Christopher Columbus and the Queen Mary; Magellan and Selena Willians; Darwin and the Leonardo da Vinci; Adolf Eichmann and the Ecstasea; Rekum and L. Ronald Hubbard; Churchill and the Badis 1; Gloria Swanson and the Evrima; Jackie Kennedy and the Lady Ghislaine; Antonio Gades and the Windsor Castle… Only the proven prestige of the ports of the Canary Islands could bring together over the course of their history these very important figures, some of them despicable, with several of the most prestigious or luxurious ships on the planet. The list of personalities who have made stopovers at the docks of the Archipelago over the last five centuries must rightly begin with the Genoese navigator Christopher Columbus who, in his diary, recounted how on Thursday, August 9, 1492, he entered “the port of Las Isletas de Gran Canaria” with the purpose of repairing the ship La Pinta, fixing the rudder, changing the sails, and, also, if he found a better ship, replacing the Pinzón. He did not find a ship to replace and after leaving La Pinta in the port, perhaps stranded on the sands, he moved with the Santa María to La Gomera, where he arrived on the 12th of the same month. On that island, throughout his different voyages, he would repeat his stopover to, in the city of San Sebastián, continue his great love story with Beatriz de Bobadilla, but on that first occasion, he returned to Gran Canaria to finish the repair of La Pinta “with a lot of work and diligence from the maritime admiral Alonso and the others”. On August 1, 1519, likewise, Fernando de Magallanes set sail from Seville in what would be the first circumnavigation in history. Trinidad, San Antonio, Victoria, Santiago, and Concepción were the names of the ships with which the navigator began his adventure, ships that made a stopover in the autumn on the island of Tenerife.
On his part, on January 6, 1832, the British scientist Charles Darwin scanned the coast of Tenerife from the deck of the H.M.S. Beagle, an island where he intended to land to visit, among others, Mount Teide and the dragon trees. “When our anchor had touched bottom in the bay of the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a maritime health boat approached carrying the British vice-consul, several quarantine officers, and the health doctor,” wrote the researcher who described the evolution of species, revolutionizing traditional ideas about the origin of man, “after hearing where we came from, they told us that it would be impossible to grant us permission to land until we completed a strict twelve-day quarantine due to the fact that we came from England where there was a cholera epidemic, sending us to stay in front of the Lazaretto,” a setback that forced him to continue his journey without setting foot in the Canary Islands, although he described different landscapes on Tenerife in his diaries.
The Ports of the Archipelago, during the First and Second World Wars, were also reference points for military vessels. The historic German supply ship Kersten Miles, although it did not carry out any operations in the Islands, found refuge during the conflict in the Canary docks. However, the Winnetou and Charlotte Schliemann supplied other ships and auxiliary cruisers in the Atlantic, moored in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and the Eurofeld, Rekum, and Rudolf Albrecht, refuelled in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Argentine ship Corrientes, which supported the German Army, was the only one used to supply submarines in Canarian ports through the clandestine action carried out in La Luz.
In addition to the ships of Columbus and Magellan or Darwin’s ‘Beagle,’ we add the ‘Giovanna C’ used by Eichmann to escape Europe after WWII or the ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ where Paul Newman arrives in the Islands
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Nazi horror also made a stopover in the Canary Islands. Coming from Naples and bound for the Argentine city of Buenos Aires, in the second half of June 1950, the steamship Giovanni C arrived in the capital of Gran Canaria with among its passengers the Austro-German citizen Adolf Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust and direct responsible for the “Final Solution,” mainly in Poland. In 1960, he was kidnapped in Argentina by the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and after being transferred to Israel, he was tried and declared guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people.
In 1959, nine years after Eichmann’s stopover in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the wealthy businessman Aristotle Onassis arrived in the Canary Islands for the first time, onboard the yacht Christina, visiting the Archipelago accompanied by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who visited La Palma, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria. The Greek shipowner also brought Maria Callas to the Islands, although it was undoubtedly the different trips that Onassis made through the Canary waters with Jackie Kennedy, with whom he married in 1968, that went down in history
Likewise, in 1963, on board the luxurious transatlantic Leonardo da Vinci, Hollywood actors Paul Newman and his wife Johanne Woodward, the legendary actress Gloria Swanson, and the performers Ruth Ford and Zachary Scout disembarked on the Islands.
The imposing ‘Ecstasea,’ owned by Russian magnate Roman Abramovich, or the super luxury yacht ‘Badis 1,’ owned by King Mohamed VI of Morocco, made a stopover in the Canary Islands
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American writer L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, established the religious basis of this controversial creed in the waters of the Islands during the trips he made in the 1960s and 1970s aboard the sailboats Encharter and Apollo, both to Gran Canaria and Tenerife. In fact, it was on those two boats where the author of science fiction novels and alleged visionary created the Sea Organization, one of theMonastic pillars of this organization, considered a sect in some countries.
Antonio Gades, a dancer and choreographer, also maintained an idyll with the waters and ports of the Archipelago in his sailor facet. The one responsible for projecting the dance of our country internationally, made a stop in the Canary Islands during his solo transoceanic trips, although in the maritime memory of the Islands, the journey that he made aboard his yacht Luar 040 to Havana (Cuba) in 2003, eight months before his death, has a special meaning.
