44 men under Captain Juan Antonio Valdivieso.
Both ships fought during the Dos de Mayo Combat. The Loa had to act as a floating battery and ten Spanish grenades hit her but all of them bounced on her armor and the ship was unharmed. A Spanish 68-inch shell also hit the Victoria but her armor was not pierced. A young Lieutenant, Manuel Arriaga, was the only one wounded in combat.
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