Biographies of important people in the Armada.
Almirante Eduardo Moore (b. 1880) Naval Commander-in-Chief
Eduardo Moore was born in Vina del Mar to a British father and a Chilean mother. The youngest of six children, he grew up with the reputation of an intrepid adventurer. His father obtained a midshipmen's berth for him aboard the Chilean predreadnought Constitucion and Moore quickly advanced through the ranks of the Armada de Chile. In 1915, Moore was chosen to command an international mission of six Chilean naval officers sent to investigate heavier-than-air flight. Once he gained his pilot's license, he rapidly became the Armada's resident expert on naval aircraft, and in 1922 wrote a treatise (Strategic and Tactical Considerations of the Naval Air Component) which analyzed the need for shipborne aircraft. During the Andean War, Moore served as the captain of the Chilean carrier Mapuche and oversaw the first Chilean carrier combat operations. He then commanded the Scouting Force. In 1936 Moore was selected over several higher-ranking candidates to become the Navy Commander-in-Chief. Moore remains an accomplished pilot and owns a collection of aircraft including a Sopwith Camel. Moore married in 1917 and has two daughters, Adelaida (19) and Maribela (16).
Almirante Vincente Foxley (b. 1889) Commander, Flota de Alta Mar
Vincent Foxley was born in England and his family migrated to Chile in 1901, where Foxley adopted the Spanish pronounciation "Vincente" for his first name. Foxley joined the Armada at age sixteen to help support his family, and displayed his personal heroism aboard the cruiser Esmeralda, rescuing two men washed overboard in a storm, and his commanding officer arranged for his education as an officer. Foxley became a gunnery officer and married an admiral's daughter in 1908. In 1927, Foxley was appointed captain of the dreadnought Almirante Cochrane, which he commanded until his promotion to Contraalmirante in 1931. In 1934, he was promoted to Vicealmirante, and in 1937, received the promotion of Almirante and the assignment to command the Flota de Alta Mar. He has the reputation of being a cautious but cunning strategist. He is the second highest ranking officer in the Navy. Foxley has seven children, three of which serve in the Navy.
Vicealmirante Diego Arellano (b. 1892) General Directorate for Materials
Diego Arellano was born in Santiago, the son of a Navy officer who was discharged dishonorably when Diego was in the Naval Academy. As a result of his father's disgrace, Arellano worked extremely hard to repair his family honor and became one of the most respected sea officers in the Armada. However, he did not make the same efforts in maintaining his family: his first wife divorced him in 1934 and his oldest son committed suicide in 1938 after the Naval Academy expelled him for misbehavior. In August 1939, following rumors that he wanted to leave sea service permanently to be with his two surviving children, Arellano accepted a position as head of the General Directorate for Materials and was replaced by Loble Nahuelpán.
Contraalmirante Loble Nahuelpán (b.1893) Commander, First Battle Squadron
Contraalmirante Nahuelpán is noted for being the only ethnic Mapuche to serve as a flag officer in the Armada de Chile. Nahuelpán is ambivalent to naval aviation and firmly believes that antiaircraft gunnery will eliminate the capabilities of aircraft to significantly damage battleships. He replaced Vicealmirante Arellano in August 1939 as commander of the Battle Force, but in January 1940 he was demoted to Contraalmirante and removed from service following an internal scandal. Rumors state that the removal came at the behest of aviation proponents in the Navy in order to hinder Nahuelpán's expected promotion to commander of the Flota de Alta Mar. Nahuelpán was replaced in command of the Battle Force by Contraalmirante Horatio Tilgher.
Contraalmirante Arturo Somavia - Naval General Board
Contraalmirante Somavia was born in Valparaiso and attended a naval academy in France. Somavia commanded the First Cruiser Squadron during the Battle of Barranca, and was critically injured when his flagship Nevado Ojos del Salado was nearly sunk by the Peruvian armoured cruiser Almirante Grau. Some officers have questioned Somavia's abilities in sea commands, but others have pointed out that he maneuvered his force into a nearly flawless textbook ambush, only to have it come apart in the last few minutes. Following his recovery in 1938 he was assigned to the Navy General Board.
Contraalmirante Elias O'Higgins Fresno (b. 1893) Commander, The Scouting Force, 1938-1941
Contraalmirante Germán Arrau (b.1890)
Admiral Arrau is the commander of the Chilean Navy's coast defense forces, composed of two submarine and three antisubmarine squadrons, plus a small group of patrol vessels. Arrau is the Navy's highest-ranking officer with submarine command experience and is the main champion of the small submarine force. He is seen as a competent administrator but only a mediocre sea-officer. He benefited greatly from a higher-ranking patron who placed him in sea and desk commands which maximized his organizational skills while building up his technical and seagoing expertise. His promotions have been slow but steady. He is a widower with two adult sons, the youngest having joined the Navy, with the eldest becoming a naval architect.
