Valbanera (ship)
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The Valbanera was a passenger ship operated by the Spanish shipping company Pinillos Izquierdo y Compañía, which carried passengers , freight and mail from Barcelona across the Atlantic Ocean to Puerto Rico , Cuba and various ports on the Gulf Coast from 1906 to 1919 . On September 9, 1919, the Valbanera got caught in the great Florida Keys hurricane off Havana and disappeared without a trace. The wreck of the ship was only found ten days later . There is still no trace of the 488 passengers and crew members.
The ship
The Valbanera was commissioned in 1905 by the Pinillos Izquierdo y Compañía, a steamship company founded in 1884 and based in Barcelona. The shipping company was generally shortened to Pinillos Line and specialized in passenger traffic from Spain to Central and South America . After the shipping company had provided its liner service with only two ships, the Valbanera was supposed to strengthen the Pinillos Line's fleet. The steamer was named after the Italian town of Valfenera because one of the founders of the Pinillios Lines was born there.
The Valbanera was in Glasgow district Scotstoun shipyard on the Charles Connell & Company built and ran on 13 October 1906, the hull number 309 on the Clyde from the stack . At 5090 GRT she was the largest ship of the Pinillos Line until then and was only surpassed by the 5574 GRT Barcelona in 1908 . In November 1906 the steamer was completed.
It had four price categories: first class, second class, third class and tween deck. In total, the ship could carry 1200 passengers. The first class accommodation was divided into three categories: Clase de Lujo (luxury class), Clase Preferente (preferred class) and Primera Clase (first class). The Clase de Lujo were luxury suites that were equipped with a bedroom, a salon and a private bathroom.
Disappear in a storm
On Sunday, August 10, 1919, the Valbanera left Barcelona under the command of the 34-year-old captain Ramón Martín Cordero for another crossing to Havana in Cuba with the usual stops. There were 1230 people on board (1142 passengers and 88 crew members). The cargo included olives , dried fruits and wine , among other things . On August 13, the Valbanera reached the port of Malaga , where the first passengers left the ship and others came on board. Two days later, the steamer arrived in Cádiz on the Andalusian coast , where more passengers left the ship. Then the ship ran at the Canary Islands . Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ( Gran Canaria ) was reached on August 17th and Santa Cruz de Tenerife ( Tenerife ) on August 18th. Between August 19th and 21st, the Valbanera was anchored in the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma to take more supplies on board for the upcoming Atlantic crossing. Passengers disembarked in each of the Canary Islands.
Then the Valbanera crossed the Atlantic. On September 1, she reached her first port of call in the Caribbean , Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan . On September 5, she reached Santiago de Cuba . Although most of the passengers were booked for Havana, 742 passengers decided to disembark there. Rumors of an approaching storm from the northwest had recently made the rounds on board. Therefore, many people decided to end their journey early for safety reasons. Losing an anchor is said to have been a bad omen as well . As a result, there were only 488 people on board the rest of the way to Havana.
On September 8, the steamer approached its final destination when the first foothills of the Florida Keys hurricane wreaked havoc in Havana . It was one of the strongest hurricanes measured to date , reaching Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale at the time. In the early morning hours of September 9, the Valbanera reached the port entrance and gave the port the signal to accept the pilot, but received the answer that the port was closed. The ship's command of the Valbanera took note of this and signaled to wait in front of the port for the storm to end.
When the hurricane dissolved and the Valbanera had not yet entered the port of Havana two days later, a large-scale search for the ship began. The submarine hunters SC-203 of the US Navy under the command of Captain LB Roberts found the passenger ship on September 19, about 40 miles off Key West in a specified by the local population Quicksands shallow waters. The Valbanera was in shallow water, with only one of the masts and two lifeboats still hanging in the davits on the starboard side protruding from the water. The wreck was 5 miles east of the Rebecca Shoal Lighthouse. It was completely unmanned; neither survivors nor bodies were found. The 488 passengers and crew had disappeared without a trace.
Investigation of the wreck
The United States 7th Naval District under Rear Admiral Decker conducted several dives to the wreck in collaboration with Domingo J. Milord, the consul of Cuba. During these investigations it was found that the ship was practically intact and that all lifeboats were still on board. Hence the question arose of how the passengers and crew could escape. The lack of scattered cargo and debris was also noticeable.
No human remains were found in the ship. Until today it has not been possible to clarify what happened to the people on the Valbanera . It is believed that the bodies were driven into the sea or quickly covered in sand before they could be found. There were also rumors that survivors had settled in Florida.
The short story After The Storm (1928) by Ernest Hemingway based on the discovery of the wreck of the Spanish ocean liner.
Web links
- Detailed and illustrated summary of the ship, its history and its sinking
- Theories about the whereabouts of passengers and crew members
- Website about the Valbanera with further links
- Entry in the wreck database Wrecksite
- The sinking of the Valbanera
- The wreck of the Valbanera as a diving destination
- The Valbanera in a report on shipwrecks in the Caribbean
- Article in the New York Times on September 21, 1919
- The Pinillos Line with a list of their ships