The Chilean Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Chilean Armed Forces, founded in 1817. Manuel Blanco Encalada was the Chilean Navy's first commander, and the British admiral Thomas Cochrane was hired to organize and command the navy, which he crewed with British, Irish, and American seamen and led them in their way against the Royalists of Peru and Chiloe. The Chilean Navy captured Chiloe in 1826, ending the Chilean War of Independence in a patriot victory, and it later fought in the War of the Confederation, the Chincha Islands War, and the War of the Pacific, during which Arturo Prat's heroic death led to a national mobilization that resulted in the Chilean Navy winning the war and becoming the most powerful in the Pacific for a time. The Chilean Navy incorporated Easter Island into Chile in 1888, leading to Chile becoming an imperial nation, and the Chilean Navy underwent modernization in the late 1880s before the Chilean Civil War of 1891 saw the Navy back the Congress against the Army-backed regime of Jose Manuel Balmaceda. The Chilean Navy was forced to engage in an arms race with Argentina and Brazil from the 1890s to the 1950s, and Chile forumlated a claim to Antarctica in 1940, establishing the Captain Arturo Prat Base on Antarctica in 1947. The Chilean Navy took part in the junta governance of Chile from 1973 to 1990, and, by 2017, the Navy had 25,000 personnel and 133 vessels.