In 2004, the most famous ship in the world, the Queen Mary II, made a stop in the Canary Islands, followed by the Queen Elizabeth II, modern replicas of the original ships that had already docked in the Archipelago in the 1960s. Also, the impressive yacht Ecstasea, owned by the Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, whose exclusive cabins were occupied by Andrés Velencoso, Justin Bieber, or Selena Gomez, made a technical stop in Gran Canaria in 2019. A year later, in 2020, King Mohamed VI of Morocco opted to sail along the coasts of the Canary Islands on the inaugural trip of his super luxury yacht Badis 1, valued at 90 million euros.
Among the stops in the Archipelago of significant personalities or ships in the history of navigation, the arrival of the Evrima in the Port of Las Palmas in autumn 2023 stands out. This exclusive ship marked the first foray of the Ritz Carlton hotel chain into the premium cruise sector. The visit is notable not only for the luxury that was assumed on the ship but also for the ups and downs surrounding its construction in Galicia, works that are linked to the bankruptcy of Hijos de J. Barreras, considered until that moment the largest private shipyard in Spain dedicated to shipbuilding. The Evrima saga took on tragic overtones with the mysterious death in a Madrid hotel of the company’s former CEO.
Christopher Columbus: The Niña, The Pinta and Santa María (1492)
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Christopher Columbus / La Provincia
On August 9, 1492, the navigator Christopher Columbus landed in Gran Canaria to prepare the caravels ‘The Nina’, ‘The Pinta’, and ‘The Santa Maria’ for their Atlantic expedition to the Indies. Likewise, on this and subsequent trips following the Europeans’ discovery of the American continent, the Genovese made several stops in La Gomera, where, in addition to loading the ships with supplies, he had a legendary love story with the great lady of the Island, Beatriz de Bobadilla.
Ferdinand Magellan: Trinidad, San Antonio, Victoria, Concepción, and Santiago (1519)
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Ferdinand Magellan. / La Provincia
The Spice expedition that marked the first circumnavigation in history was made up of the ships Trinidad, San Antonio, Victoria, Concepción, and Santiago, under the command of the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan. After a six-day stay in Tenerife, they set sail on October 2, 1519, from the anchorage located next to Montaña Roja in the south of the Island heading towards the African coast. Three years later, after covering 70,000 kilometres, only 18 of the 239 sailors from the expedition returned alive.
Charles Darwin: H.M.S. Beagle (1832)
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Charles Darwin. / La Provincia
The British scientist Charles Darwin reached Tenerife aboard the H.M.S Beagle in 1832. Three decades later, he would propose in On the Origin of Species the idea of biological evolution through natural selection. In his diaries, he describes Punta de Anaga and its “beautiful appearance”, the white houses of Santa Cruz, and the spectacular view of “El Pico”, referring to the Teide, which loomed above the clouds. Upon learning that, due to the cholera outbreak in England, they had to observe a 12-day quarantine, the ship’s captain chose to continue the journey.
Adolf Eichmann: Giovanna C (1950)
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Adolf Eichmann. / La Provincia
The Arrival of Notorious Figures in Gran Canaria
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Gloria Swanson. / La Provincia
On February 8, 1962, Hollywood glamour arrived in Gran Canaria. On that day, aboard the luxurious cruise liner ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ docked at Puerto de La Luz y de Las Palmas, the legendary film star Gloria Swanson, known for her role in Sunset Boulevard, arrived with the famous actor Paul Newman, his wife, actress Johanne Woodward, actor Zachary Scott, and his wife, Ruth Ford, a model and actress. The five of them took advantage of the stop to visit various places on the island, such as the Bandama Caldera.
Oscar Niemeyer: Amazon (1964)
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Oscar Niemeyer. / La Provincia
The renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, a key figure in modern architecture, arrived in the Canary Islands in May 1964 aboard the British ocean liner ‘Amazon’ as he was returning to Rio de Janeiro from Lisbon. After visiting Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he criticised “the eagerness to build huge buildings in unsuitable locations.” He also lamented that a city with such tourist appeal “lacked proper planning for its future expansion” and recommended “careful preservation of its historical buildings.”
Jackie Kennedy: Christina (1967)
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Jackie Kennedy. / La Provincia
Before marrying the tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1968, the American Jackie Kennedy, known as America’s widow after her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, visited the Canary Islands several times aboard the yacht Christina, owned by the Greek shipping magnate. A photograph captured them kissing on deck in Las Palmas de G.C., confirming a relationship that began in 1965. On the Christina, she also visited the Archipelago, among others, Winston Churchill.
L. Ron Hubbard: Encharter y Apollo (1967, 1970, 1973 y 1974)
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L. Ron Hubbard. / La Provincia
The American writer L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, established the religious foundations of this controversial creed in the waters of the islands during his trips to Gran Canaria and Tenerife in the 1960s and 1970s aboard the sailboats Encharter and Apollo. It was on these two ships that the author of science fiction novels and supposed visionary created the Sea Org, one of the monastic pillars of this organisation considered a sect in some countries.
Antonio Gades: Luar 040 (1992 and 2003)
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Antonio Gades. / La Provincia
The Spanish dancer and choreographer Antonio Gades, a historic member of the Communist Party, made a several-day stop in Gran Canaria aboard the ‘Luar 040’ in November 2003 during what would be his final voyage to Havana. Battling the cancer that would cause his death eight months later, the founder of the National Spanish Ballet and the artist who projected our country’s dance internationally, admitted to having sailed “these waters many times, one of them in 1992 to cross the Atlantic alone.”
