Chacabuco was a 20-gun corvette of 450 tons built in 1815 in Boston, USA. She came to Coquimbo as Avon and was bought by investors of Copiapó, Chile, in order to be used as privateer vessel under the name Coquimbo. But as the businessmen drew back, the Chilean government bought the ship on 20 June 1818 for $36,000. She was renamed Chacabuco and commissioned to the Navy under the command of Captain Francisco Díaz. On 24 March 1819, during the second blockade of Callao she captured the Spanish sloop Moctezuma.