When Capdepera Had Its Own Ship

While Capdepera is this weekend celebrating its mediaeval past by staging the annual market, more recent history would seem to have gone unnoticed.

Llevant was the name of a publication printed in Arta. An edition from May 1919 contained a news item which referred to an historic occasion on the fourth of that month. It had to do with the launch of a vessel, a "pailebot" or pilot's ship in English. The report says that on the morning of that day a great number of people appeared. They arrived on bicycles, in carriages or on foot. They went to Calarajada, which was how it was spelt and which was also styled locally as Calarretjada. Among their number was the local rector, Joan Torrandell, who was to perform the blessing. The launch was of the first ship of this type to be built in Capdepera, and its name, appropriately enough, was Capdepera.

With two masts, twenty-seven metres length and displacement of 200 tonnes, the ship wasn't particularly remarkable, but it was a first for the small port. Moreover, it had an engine, which cost almost as much as the rest of the ship. All told, the price was 56,745 pesetas; 24,000 of these were for the engine. Unremarkable or not, it became the "jewel" of the port's nautical industry, until then confined to the making of traditional fishing boats. The Capdepera was a merchant ship. Two days after the launch and the blessing, its skipper Colau Garau took it to Palma with a cargo of wood.

One of two Ferragut brothers, Antoni, was behind the building of the ship at the Na Ferradura yard. Others involved with the project were Colau Garau, Margalida Garau and Antoni Moll. As was common then (and still is), the reporting identified these people with their nicknames. Colau, for example, was "Bombu"; Margalida was "Bomba". So all in all, the launch was a grand occasion and represented a notable development for the local economy, which at that time was reliant on the sale of almonds, pigs and wicker products made from palms.

There was, however, another line of business, an emerging one. In the early part of the last century, Cala Ratjada was one of three centres of tourism (such as it was) away from Palma; Puerto Pollensa and Puerto Soller were the other two. Cala Ratjada was made fashionable by prominent Majorcans, none more so than Joan March. With the riches gained from his smuggling, March's palace was built, the Sa Torre Cega estate having been bought in 1915. The first and only Majorcan to be prime minister of Spain, Antoni Maura, had a summer residence not far from the March mansion.

By the time that the idea for the building of the ship cropped up, Cala Ratjada was a summer destination for members of Arta society, for the wealthy in Manacor and Sineu and also for people from Catalonia and Madrid. The appeal was enhanced when in the same year as the launch, a magazine in Barcelona profiled Cala Ratjada and in particular an inn where the lobster was exceptional. The inn was called Cas Bombu. The owner was the skipper of the ship. The following year, there were no rooms for rent to be found in Cala Ratjada; they had all been booked. Cas Bombu could itself accommodate up to forty people. The Hotel Hostal Cas Bombu survives to this day.

One hundred years ago, therefore, Cala Ratjada was enjoying - in relative terms - a boom, courtesy of the new industry of tourism and the new ship. Yet for all this, it tends to be overlooked when consideration is given to, for instance, the development of tourism. Perhaps this owed something to its remoteness, which was to be seen as an advantage in the 1930s when German Jews and pacifists congregated there. Or maybe it was because in those early years, it wasn't en vogue for foreigners to the degree that Pollensa and Soller were; it wasn't the Tramuntana and hadn't been promoted to anything like the same extent by, for instance, the painters.

In another respect, Cala Ratjada has seemed to be overlooked in recent days. There may have been reports of the one-hundredth anniversary of the launch of the Capdepera, but if there have been, I haven't come across any. Yet it was an important development and should be seen so, especially now when there is gathering interest in celebrating Majorca's maritime history and creating museum space to remember this heritage.

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