Contraalmirante Miguel Mori
Contraalmirante Miguel Mori is commander of the Logisitics Fleet for the Armada. Mori is a strong proponent of investing in underway replenishment forces, and sees the 1937 naval campaign against Peru as a vindication of his logistics force. Mori's tankers managed to provide the Flota de Alta Mar with unprecedented at-sea readiness.
Contraalmirante Daniel Laport - Retired 1938.
Commander of the Scouting Force, Laport was heavily critiqued by a political rival for his actions at the Battle of the Gulf of Guayaquil. Though Laport has received the unconditional support of the Navy, he has retired due to the criticisms. In 1939, he was appointed as ambassador to the Philippines.
Contraalmirante Horatio Tilgher (b. 1890) The Battle Force.
Horatio Tilgher replaced Loble Nahuelpán as commander of the Battle Force in January 1940.
Capitán de Navio Pieter van Rijn (b. 1898) Captain of Nevado Ojos del Salado then Constitucion (until 1940). Pieter van Rijn's parents immigrated from Utrecht to Puerto Montt shortly before his birth. van Rijn's father was able to arrange an officer's commission for his son, and van Rijn quickly gained notice as one of the most technically proficient officers in the navy.
Contraalmirante Rodrigo Solovera (b. 1894) Commander, Fast Carrier Force, 1939-
Capitán de Navio Philip Prien (b. 1898, d.1939) Commander, Naval Dirigible Squadron, 1938-1939
Prien was the son of Swiss immigrants who moved to Puerto Montt in the 1890s. Disdaining to join the family's hotel business, he signed on as a seaman aboard a German steamer in 1914, and ended up in Germany at the start of the Great War. He there saw the German zeppelins and fell in love with the concept, joining the German Navy as a volunteer and serving aboard LZ41 and then aboard LZ95, surviving her loss but being taken prisoner by the British. In 1919 he married an Irish nurse before returning to Chile and joining the Armada. In light of his war experience and technical proficiency, he rose fairly quickly, drifting into the circle of Eduardo Moore's "Brownshoes" and earning a pilot's license, but continued pushing for lighter-than-air ships. Prien was a renowned "showboater" and risk-taker, and had a professional feud with Capitan Mackay, the junior airship proponent of the Armada, over Prien's intent to fill the airships with hydrogen instead of helium. In 1939, he was diagnosed with an advanced case of cancer and died several months later.
Capitan de Navio David Mackay (b. 1895) Commander, Naval Dirigible Squadron, 1939-present
David Mackay, like Prien, saw much of the Great War, but as a neutral observer in France, representing the Armada de Chile. During his time in France Mackay was bombed by a German zeppelin and later had the chance to inspect the wreckage of a "height climber" which crashed in Britain. Following the war, Mackay studied engineering in Atlantis and the United States, using his experience during the Great War to study rigid airships, which he proposed to the Armada in 1925. Mackay served as a staff officer for Almirante Moore for several months of 1935, and his serious engineering-centric perspective proved more decisive at shaping the Armada's airship program than Prien's dramatic flair. Prien and Mackay notably clashed over whether to use helium or hydrogen for Chilean airships, a fight that Mackay successfully won. Both men insisted the feud was finished and didn't discuss it further. In 1939, Mackay was promoted to command the Naval Dirigible Force following the death (by cancer) of Commodoro Prien.
Capitán de Navio Eric Regonesi (b. 1896) Captain, CNS Mapuche, 1937-1941
Capitán de Corbeta Eleuterio Serebrier (b. 1906) CAG, 1 Grupo/AdCAA
Commander Air Group of 1 Grupo. Serebrier is due for promotion and it's likely he will be promoted to Capitán de Navio by 1942. He must, however, command a surface ship before being placed as CO of a carrier.
Teniente 1° Patricio Guerrero (b. 1910) Flag officer for Foxley, 1939
Assistant Operations Officer aboard Mapuche during the Peruvian War; now an aide to Admiral Foxley. Guerrerro has six sons, and is working to write a new companion volume to Moore's Considerations in order to modernize it.
Commodoro Tomás Almeyda (b. 1908) Commander of the Submarine Force, 1939-
The first commodore of the Submarine Force. An engineering officer trained in the US, and an advocate for new fleet submarine designs.
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