° Punta Arenas ° San Antonio ° Santiago
° Talcahuano ° Valparaiso
Distance between San Francisco and
- Cape Horn, Chile: 7,000+ Nautical Miles
- Magallenes, Chile: 7,135 Nautical Miles
- Strait of Magellan, Chile: 7,000+ Nautical Miles
- Valparaiso, Chile: 5,300 Nautical Miles
ARICA
Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have inhabited the site of the Port of Arica for more than ten thousand years before Europeans arrived. Captain Lucas Martinez de Begazo from Spain founded a city there in 1541, and from 1545, it was used as a port for exporting silver from Potosi. In 1570, it received the name of the “Very Illustrious and Royal City of San Marcos of Arica” (La Muy Ilustre y Real Ciudad San Marcos de Arica). Until 1879 when the Chileans captured the city during the War of the Pacific, the Port of Arica belonged to Peru. The Battle of Arica is one of the most famous of the war, with hundreds of Peruvian and Chilean casualties in a matter of hours. The Port of Arica’s status remained at issue until 1929 when it was formally incorporated into Chile. The Port of Arica was destroyed by a tsunami following a large earthquake in 1868 off the coast in the Peru-Chile Trench.
COQUIMBO
Coquimbo means “Place of Still Waters,” and the name came from the beautiful quiet bay upon which the city rests. Indigenous peoples used the natural harbor as a port long before the Spanish conquerors arrived. Spain’s Pedro de Valdivia took the harbor in 1550. During the 1840s, mining made the Port of Coquimbo an important export center for gold and copper, and many Europeans (particularly the English) settled there. Today, the city boasts many buildings in English architectural styles and an English graveyard. It was officially recognized as a town in 1867. The area is full of stories about pirates and corsairs that plundered the coast, and rumors of buried treasure abound. The area was visited by privateers like Francis Drake, Davies, and Sharp.
JUAN FERNANDEZ
The Juan Fernández Archipelago consists of three islands, Isla Robinson Crusoe (Más a Tierra, 48 km²), Isla Santa Clara (2.2 km²) and Isla Alejandro Selkirk (Más Afuera, 50 km²), located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, 670 km off the coast of central Chile to which they belong politically. Frequently referred to as a temperate counterpart of the Galápagos Islands (but far less well-known or visited), both of these island groups are characterized by isolated floral and faunal communities that exhibit high degrees of endemism. The flora and fauna of the Juan Fernández Islands have declined drastically owing to the effects of two waves of introduced animals: goats, rats, cats and dogs introduced by the first colonists in the 1600s (though the dogs died out in the early 1800s), and then cattle, sheep, rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus and coatis Nasua nasua introduced in the 1800s.
CRUSOE'S ISLAND.
REPORTED DESTRUCTION OF
JUAN FERNANDEZ.
(From Our Own Correspondent.)
MADRID, August 30, 1896
In consequence of the violent earthquakes that occurred in the centre of Chili, Santiago, and Valparaiso on March 13 and 14 last, a notice has appeared in Santiago, uncontradicted up to the present, that these seismatical disturbances have destroyed the island of Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chili, to which the group of islands belongs. It is believed that these islands have disappeared. The island of Juan Fernandez, it will be remembered, is celebrated as having been the residence for four years of the shipwrecked sailor Alexander Selkirk, whose adventures inspired Daniel Defoe to write "Robinson Crusoe." A merchant vessel has seen, in the direction of these islands, enormous flames which shot out of the sea, causing a violent disturbance. The Government of Chili has sent a vessel to ascertain whether the islands are still in existence. The inhabitants are said to be about a hundred fishermen.
SAN ANTONIO
Before Europeans discovered the area, the site of Puerto San Antonio was home to Huechun Cacique and his people, who were fishers and farmers. In 1590, Portuguese Don Antonio Nunez de Fonseca received a grant of the lands. Nunez de Fonseca built warehouses there to store agricultural produce and seafood from the region for export to Santiago. In 1873, the Society of the Bodegas constructed wharves and warehouses there. Construction of the modern port began in 1910.TALCAHUANO
When Captain Juan Bautista Pastene discovered the mouth of the river of Bio-Bio in 1544, he wrote about Talcahuano. Antonio Guill y Gonzaga declared the Port of Talcahuano an official port in 1764. The Port of Talcahuano was named for Talcahuenu, an Araucanian chief who lived there when the Spanish arrived. In the language of the indigenous Mapuches, it means “Thundering Sky.” American whalers were familiar with the Port of Talcahuano in the 19th Century, as it was a favorite stopping point for food, fresh water, and entertainment for their crews. The port was legalized by Guill y Gonzaga by decree in 1764, making the port of registry for Chile’s interior and the most important port for ships travelling the Strait of Magellan. Located at what is known today as “Acanale la Nariz,” several precarious wharves were built that year. The new wharves brought increasing ocean-going traffic to the port. In 1915, construction began on the modern Port of Talcahuano.
