Manduvirá River Expeditions

The Manduvirá River Expeditions were the final operations of the Imperial Brazilian Navy carried out on the Paraguayan War. The goal of the imperial fleet was to carry out explorations along the river and its streams, with the aim of capturing or destroying the remaining ships of the Paraguayan armada that had taken refuge. The Brazilian fleet was composed of eighteen ships, including battleships, monitors, gunboats and steamboats while the Paraguayan fleet had about a dozen steamers. A total of three expeditions were carried out, which proved to be extremely dangerous for Brazilian ships due to the sinuosity of the river and the blockades created by the Paraguayans.

The ships encountered obstructions made of logs from the hulls of sunken ships, large piled trees, canoes, iron chains and carts loaded with stones created to delay the pursuit. Due to the narrowness of the river, ships sometimes had to turn astern, given the impossibility of turning and heading. In the second expedition, considered the most violent, the Brazilian fleet had to face a garrison of 1,100 men at Passo Guarayo, a very well fortified place. The expeditions, which began in January 1869 and ended in August of the same year, were responsible for the annihilation of the Paraguayan Navy. In the 1970s, a museum was created on the site where some ships that were recovered from Manduvirá are preserved.