The Shipwreck of "General Chanzy" 110 years ago.

One of the worst disasters ever to occur in Menorca, took place at 5 in the morning of February 9th 1910, during a tremendous storm with hurricane force winds and giant waves, when the luxury 2300 tonne French passenger/cargo steamship 'General Chanzy', en route from Marseille to Algiers, crashed into the cliffs close to Punta Nati on the northwest coast of Menorca. As she immediately began to sink her boilers exploded.

 The General Chanzy in the Harbour of Marseille

The scale of the disaster was only revealed at 8 in the morning on the Saturday 11th, some 48 hours after the accident, when the sole survivor 23 year old Marcel Baudez, presented himself to the farmhouse of Son Escudero asking for help. Within days the terrible truth would be known; 159 persons had lost their lives in this accident.

 The Cliffs at Punta Nati with rough sea.

The funerary monument in the Ciutadella Cemetery

 

 Load recovery works.

 The saddest job. Collecting of the copses that could be recovered.

Gloria

A storm with the disturbing name of Gloria has hit our country viciously.

And despite its destructive power, it has left precious images in the island.

Son Mercer de Baix. Naviforme settlement.

The settlement consists of a set of boat-shaped stone dwellings known as naviformes, which gave their name to a long Prehistoric period in the island’s history (1700-1400 B.C.). Seven dwellings have been identified in all, with two different types, five horseshoe-shaped and two square. Although most of them are small, the settlement is spectacular for the strategic position it ocupies overlooking the ravine of Son Fideu and for one of its buildings, the Cova des Moro. The settlers lived off the land around and in the ravine, which was also their route to the sea.

 The farm house at Son Mercer de Baix.

 The same farm house, in the 1940's

Cova d'es Moro

 Horseshoe-shaped dwelling

 The fertile land at the ravine of Son Fideu.

The Cova des Moro is the only known naviforme that still has its horizontal stone roof slabs in place, supported by three vertical pillars. The outer wall is very regular and built with very well-squared stones. The roof of this type of building would normally have been made of wood, mud and branches, which did not survive the passage of time. In this case, part of the roof has been preserved; it was restored in 2002 after collapsing in the late 1990s.
Excavation work carried out on the settlement unearthed a number of bronze items, now on display in the Museum of Menorca. They include a small ingot, fragments of slag, a chisel and a bracelet, showing that the people who lived here knew how to make bronze.

Ciutadella. January 1st. 2020