GOMERA ISLAND

On November 18, 1918, the company Echeverrieta & Larrinaga launched the Nadir, a steam cargo ship of almost 50 m in length built in the Cádiz shipyard. According to what they tell us in the shipyards, it took a long time to sell, as if the dark destiny that the future held for it was written in its austere lines. In 1926 she changed her name and was renamed Magurio until, in 1935, she adopted the name with which she would make her last trip: Isla de la Gomera. The night of April 13 to 14, 1943, around half past three in the morning, with a moderate easterly wind, rough seas and a cloudy and foggy atmosphere (according to statements by the first traffic light watchman and head of the castle of galleries in the weather report) was shipwrecked due to a leak on the starboard bow of the hull, disappearing in the cold waters of Cartagena in less than 1 minute while on the Cartagena-Barcelona route. According to the captain D. Alfredo U.A.: “the ship made a sudden heeling movement. She immediately began to sink from the bow and, finding myself on the bridge with the helmsman Valentín L.G., she only gave me time to grab a life preserver. I jumped into the water by the time the ship was already sunk from the bridge to the bow. She disappeared in less than a minute. I stayed in the water clinging to boxes of oranges that were floating, hearing the voices of several crew members who were floating holding on to more boxes. We remained adrift until, by day, a fishing boat picked us up and took us to Cabo de Palos, where we were treated and assisted by the Coastal Authorities”.
Source: www.balkysub.com/pdf/nadir.pdf