Berliner Boersenzeitung - Spanish port devastated by Canada shipwreck tragedy

EUR -
AED 3.827558
AFN 70.343739
ALL 96.964833
AMD 406.16103
ANG 1.879506
AOA 951.933123
ARS 1046.501742
AUD 1.602528
AWG 1.878327
AZN 1.775652
BAM 1.957994
BBD 2.10556
BDT 124.618464
BGN 1.957775
BHD 0.392718
BIF 3016.786406
BMD 1.042068
BND 1.405609
BOB 7.20618
BRL 6.063693
BSD 1.042869
BTN 88.025462
BWP 14.247172
BYN 3.412907
BYR 20424.529726
BZD 2.102106
CAD 1.45641
CDF 2991.777155
CHF 0.931343
CLF 0.037263
CLP 1028.187912
CNY 7.549824
CNH 7.564496
COP 4605.53346
CRC 531.195309
CUC 1.042068
CUP 27.614798
CVE 110.77587
CZK 25.3473
DJF 185.196707
DKK 7.457736
DOP 62.993411
DZD 139.652412
EGP 51.764412
ERN 15.631018
ETB 128.595208
FJD 2.371695
FKP 0.822522
GBP 0.831596
GEL 2.855673
GGP 0.822522
GHS 16.46869
GIP 0.822522
GMD 73.987187
GNF 8994.087925
GTQ 8.050022
GYD 218.177652
HKD 8.112285
HNL 26.264109
HRK 7.43334
HTG 136.893416
HUF 411.752671
IDR 16594.930403
ILS 3.861429
IMP 0.822522
INR 87.996951
IQD 1365.629908
IRR 43863.244665
ISK 145.493914
JEP 0.822522
JMD 166.136188
JOD 0.738935
JPY 161.29026
KES 134.951747
KGS 90.142827
KHR 4221.417198
KMF 492.381009
KPW 937.860664
KRW 1463.470058
KWD 0.320801
KYD 0.869086
KZT 520.711055
LAK 22883.8102
LBP 93317.17572
LKR 303.520154
LRD 187.833126
LSL 18.872246
LTL 3.076956
LVL 0.630337
LYD 5.090542
MAD 10.435216
MDL 19.021591
MGA 4867.499257
MKD 61.527825
MMK 3384.595706
MNT 3540.946475
MOP 8.361391
MRU 41.594178
MUR 48.821273
MVR 16.100342
MWK 1809.030135
MXN 21.349193
MYR 4.655442
MZN 66.592021
NAD 18.872242
NGN 1768.080391
NIO 38.317227
NOK 11.54085
NPR 140.841219
NZD 1.787086
OMR 0.401188
PAB 1.042894
PEN 3.953646
PGK 4.19589
PHP 61.445013
PKR 289.490304
PLN 4.335151
PYG 8141.12374
QAR 3.793652
RON 4.97567
RSD 116.997165
RUB 107.700343
RWF 1428.675013
SAR 3.912282
SBD 8.721607
SCR 14.790679
SDG 626.807638
SEK 11.500881
SGD 1.404421
SHP 0.822522
SLE 23.676168
SLL 21851.646573
SOS 595.545589
SRD 36.987196
STD 21568.700427
SVC 9.125139
SYP 2618.22657
SZL 18.882654
THB 35.941305
TJS 11.106407
TMT 3.657658
TND 3.314301
TOP 2.440631
TRY 35.994243
TTD 7.082938
TWD 33.918306
TZS 2771.900812
UAH 43.142936
UGX 3853.318406
USD 1.042068
UYU 44.349277
UZS 13395.782472
VES 48.217013
VND 26499.785252
VUV 123.716388
WST 2.909027
XAF 656.708727
XAG 0.033301
XAU 0.000385
XCD 2.816241
XDR 0.793308
XOF 648.166544
XPF 119.331742
YER 260.416496
ZAR 18.903043
ZMK 9379.864807
ZMW 28.808701
ZWL 335.54542
  • RBGPF

