Qualla: Passage of Humaitá https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:58 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Passage of Humaitá https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita Passage of Humaitá: Introduction https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit Jourdan, E.C., Public domain. Just before four in the morning on 19 February 1868, a signal rocket arced over the River Paraguay and burst against the dark. It meant the first pair of ironclads had cleared the chains. For the men crouched inside those iron boxes, breathing coal smoke and listening to shot ring off the plating, it meant they were still alive. Ahead and behind lay the fortress of Humaitá, a mile of artillery on a river bend so tight the channel narrowed to two hundred yards. Foreign officers who had inspected those batteries called the passage nearly impossible. The squadron was about to find out whether they were right.

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Image: Jourdan, E.C. | Public domain

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Passage of Humaitá: The Gibraltar of the River https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit Schneider, Luois (1805-1878), Public domain. Humaitá earned its nickname honestly. Paraguay had spent years turning a concave bend of the River Paraguay into a killing zone - more than a mile of heavy guns set atop a low cliff, with a chain boom that could be raised to pin shipping under those guns while the artillery did i...

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Image: Schneider, Luois (1805-1878) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-the-gibraltar-of-the-river.mp3 0:06 2 full Passage of Humaitá: A War That Consumed a Nation https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit Ttocserp, CC BY-SA 4.0. The War of the Triple Alliance, fought from 1864 to 1870, was the deadliest conflict in South American history - and, measured against Paraguay's population, very possibly the deadliest modern war anywhere. These were not abstractions. Paraguayan gunners, whom even their enemies ...

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Image: Ttocserp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-a-war-that-consumed-a-nation.mp3 0:06 3 full Passage of Humaitá: The Admiral Who Would Not Go https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit Prkprescott, CC BY-SA 4.0. The man who should have led the dash refused to. Admiral Joaquim José Inácio had been a brave officer in the age of sail, but decades of desk work had left him, in one historian's phrase, "a ghost of an admiral" - ill, depressed, and certain the passage meant ruin. For months his...

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Image: Prkprescott | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-the-admiral-who-would-not-go.mp3 0:06 4 full Passage of Humaitá: The Flaw in the Chains https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain. Every fortress has a weakness, and Humaitá's lay underwater. Military doctrine of the day warned that a chain boom should never float on hollow supports, because an enemy could simply sink them. Humaitá's three great chains rested on canoes and pontoons. For three months the iron...

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Image: AnonymousUnknown author | Public domain

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-the-flaw-in-the-chains.mp3 0:06 5 full Passage of Humaitá: Rockets on the Water https://qualla.com/passage-of-humaita/ Photo credit Ttocserp, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Paraguayans had guessed the attack might come at night. As the ironclads advanced, defenders skimmed rockets across the water and lit fires along the Chaco bank to blind the pilots. Hugging that western shore, the squadron took most of the incoming fire on the mud rather than...

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Image: Ttocserp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/n/q/passage-of-humaita-wp/6enq-passage-of-humait-rockets-on-the-water.mp3 0:06 6 full