Santa Cruz de La Palma used to have a shipyard. One of the largest ships they built was La Verdad, 485 tons displacement, which was wrecked on a reef south of Bermuda shortly after a hurricane in 1899. Luckily the water was shallow and the crew, cargo and bell were saved, although the first mate apparently had a terrible job to persuade the captain to leave. Thomas Cox, a retired…
Today we have a guest post by Thomas Cox from Maine, USA Being a lifelong ocean sailor, some years ago I was intrigued when I found the ships bell from La Verdad for sale in a marine antique store. I bought it. In searching for some history about the Verdad, I came to realize that the vessel was built in La Palma in 1873 and has quite a history. There…
Tall_ships_2014 The Tall Ships are back! They used to hold an annual meet-up in Santa Cruz de la Palma for Christmas, but last year’s was cancelled. Luckily, they’re back. The ships will arrive on December 24th and leave on the 26th. As usual, there’ll be a market in the port area from 9 am to 6pm, which gives you a chance for last-minute present shopping (or good-and-early shopping for January…