On the 28th of March, 1939, the British coal ship Stanbrook, with her 24 crew, took part in the last evacuation of refugees from the port of Alicante to Oran, a major city on the north-western Mediterranean coast of Algeria.
In March of 1939, Alicante harbour was blocked off by Franco´s troops, with air support for the blockade provided by German Nazis, thus preventing ships from entering and leaving the area and carrying out any kind of rescue operation.
With some 15,000 refugees trapped in the harbour, to be taken by soldiers of the División Littorio, an Italian unit strengthened by Franco´s troops, to concentration camps in Los Almendros, later to be taken to a similar prison in Albatera.
Anchored off the coast of Alicante, the Stanbrook was waiting to load oranges and saffron. The ship’s Welsh captain, Archibald Dickson, could see the thousands of helpless refugees in the port, and thus defied the orders of the ship´s owners, who were ceding to Britain´s policy of non-intervention, and moved to take as many on board his ship as he could carry.
The Stanbrook set sail on the evening of March the 28th, with 2,638 people on board, dramatically dodging projectiles and artillery fire as the military cruiser Canarias blocked the port and the route of egress.
The ship avoided the projectiles, whilst continually splashed by the water dispersed by the artillery that had somehow missed its target, through which Captain Dickson continued, without fear, and once reaching the open sea heading south, changing the original route to avoid the looming aircraft, with a ship that weighed far more than she could carry, sailing below the waterline, plucking the lucky escapees away from a nightmare that was still gripping Spain, albeit, they were not to know, the event took place just 4 days before the end of the Spanish Civil war.
This week, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the dramatic and bold escape bid, a ship set sail on Thursday, with relatives, historians and even some of the original passengers on board, arriving in Oran on Friday, recreating the 20 journey made on that fateful night.
Whilst much of Spain is still divided between those who want to remember and those who want to forget one of the most horrific times in the country´s history, with many of the relevant documents and data destroyed, groups such as the one which organised this event, Operación Stanbrook, are keen to try to keep the memory alive.
Matías Alonso, spokesperson for the group, explains how Archibald Dickson, “risked his life” by allowing more than 2,638 people to board the Stanbrook, a ship that only had a capacity for her 24 crew. As for this journey, according Alonso, it is “not to enjoy, it is to remember”.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/43786/
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