Ferrol, A Coruña

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Ferrol [43°28′N 8°15′W] is an Atlantic-facing city in the province of A Coruña in Galicia in north-western Spain .Today, is best known for the Navantia shipbuilding yards and for being the Spanish capital of the Maritime Department of the North and back in the 18th century was the most important arsenal in Europe. The city was the birthplace of the Spanish General Francisco Franco in 1892, and was officially known as El Ferrol del Caudillo from 1938 to 1982. Ferrol has a population of 77,859 and its metropolitan area (i.e.: the urban area plus all the satellite towns known as Ferrolterra) has a population of over 213,000 (2006).

History

After various local dominations [link], Henry II gave the town to the Andrade family. [link]. It was only considered a safe harbour under the House of Austria, [link]but became a leading naval centre under the Bourbons. For the first time the immense strategic importance of the port of Ferrol came to be understood and it was made Capital of the Maritime Department of the North, formed under Ferdinand VI and Charles III for the defence of the Spanish Colonial Empire in America. Rapid and well planned improvements followed and the position of Ferrol was made almost unassailable from the sea, the difficulties of disembarking troops on its precipitous coast being heightened by its protecting line of fortresses, particularly San Carlos. [link] The Naval shipyards of A Graña and Ferrol, were built between 1726-1783 and produced ships protected with copper sheets from the rolling mills of Xubia. In 1772 it was created The Spanish Royal Academy of Naval Engineers of Ferrol the first one in Spain.

A decline set during the reign of Charles IV, and in 1800, after the defences had been removed, a British fleet of 109 vessels landed troops on the beach of Doniños to take the Castle of San Felipe. Although only equipped with meagre artillery, the castle small defence force under the command of Count Donadio and helped by citizens of Ferrol, successfully resisted the attack and the fleet withdrew. [link]

The arsenals and fortress remained abandoned and they were easily occupied by the French in 1809. The alliance with England during the War of Independence failed to prevent the deterioration in the town’s fortunes and, under Ferdinand VII, Ferrol became a “dead” town, losing its title of capital. New activities sprang up, however, during the administration of the Marquis de Molina, Minister for Naval affairs in the mid 19th century.

Ten years after the Spanish-American War of 1898 where the Spaniards lost Cuba and the Philippines, the Maura Government, in an attempt to restore the Spanish Navy and Spanish shipbuilding industry hired to The Spanish Society for Naval Construction (whose major investors were the British firms: John Brown, Vickers and Armstrong) the shipbuilding yards, workshops, foundries and dry docks in Ferrol.

For a period of sixteen years all the technicians were exclusively British, and the situation was not altered till 1925 when the management was taken over by Spanish engineers, as one of the new policies introduced by the then newly created government, including ministers both civil and military, of the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–1930). In sight of the outbreak of a civil war, and because there was fear of social unrest in the naval station, the Foreign Office in London, organized a ship to repatriate all the remaining British citizens and on July 22, 1936 the ship HMS Witch (D89) capitained by B.A. Warburton-Lee departed from Ferrol back to Britain. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) meant that the shipbuilding yards, workshops, foundries and dry docks in Ferrol were taken over by the state and fully nationalized in 1945 under the name of BAZAN, later renamed as IZAR and from January 2005 as NAVANTIA. The town has also been, for centuries, the birthplace of relevant national and international personalities; men and women of letters, state's men, politicians, and others, amongst them Francisco Franco, after whom the city was officially known as El Ferrol del Caudillo from 1938 to 1982 [link]. The end of the dictatorship and the arrival of democracy in 1978 did not help Ferrol in the slightest, [link] and from 1982 till the early 1990s the city confronted numerous problems due to a decline in the naval sector. The beginning of the new millennium however, has been a time of economic expansion and prosperity in general. A new motorway and an outer-port [link] have been recently built; making the communications by land and sea, with the rest of the world, much easier and faster.

Ferrol, the most important Naval Station in the north of Spain [link] , with its well sheltered harbour and busy port, together with the NAVANTIA shipyards seems to be flourishing once again, and with it, the whole heavily populated district of As Mariñas and Ferrolterra. [link]

Quotations

• It is said in Ferrol, that after the unsuccessful British attempt to capture Ferrol in the year 1800, the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger said in one of his speeches at the House of Commons that "If Great Britain had a naval station so easy to defend as Ferrol, due to its location, it would have been surrounded by a thick silver wall" [link]. Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805).

Note: The attack on Ferrol happened in sight of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, where the Spaniards were expected to take side with the French, as they did in the Battle of Trafalgar 1805.

