Boats,
Mints, Water and War in Peru |
 |
|
The firm founded by Matthew Boulton
and James Watt became James Watt & Company in the mid-nineteenth
century. One of their regular customers was the Peruvian Government.
They bought machinery for the Ballavista
Arsenal and for the Lima Mint, one of the rare occasions when
Soho supplied machinery that was powered by water and not steam.
They also bought boat engines, including four for vessels working
off the Chincha Islands in the lucrative guano trade. |
Left: Photograph of the interior of the Lima Mint, 1870
|
|
One contract was for engines for gunboats on Lake Titicaca. Boats
and engines were made in pieces and carried to the lake on mule trains.
Shortage of funds and an uprising in April 1865 delayed the work.
Stranded, the Soho engineers amused themselves by exploring and hunting,as
their chief William Partridge reported: “[We] have just returned
from Cuzco, the Ancient Capital of Peru… the remains of the
old palaces and fortresses of the Incas are well worth the trouble…
The work in some of these old buildings is most beautifully executed.....
Joseph Thomas was out shooting, the barrel of his gun burst and blew
off part of his thumb, and part of the second finger on the left hand.
The doctor has taken the whole of his thumb off, and his hand is in
a very bad state… with this exception we are all in good health, and
comfortable.”
| Right:
Cross-section of Chincha Islands stores boat, 1869 |
|
|
 |
 |