    -0.5000

    59.69

    -0.84%

  • JRI

    0.0800

    13.31

    +0.6%

  • BCC

    3.2750

    143.635

    +2.28%

  • CMSC

    0.0700

    24.71

    +0.28%

  • SCS

    0.2750

    13.315

    +2.07%

  • RYCEF

    0.0300

    6.82

    +0.44%

  • NGG

    1.1696

    63.25

    +1.85%

  • GSK

    0.3850

    34.085

    +1.13%

  • RIO

    -0.3500

    62.22

    -0.56%

  • AZN

    1.5150

    65.775

    +2.3%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • BTI

    0.3350

    37.315

    +0.9%

  • VOD

    0.1423

    8.74

    +1.63%

  • CMSD

    0.0950

    24.54

    +0.39%

  • BCE

    0.0850

    26.765

    +0.32%

  • BP

    0.1750

    29.695

    +0.59%

Spanish port devastated by Canada shipwreck tragedy
Spanish port devastated by Canada shipwreck tragedy

Spanish port devastated by Canada shipwreck tragedy

Flags at half-mast, black ribbons everywhere and families devastated by grief: the Spanish port town of Marin was left reeling after a deadly shipwreck left 21 sailors dead or missing at sea.

Text size:

The fishing trawler which sank off eastern Canada early on Tuesday was based in this small port in Spain's northwestern Galicia region and several members of its 24-strong crew lived here.

"All our solidarity with the Villa de Pitanxo" reads a huge banner strung up along the main road, referring to the vessel which went down 250 nautical miles east of Newfoundland in Spain's worst fishing tragedy in nearly 40 years.

Onboard were 16 Spaniards, five Peruvians and three Ghanaians.

Only three people survived.

Rescuers only managed to recover nine bodies, leaving 12 missing, presumed drowned, with the Canadian authorities ending their search of the freezing waters at 2000 GMT after an "exhaustive" 36-hour operation in which they combed 900 nautical square miles.

- 'Children in shock' -

"My children are devastated," said Carolina, wife of Jonathan Calderon, a 39-year-old Peruvian fisherman who had been living and working on boats in Marin for more than a decade.

Speaking to AFP, she said it was very important "that they find all the bodies, more than anything else, because that's very important for the families".

Her husband, she said, "knew the sea well because he had worked in Uruguay, then in the Falkland Islands and had spent 12 years working on the Pitanxo".

Carolina, who is from Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru, said the last time she spoke to him was Monday and he didn't mention anything about bad weather.

At her side, Carolina's mother is in tears as she talks about the impact on the couple's 16-year-old son and daughter, 10.

"My grandson is in shock, he thinks his Dad is coming home but my granddaughter seems to have accepted it because she says: 'Daddy's dead'," she sobs.

- 'Uncertainty part of our DNA' -

With very little news about the fate of their loved ones, several families were gathered at the headquarters of Manuel Nores, the firm that owned the Villa de Pitanxo.

The firm was only letting in immediate family members who were being supported by therapists from the Red Cross, an AFP correspondent said.

Opposite the port, where several buildings were draped with large black mourning banners, the flags on Marin's town hall had all been lowered to half mast.

On Wednesday evening, the town of 24,000 residents, which sits on a river that flows into the Atlantic Ocean, observed a minute's silence for the victims.

"As people of the sea, we know what it is to live with uncertainty, it is part of our DNA, just like salt water, fishing and the seafaring culture," town hall said in a statement.

"We can hardly imagine the sense of shock, the immense sorrow and the pain that the families of the Villa de Pitanxo are experiencing. We just aren't able," it added.

The pain felt in Marin is etched in the face of Maria Dolores Polo, a 52-year-old legal adviser as she walks past the port in the pouring rain.

"I feel a huge sense of sorrow because these people went out to sea like that and haven't been able to come home," she told AFP.

"Let's just see if they manage to recover the bodies," she said.

(Y.Yildiz--BBZ)