Wreck of the Flachat

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites · Year: 1898

One of the greatest maritime disasters to occur on the coasts of the Canary Islands happened in February 1898, when the French-flagged ship Flachat was wrecked very close to the Punta de Anaga. Of the one hundred and one people on board, including crew and passengers, seventy-seven lost their lives in this tragic event. 

The Flachat was a large ship for its time. A vessel of 2,227 tons consisting of three masts rigged as a brigantine-schooner and an engine with a triple-expansion steam engine that gave it a speed of 10 knots. It measured 90 m in length, 11 m in beam and 7.6 m in draught. It was built in 1880 at the M. Pearce&Co shipyards in Stockton, Liverpool. 

Owned by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, it had sailed from the port of Marseille and after calling at Barcelona and Málaga, on the night of 15 February 1898 it was approaching the coasts of Tenerife in search of the light of the Anaga lighthouse, which would guide it towards the port of Santa Cruz, its next stop on the route to Venezuela, Colombia and Costa Rica. But the much-desired light of the lighthouse was almost imperceptible that night, as the Archipelago had been suffering since the previous day from an extreme episode of calima that greatly hindered visibility. The ship, blindly, approached the shore near Roque Bermejo. A sea roughened by the south wind threw it against the coast. The vessel, powerless to react, broke into three pieces upon striking the rocks. 

The terrified passengers immediately sought to position themselves on the bow as this part of the ship was secured on the rocks and was considered the safest. At the stern, clinging to the mast, several people were immediately swept away by a strong wave. A sailor known as a good swimmer tried to reach the shore to tie a rope and try to disembark those still on deck; he attempted the task three times and just when it seemed he was going to succeed, a huge wave smashed him against the reefs and he disappeared immediately beneath the furious waters.

At dawn the next day, the sailors of the steamship Susu , a coastal vessel of the Elder & Dempster company running the Santa Cruz de Tenerife-Garachico route, rounding the Punta de Anaga, came upon the tragedy. They immediately reached the wreck site and rescued a group of thirteen people clinging to a small semi-submerged wooden boat. The shipwreck survivors still on the bow of the Flachat , the part closest to the coast, could not be rescued as a barrier of rocks prevented the lifeboat from approaching. Several lifebuoys were thrown for them to cling to, but unfortunately at that moment the main mast and the chimney of the Flachat collapsed and in their fall dragged all those clinging there.

The Susu , unable to do more, returned to the port of Santa Cruz with the survivors. The city, in the midst of carnival, was shocked to learn of the tragedy. Authorities, doctors and various health personnel embarked without delay to the wreck site, where some more people who had managed to reach land by their own means were rescued and were already being cared for by residents of Taganana and the lighthouse keeper of Anaga lighthouse. 

The final toll of the tragedy was seventy-seven dead (forty-three passengers, thirty-four crew). The bodies that could be recovered were buried in the San Andrés cemetery. Twenty-four people survived, some with serious injuries.

The wreck left not only death and destruction on the coasts of Anaga, but also various goods that were in the ship's hold. Notably, two magnificent religious images were found on the coast inside a tin box: a Crucified Christ (Christ of the Shipwreck), and an Immaculate Conception. Both are currently venerated in the parish church of Taganana.

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