The cruise ship Reina Regente set sail from Cádiz to Tangier on March 9, 1895 and was last seen, a few hours later, by the crew of the English steamers Mayfield and Matheus. As reported that same day ‘The Liberal’“the Moors will embark at seven in the morning.” The newspaper was referring to the embassy of the Sultan of Morocco who had been in Madrid trying to reach a peace agreement with the Spanish Government, but failed. They wanted to return home as soon as possible, without imagining that they were about to suffer one of the worst naval catastrophes in our history, since the 412 Spaniards who were traveling on board disappeared forever, without a trace, in the Strait of Gibraltar.
We are talking about, possibly, the greatest mystery that has occurred in the history of Spanish navigation and, consequently, also one of its worst catastrophes, judging by the high number of victims. The sadly famous boat – named in honor of María Cristina de Habsburg – had set sail from Cádiz at dawn and anchored in Tangier after 9 at night, according to the story of other newspapers such as ‘El Día’, ‘La Época’ or ‘El Imparcial’who followed the Moroccan delegation with great interest due to the importance of the talks. The latter, in fact, already warned of the coming storm.
According to the captain of the Mayfield, they encountered a very heavy rain shower and, in the middle, the unfortunate boat. This is what its crew told the Spanish maritime authorities, who included the statement in the following report: «The steamer says that the ship it saw is similar to the photograph of the Reina Regente. He did not notice that it had any breakdowns, but it gave great results. “It was 12 miles northwest of Cape Spartel, sailing towards Cádiz.” And they did the same with the Matheus: «The other steamer was at the same time between both ships on its way to enter the Strait of Gibraltar and head to Genoa. He says that at half past twelve they suffered a very severe storm of wind and water and that he cannot say more, except that it passed within a mile and a half of the aforementioned ship, whose nationality he does not know, between frequent showers.
The first rumors that the tragedy had taken place were published by ‘The Day’ three days later: «A telegram from Tangier expresses concern at the ignorance of the whereabouts of the cruise ship Reina Regente, which had left that port on Sunday. Other telegrams report the shipwreck of the beautiful ship, but it has not been confirmed. The authorities of Cádiz report that the sea, however, has thrown effects onto the beach that are, without a doubt, from the Queen Regent. There are rumors that the shipwreck is a fact. If so, Spain will have lost the second combat ship it has: a beautiful armored cruiser built with the most modern advances.
420 victims
The captain, Francisco Sanz de Andino, must have received the order to return immediately to Spain, since he left in the middle of a storm without waiting for the situation to calm down. Little else was known about the cruise ship or its 412 crew members “after the sudden and total disappearance of the ship,” as he recalled. ‘The Basque Newspaper’ in 1970. Other sources spoke of 415 or 420 victims. «And although 75 years have just passed since the catastrophe, one of the greatest mysteries in the history of navigation, suffrages are still held for the victims every March 10 in some churches in Galicia, since almost all the sailors of the mentioned ship were Galicians,” he added.
The Reina Regent had been manufactured in the Scottish shipyards of James and George Thompson and was considered the first modern cruise ship of Restoration Spain. Its design was truly advanced and ambitious for the time, with 95.50 meters in length, 15.25 meters in width, 4,800 tons of displacement and 12,000 horsepower. So much so that it had attracted the attention of the most prestigious newspapers in the world even before being delivered to our Navy on January 1, 1888.
Before her disappearance, the Queen Regent’s life had been very active: she was present at the opening of the Barcelona Universal Exhibition that same year and traveled non-stop between Genoa and Havana, among other destinations, until she disappeared. «In circles, cafes and casinos last night there was no talk of any other matter than the possible accident suffered by the cruise ship. Some added: “If unfortunately it is confirmed, in addition to the lives of 400 men, which is the most important thing, Providence will also have taken in one fell swoop what it is our responsibility to collect from Morocco,” ‘El Correo Español’ added a day later.
No news
During the following days, Spanish newspapers echoed the discussions in the Congress of Deputies about the tragedy and the search for those responsible, while reflecting the loss of hope of finding anyone alive. «We haven’t heard from the beautiful war cruiser for five days. Anxiety grows by the moment and with it, sad to say, the certainty of a catastrophe,” could be read in ‘The Day’.
It was never known for sure what happened and, in fact, there are still several theories today. As the writer Diego Quevedo told ‘La Verdad’ from Murcia, “the captain ventured to set sail, as he trusted in the solidity of the ship, but it capsized. There was not a single survivor and not even the bodies were found. And it wasn’t an old ship! It was one of the most modern, a cruiser protected by thick armor and with powerful cannons. It is likely that his participation in the Cuban War would have helped him avoid that disaster, but we will never know that.
During those painful days, many witnesses claimed to have seen the “ghost ship” over the waters of the Strait approaching the coast. A bottle even appeared floating with the supposed autograph of the cruiser’s second commander, although it was later described as a bad taste joke made by an anonymous man from Cádiz. In 1970, the “Diario Vasco” reported that only one sailor from the crew was saved, as he had stayed in Tangier absolutely drunk. “Of course he was arrested,” he added, “but Queen Maria Cristina, owner of the lost cruise ship, thought that perhaps there was something providential in the man’s salvation and ordered not only that he be released, but that he be discharged from military service.” ».
The enigma
In 1956, I remembered ABC that “the causes of the disaster that deprived our Navy of one of its best ships could never be determined, because the ocean swallowed it forever without leaving a trace or sign of the 420 men it had on board. The fact that the sea did not return any corpses to the coast was explained as a consequence of the crew being found tied to their posts when the ship sank, to avoid being swept away by the furious waves. The painful curiosity of knowing the exact place of the shipwreck could never be satisfied, nor could well-founded conjectures be made about the causes that caused it. Since March 10, 1895, the fate of the Queen Regent became a nightmare for all Spaniards.
The most probable explanation of “that enigma” for the aforementioned Basque newspaper was that it sank suddenly, either when turning around or sinking on its bow, as a consequence of “a synchronism of balance or pitch between the movement of the ship and that of the big waves. “Such a coincidence could have increased the pitch of the ship so much that, leaning heavily towards the sea, it could sink instantly in the direction of travel.” The “Gaceta de Madrid” – which served as the current BOE – took a month to publish an official note and a mourning border to definitively consider the ship lost.
The proof of the poor state of the sea that day is that other boats were lost on the Andalusian coast. For example, the steamer Carpio with 40 passengers when it was heading from Huelva to Cádiz. The technical commission in charge of clarifying the causes of the Reina Regente admitted the possibility that the storm, by flooding the decks and bow compartments, caused the cruise ship to capsize, which was already sailing without control due to a possible breakdown in the rudder or in the machines. «However, neither this reasonable explanation nor others were admitted by the mothers, wives, girlfriends and sisters of the sailors, since there was never a single real piece of evidence to confirm the shipwreck. So much so, that for years they continued to trust in the return of their loved ones,” the “Diario Vasco” underlined.
In 2009, the Government of Spain launched a plan for Navy ships to begin searching for and protecting historic wrecks such as the Reina Regente, according to what was learned. ABC by sources from the Ministry of Defense. And, in fact, a series of ships and divers were made available to the National Museum of Maritime Archeology in Cartagena to detect the aforementioned cruise, but the task was never completed.
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