WI US negotiates an end to the War of the Pacific?

At long last a South American WI!

What Actually Happened: Tensions between Chile, Bolivia and Peru steadily mounted over the 1870's over the nitrate rich Atacama desert eventually culminating in the War of the Pacific 1879-1883. The Chilean forces, due to their stronger navy, won the war and managed to annex the aforementioned region.

Now apparently, the US tried to intervene diplomatically in the early days of the conflict, avert war, and maintain the status quo which was beneficial to US business interests. However due to the weakness of the USN (not having a single oceangoing ironclad at the time) the Chileans promptly brushed them aside and told them to mind their own business.

But...

Had the American Navy been stronger, might they have been able to bring about an earlier end to the conflict or avert it altogether?

In the 1870's the corrupt Secretary of the Navy George Robeson ordered 5 new monitors "constructed" in the aftermath of the Virginius Affair. But with Congress unwilling to authorize funds for new construction, Robeson illicitly used repair and maintenance funds to officially rebuild aging monitors while building completely new ships. These monitors were nearing completion around 1876 but the election of Rutherford B. Hayes saw their contracts cancelled. From 1876-1883 these Monitors (4 of the Amphitrite class and the USS Puritan) languished in their yards, only to have construction resume in 1883 as a part of the New Navy and after many delays finally be completed in the late 1880's.

Let's say in TTL that the Hayes Administration takes a more pragmatic approach to dealing with the Monitors. Recognizing that the Navy needs new ships 1 or 2 of the 5 are completed with the rest being scrapped (1 on each coast?). Though not the best ships, in OTL the USS Monadnock, an Amphitrite class monitor, made the journey across the Pacific so they're not totally hopeless on the open seas.

Come the War of the Pacific, one of these ships is sent to protect American interests and try to preserve the peace. For the sake of argument it arrives in one piece. Does this affect anything?
 
The UK supported Chile in the conflict; obviously the US was loath to risk battle with the Royal Navy. What's more, the Alabama claims had recently (1873, IIRC) been settled and further tensions with Britain could conceivably have endangered the renewed commercial relationship at a time of acute difficulty for the late-reconstruction era US economy.
In any event, the war was decided chiefly on land, so sending a gunboat would have made scant difference.
 
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