Her main battery consisted of 4 x 9.4" (240mm) guns fitted as four single-gunned turrets, two mounted forward and the remaining two aft. Supplemental armament included 8 x 4.7" (120mm) guns, 6 x 6-pounder cannon, 4 x 3-pounder cannon, and 10 x 1-pounder guns. She also carried 4 x 18" (460mm) torpedo tubes.
Capitan Prat formed part of the Chilean Navy's frontline fleet for a good decade before her design was readdressed. This was mainly due to a treaty agreed upon with neighboring Argentina to help head-off a naval race in the region. As such, her guns were removed to honor the agreement. She was rebuilt during 1909 to help keep her viable and remained in active service with the Chilean Navy throughout World War 1 (1914-1918). The warship stood at her post until 1926 to which she was downgraded to coastal defense duties. From the period of 1928 until 1930, she served the Chilean Navy as a submarine tender (depot ship) and, in 1935, as an engineer training school. She was finally given up for good in 1942, her design stripped of its usefulness and her hulk sold for scrapping. By this time, the steel warship had replaced the ironclad and the aircraft carrier was coming into prominence - rendering all ironclads a permanent piece of naval history.
Capitan Prat's design was respected enough that the governments of America and Japan attempted to purchase the vessel from the Chilean government - in 1898 and 1903 respectively - to help shore up their ocean-going fighting forces prior to them entering into war. For the Americans this became the Spanish-American War (1898) and, for the Japanese, this became the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
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