Ferrol was virtually impossible to blockade in the age of sail, as any strong westerly winds would take the blockading force away along the treacherous north coast of Spain where they had no safe haven. By contrast, British forces blockading Cadiz could seek refuge at Gibraltar, and those blockading the French naval port of Brest could seek refuge in Tor Bay. The British could then quickly return when the weather changed before too many of the blockaded ships had had time to reach open water via the narrow channels. By contrast, the geography of Ferrol meant that a whole Spanish fleet could slip out on a single tide. By the time the British were able to resume the blockade the Spanish would be safely away and out to sea.

British Novel

• The English writer C. S. Forester (1899-1966) immortalized Ferrol in his Horatio Hornblower novels when he decided that this was the Naval Station where his imaginary British Naval Officer was taken as a prisoner of war when captured by the Spanish during the Napoleonic Wars.[link]

See also

Notable Galicians born in Ferrol

• Alonso Pita da Veiga at the "Battle of Pavia" surrendered King Francis I of France (1513-1525)
• Benito Vicetto Pérez, one of the most remarkable figures of the "Galician Literature Renascence" (1824-1878)
• Jenaro Pérez Villaamil, remarkable painter and prime example of the "Galician Romanticism" (1807-1854)
• Concepción Arenal started and led the "Spanish Feminist Movement" in Iberia (1820-1893)
• Casto Méndez Núñez, at the Battle of El Callao and at the Battle of Abtao, General Commander of the Spanish fleet in the Pacific (1866)
• José Canalejas Méndez, former Spanish Prime Minister who was assassinated in office (1854-1912)
• Patricio Montojo y Pasarón, Spanish admiral during the Spanish-American War (1839-1917)
• Pablo Iglesias Posse, founder of the "Spanish Socialist Workers' Party" PSOE and the UGT "Spanish Workers' General Union" (1850-1925)
• Marquis of Amboage, philanthropic multimillionaire and politician - Ramón Pedro Francisco Pla y Monge (1823-1892)
• Ramón Franco, remarkable Spanish aviator who crossed the Atlantic in 1926 on board a hydroplane the Plus Ultra from Palos de Moguer, Spain to Buenos Aires, Argentina (1896-1938)
• Francisco Franco (1892-1975), at one time the youngest General in Europe, ruled Spain as dictator after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
• Ricardo Carvalho Calero, first ever professor of Galician literature and Linguistics - University of Santiago de Compostela (1910-1990)
• Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, remarkable writer winner of many prices in Spanish literature including the Cervantes Prize in 1985 (1910-1999).
• Jose Luis Paris, renowned composer, musician and singer (1936-2003)

Life, Culture and Industry in Ferrol

• Alvaro de Bazán class, frigates built at Ferrol for the Spanish Navy (2002-2005)
• Buque de Proyección Estratégica, being built at Ferrol (2003-2008) Multipurpose Warship for the Spanish Navy[link]
• Fridtjof Nansen class frigate, frigates built at Ferrol for the Norwegian Navy (2006)
• LPD (Landing Platform Docks) L-51 Galicia, built at Ferrol for the Spanish Navy (1996-1998)
• Vickers-Armstrong SECN (1909-1925/1936)
• School of Peritos Navales and Industriales, created in 1963 and fully inaugurated in 1966 UDC since 1990.
• Endesa Termic, located in nearby As pontes de García Rodríguez, has one of the tallest chimneys in Europe built in 1974.
• Racing Club de Ferrol, main local football team (since 1917)
• The Ferrolterra Pantin Classic gathers every year all the most international and remarkable figures in the world of surf
• Diocese of Ferrol-Mondoñedo. Ferrol has a wonderful Cathedral of the 18th Century: "Saint Julian's". [link]

History of Galicia and Ferrol

• Battle of Trafalgar. The Napoleonic Spanish & French fleets versus Nelson and the British fleet @ Cape Trafalgar (1805). See also: Churruca
• Peninsular War (1808-1814). See also: Joseph Bonaparte (1808-1813) together with Guerrilla
• South American Wars of Independence. Most of "Spanish America" turns into a "Spanish Speaking Commonwealth of Independent States" (1810s-1820s)
• Spanish Civil War. Unsuccessful attempt to introduce "La Pepa", popular name for the "liberal constitution of 1812" (1820-1823)
• Latin Monetary Union (1865-1927). Spain introduces the "Peseta" and joins in 1868. See also: Latin Union (since 1954) together with Latin Europe and Latin America
• Peseta (1868-2002). Spain, together with most of the countries in the European Union introduced the "Euro" in 2002. See also: Schengen treaty
• Spanish-American War. The loss of the last "Spanish Possessions in the Americas and the Pacific: Cuba, Philippines and Puerto Rico to the United States of America (1898). See also: Treaty of Paris (1898)
• Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Interesting to see also: Second World War (1939-1945) and Cold War (1945-1989/1991)
• Francisco Franco. Former Chief of the Spanish State known as "Caudillo de España" from 1939 to 1975 (1892-1975)
• European Union. Spain joined European Community EEC/European Union EU as a full member in (1986)