Ships and balloons

Boarding canoes

Machetes against ironclads.

Craft: Canoes tied in pairs with rawhide rope
Camouflage: Branches and camalotes (water hyacinths), to look like floating plants
Crew: About 12 men per canoe ‡
Weapons: Sabers, machetes, axes, pistols and hand grenades
Attacks: 2 March and 9 July 1868

With the imperial fleet inside the river, López tried to take the ironclads by boarding. The canoes came down at night with the current, in pairs, disguised as camalotes. On 2 March 1868 they boarded the Lima Barros and the Cabral; on 9 July, the Barroso and the Rio Grande. The crews shut themselves in the casemates while other ships swept the decks with canister: both attacks failed, with heavy Paraguayan losses.

‡ Disputed.Force on 2 March: 24 canoes of about 12 men, according to Thompson; 22 canoes and many more men, according to another source. Paraguayan losses: from 110 bodies counted on the decks to 400. The name “bogavantes”, which Paraguayan tradition gives these fighters, comes from the lead oarsman of each bench; it does not appear in the Brazilian sources consulted.

Sources: Revista Marítima Brasileira, the boardings of 1868, with quotations from Thompson; “Assault on the battleships Cabral and Lima Barros” and “Assault on the battleships Barroso and Rio Grande”, English Wikipedia.

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