VALPARAISO
Muelle
Villaurrutia, Chile's first cargo dock, was constructed in Valparaíso during the colony period in the early 1800s.
From then until 1831, a series of wharves were built in response to growing international trade, which was consolidated in 1832, when the first duty-free warehouses to receive cargo from Europe and Asia were built.
This infrastructure turned the port into a thriving commercial emporium for the South Pacific. During much of the Nineteenth Century, shipping was so intense that eventually three duty-free warehouse companies were active in Valparaiso. During that time, building out into the sea expanded the port and ships sailing from America's Eastern Seaboard and from Europe made Valparaiso a regular stopping site for re-provisioning.
New York Daily-Times, January 11, 1855
FROM THE SOUTH PACIFIC
A destructive fire broke out at Valparaiso on the morning of the 23d ult., in front of the Custom House. Ten buildings were destroyed and one life lost. The loss is estimated at $150,000. Only one of the sufferers was insured. The valuable documents of the Custom-House were saved. Had it not been for the active exertions of the Fire Companies, the destruction of property would have been far greater. The vessels of war in port sent detachments of men on shore, who rendered efficient service.
The Corro del Sur says that rich gold washings have been discovered by a part of five Americans in the Cordillera of Autuco, in the province of Auraco. They procured a large quantity, and others who followed after were also very successful. A party of twenty-five Americans, well armed and provided with the necessary tools, provisions, etc., were preparing to start for the vicinity.
The English vessels of war Dido and Rattlesnake, and the United States frigate St. Lawrence, were the only vessels of war in port.
Daily Alta California, Thursday Morning, January 10, 1856
Five Days Later From Valparaiso
MORE GOLD DISCOVERED.
By the arrival of the Emily Miner, Capt Metzger, fifty days from Valparaiso, we have dates from there to the 20th of November, five days later than were previously received.From 1870 to 1876, the Port underwent modernization, with the building of the State Wharf. This L-shaped dock equipped with a 35-ton capacity crane was the Chile's first major port facility and could handle two modern ships of the period. It operated until 1919, when the works of the new port absorbed it.We learn from Dr. D.W. Young, a passenger on board of the Emily Miner, that gold had been discovered at a place called Quipul, about 8 miles from Vina Del Mar and some 18 miles from Valparaiso. Considerably excitement was caused by the discovery. Capt. Metzger of the Emily Miner has a specimen on board which looks to be very fine; several Captains and mates of vessels in port had left their vessels for the mines -- the workmen in the factory and in fact many of the citizens had left for the mines, which are supposed to be very rich.
The Mercurio says its editor has conversed with a person who had been to the new mines, but had made nothing, who says that at present nothing can be made, but that in the winter during the rainy season they promise well. The Mercurio does not consider the mines particularly rich.
Miss Mary St. Clair, "the bright Queen of Magic," is still performing in Valparaiso.
A correspondence from Santiago, states that an extra session of Congress was about being called, and that among the subjects which would occupy attention, would be the increase of the salaries of the President of the Republic and the Ministers of State.
On the 19th of November, a grand banquet to honor the success of the allies, was given at Santiago.
In Valparaiso, a meeting of French and English residents was held on the 19th, and a committee appointed to arrange for a banquet.
With the completion of the State Wharf (1883), the construction for a passenger wharf began named Prat Wharf, which was completed in 1884, behind the "Heroes of Iquique Monument" (in memory of a major naval battle in this northern city). This generously sized wooden dock stretched tens of meters into the sea and was a popular walkway for city residents of the period, and was also replaced, like the state wharf, by the construction of the new port.
Between 1910 and 1930, part of the current port infrastructure is built, claiming more land from the sea, that added up to 2005 linear meters that belong to the berthing areas, 13 warehouses with a covered area of 114,595 square meters, 72,295 square meters of yards and a dangerous cargo warehouse, along with a 1000-meter long breakwater. Aside from modernization of equipment and technology, this infrastructure remained fully functioning until 1981.
