At 10:22 hrs, "Blanco Encalada" arrived to the fray. A shot from 200 meters perforated the "Huascar"'s turret, killing almost all of the sailors within and damaging the rightmost cannon. Another shot from "Cochrane" passed through the officers' quarters and wrecked the emergency rudder station, which had been disabled already twice before. The "Huáscar" now could sail only in a wide semicircle to starboard. Once rudder control was regained, Aguirre tried to ram the "Cochrane". Latorre was also maneuvering to ram the "Huáscar", but the Peruvian ironclad suddenly veered to port and both ships passed by each other. Another projectile pierced "Huáscar"'s turret 12 minutes later, killing everyone inside, including Captain Aguirre. Command of the ship went to Lt. Pedro Garezon, who in conference with the remaining officers decided to scuttle the ship rather than allow it to be captured. At 10:54 hrs the order was given to evacuate the wounded from the engine room and open the main condensator to scuttle the ship and to prevent its capture.