First Automobile

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites · Year: 1902

At this location, 11 La Marina street, lived Farrow Sidall Bellamy, manager in Santa Cruz of the company "Elder Dempster", and at the time, consul of Sweden in the city. This English gentleman presented to the Civil Government on 14 February 1902 a document stating: "... Having recently acquired in Paris an automobile from the house of Panhard Levason, for his personal use under the conditions detailed below, he wishes to be granted the corresponding permit to be able to circulate freely on the roads ..."

Thus began the history of the first car to circulate on the island. It was, as previously stated, a Panhard brand automobile of 12 horsepower, with a two-cylinder Planix Daimler engine, capable of supporting 450 kilos of weight and reaching a maximum speed of 36 kilometres per hour. It had three brakes: one on the differential, another on the axle and the third applying pressure on the joint. The life of this vehicle was short, as in 1909 it was destroyed by a fire while refuelling with the engine running.

Another automobile is known to have existed in Santa Cruz, acquired in 1905 by the also British citizen Alfred Samler Brown, although the life of this vehicle was even shorter than the previous one due to an accident a month after its arrival, overturning on La Marina street, in front of the San Pedro battery, because of the many debris on the road. Mr Brown's wife was slightly injured. The following year, during King Alfonso XIII's visit to Santa Cruz, he was driven in a car lent to the City Council by a private individual, Ramón Ascanio. It is also known that, roughly at that time, Nicolás Martí Dehesa acquired a Rambler brand automobile which had the privilege of carrying the first Tenerife registration plate with the inscription TE-1. By 1911 the registration had reached number 43.

The following year a municipal edict was published regulating the circulation of automobiles in the city. The speed was limited to 12 kilometres per hour for private cars and 10 for taxis. Practically the driver had to have one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn: " The presence of any automobile shall be signalled at all hours of the day and night with a horn or bell, which shall be sounded without fail when crossing narrow streets and when approaching junctions or when warning that any other vehicle is coming in the opposite direction.. ." At night, the car had to carry a white and a green lantern in front, and a red one at the rear. Once stopped, the driver could not get out before " avoiding sudden movements of the vehicle and suppressing all engine noise " and, if requested by the authorities, was obliged to present his permit to circulate.

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