It is quiet in Charco but we have lots of sun and the sea water is some 23 degrees: wonderful for swimming.
This time a piece by Alan, about the fishing boat that was wrecked near Charco. The fisherman’s hut north of Charco was the place where this tragedy took place fifty years ago. Below an update on that sad event.
The shipwreck
Hello everyone, although I (Alan) have stopped doing the Newsletter I still enjoy reading the new one and I think Tineke is doing a great job.
As many of you readers will remember, when I was researching the history of Charco del Palo I came across a story that caught my imagination. The story is of the shipwreck that happened on the 6th February 1973, 50 years ago. The name of the ship Domenech De Varó. Out of a crew of 12 two survived, three bodies were found and were given a Christian burial in the cemetery of San Roman Arrecife. Of the two survivors the Captain I have no knowledge but the second survivor is still alive. On the Spanish mainland an association was formed from all the families and friends who lost lives on the wreck. I have been lucky to be part of that friendship and these last few weeks have been very surprising to say the least. Luis Moreno a local historian along with the President of the families association came here on a visit to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shipwreck. It was while here that they spent time looking at records, working their way through a huge amounts of paperwork, as is normal. It was while checking the records of the cemetery that an anomaly was found. A page in the records book has five empty records. The names of the three identified victims, Jose Bernal Rodriguez, Antonio Rodriguez Zaragoza and Manuel Valiente, can clearly be seen on the page and then there are five empty spaces. In the notes part of the document it states that all the five bodies were washed up along the coastline between the wreck site and Arrecife a few day after the original three. How and why the five were not linked to the other three remains a mystery which will probably never be resolved but someone somewhere made a huge mistake by missing the link especially as it was front page news in the local papers. Because of the mistake the families back on the Spanish mainland were never informed about the five bodies, in fact it has been said that a curtain had been drawn and there was nothing else to be done after finding the original three. So 50 years later the families association is requesting the testing of the remains to determine who the bodies are. This, I am afraid, will take a great deal of time and also money. The really sad thing is that when I was looking into this story a number of years back, I was contacted by members of the families, who were then on the island and would like to meet. Having met, they were totally surprised when I said I knew exactly where the wreck went down, and immediately asked me to take them there.
While looking from the Fisherman’s Huts at Seifio Bay they made a video call to a mother. It was her brother who was lost on the wreck and all her life she had wanted answers but never got very far. But to actually see where the ship had sunk via video link was an experience she never expected. I found out that she has since died and never knew about the five bodies that lie in the cemetery. Of course it could be that he is one of the two that are now officially lost at sea but she would have loved to have put a flower on his grave if found.
I met with Luis Moreno who is, like me, a very keen historian and who would like to get some final rest for the five unknown seafarers. We are keeping in touch as to what is happening but I hate to say: it may take quite some time.
The fisherman’s huts
If and when tests are completed, the association wants to take the eight fishermen’s remains back to the mainland and see to it that they are buried close to the families they left behind all those years ago. Another link within the story was when the Captain of the ship, helped by Helmut from the Tunera, was taken to what was Pedro’s Supermacado in Mala, the reason being that he had the only telephone in the area to contact the Ambulance and local authorities. I was reading the Haria newsletter this last week and it informed me that sadly Pedro had passed away at the great age of 103 years old. Below is the original story that I did via the newsletter plus the press story from Cadiz. Plus the local paper, copy & paste this to a new browser and finally a copy of the cemetery entries.
https://www.diariodelanzarote.com/noticia/los-secretos-del-trágico-naufragio-del-domenech-de-varo-en-lanzarote-50-años-después
https://charco-del-palo-news-q0g8u1.mailerpage.comhttps://www.diariodecadiz.es/elpuerto/Diputacionabordara-naufragio-DomenechVaro_0_1785721882.html
https://www-lavozdelanzarote-c
actualidad/sucesos/ encuentran-en-arrecife-restosm
lanzarote-hace-50-
anos_218370_102.html?
_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_
