At 11:30am, Admiral Grau, seeing the useless slaughter and wanting to end the combat, which had been nearly four hours long, ordered his ship to ram into "Esmeralda". The monitor backed to get enough impulse and charged bow-first into starboard side of the ship. When Prat saw the enemy warship colliding into his, near the stern, he raised his sword and cried his final order: "Let's board, boys!", but due to the roar of the battle, only the Marine Artilleryman and Prat's personal escort in battle, Petty Officer Juan de Dios Aldea and Seaman Arsenio Canave heard it, and both of them and Prat jumped aboard "Huáscar". Arsenio unfortunately slipped and fell down because of the impact, so only the two officers got to the monitor. Aldea received a burst from the artillery tower and fell mortally injured. Only Prat continued advancing, amazing the Peruvian crew with his tremendous courage. Grau gave the order to capture him alive.