"Holy Mary" becomes "Holy Liberty"
Santa Maria
At around 01:30 on January 22, 1961, the Portuguese passenger liner Santa Maria, en route from the island of Curaçao to Miami (USA) with 586 passengers and 350 crew members on board, was hijacked by an armed group (24 people) of opponents of the dictatorial regimes of Salazar and Franco, led by 67-year-old retired captain of the Portuguese army Henrique Galvão.
E. Galvao was dismissed from the army for his anti-government activities and sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1952, but after 7 years he managed to escape, took refuge in the Argentine embassy, and then moved to South America.
In Venezuela, in collaboration with the Iberian Revolutionary Directorate of Liberation (DRIL), he began planning Operation Dulcinea, the goal of which was to bring General aviation Humberto Delgado, who won the general presidential elections but was forced to flee to Brazil due to persecution by the Salazar authorities.
The operational plan was clearly reckless, built on dubious premises, and therefore doomed to failure. It should be noted that the Portuguese and Spanish communists were opposed to this undertaking from the very beginning. Here are the main stages of the operational plan:
1. The hijacking of a Portuguese or Spanish passenger ship in international waters by a group of commandos who had boarded as passengers in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira. Initially, the Spanish liners Covadonga or Guadalupe were considered as "targets," but the final choice fell on the Portuguese vessel Santa Maria, which made monthly calls at La Guaira. The hijacked vessel, instead of heading to Miami, would head for the coast of West Africa, which it was expected to reach within eight days. The organizers of the operation hoped that their actions would attract the attention of the "free world," which would condemn the dictatorial regimes in Spain and Portugal and spark a surge in anti-government movements on the Iberian Peninsula.
2. The commandos hoped that part of the liner's crew would join them (?). With a combined force and the participation of the local population (?), they planned to capture the island of Fernando Po (part of Spanish Guinea), the gunboat stationed there, and two or three aircraft. It was completely unclear who would command the ship and aircraft. They then planned to seize the mainland of Spanish Guinea, and from there, Luanda and all of Angola, with the support of Portuguese military units stationed there and the local population (?). The next step was to seize control of another Portuguese colony—Mozambique. A new Portuguese government would be established in the liberated territories, and further operations would shift to the mother country.
The initial part of Operation Dulcinea (the seizure of the ship, etc.) was to be carried out by an armed detachment of "freedom fighters" numbering one hundred people, and its start was scheduled for October 14, 1960. However, in order to purchase tickets for the liner and weapons, as well as training the "commandos", required at least $30,000, and there were very few people among the democratic emigrants willing to sponsor this dubious operation.
Therefore, the number of participants in the operation had to be reduced to 26, and its start date was moved to January 22, 1961. Only 14 commandos were armed (pistols, revolvers, two submachine guns, and several grenades were purchased on the black market).
Money couldn't be raised for tickets even for 26 people, so some had to stow away their tickets in La Guaira and at the next port of call, Willemstad (Curaçao). In total, twenty-four of the Dulcinea crew (Portuguese, Spanish, and one Venezuelan) managed to board the ship.
They had familiarized themselves with the layout and purpose of the Santa Maria's rooms before the operation, so the teams, dressed in khaki uniforms, acted quickly and confidently. They secured the navigation and radio rooms, the engine room, and the ship's officers' quarters. Resistance was encountered only on the bridge—in the ensuing firefight, the third mate was killed and two crew members were wounded. The ship's captain later stated that the crew had no firearms.
The Santa Maria's wheelhouse
An agreement was signed with the ship's officers that they would continue to perform their official duties. Among those involved in the operation were a former ship's engineer and a naval officer. fleet, who subsequently controlled the actions of the ship's crew. The crew and passengers offered no resistance or signs of hostility, but only six sailors expressed a desire to join the invaders. The Santa Maria was renamed Santa Liberdade (Holy Liberty).
E. Galvao with his comrades on board the Santa Maria
Santa Liberdade
However, keeping the ship's hijacking a secret for long was impossible. Due to the grave condition of the wounded and the need for their treatment ashore, Enrique Galvão and his comrades faced a serious dilemma: save lives but reveal the ship's hijacking, thereby jeopardizing the fate of the entire operation, or maintain "revolutionary steadfastness" and pursue their course. They chose the former.
On January 23, two miles off the coast of Saint Lucia (Lesser Antilles), the wounded and the body of the dead navigator, accompanied by several members of the Santa Maria crew, were carried ashore in a lifeboat. Soon, the liner's hijacking became the talk of the world.
Initial media reports, including the US Department of Defense and, even more so, Portuguese authorities, accused Galvão's group of piracy and various atrocities aboard the vessel they had seized. On January 24, the Salazar government appealed to its NATO allies—the US, UK, and several other countries—to locate, detain, and return the Santa Maria to its rightful owner. American and British ships and aircraft were dispatched to search for the liner. Earlier, US President Kennedy stated that the Navy's primary mission in the current situation was to ensure the safety and well-being of the 36 American citizens aboard the Santa Maria.
On January 24, realizing that maintaining radio silence was no longer feasible, Enrique Galvão, via the American news agency NBC, broadcast a statement explaining the purpose of his actions, declaring open hostilities against the tyrannical Salazar government, emphasizing the purely democratic political goals that motivated it, and assuring that the crew and passengers were in no danger. Furthermore, passengers were given the opportunity to freely send radiograms to shore, which was intended to dispel false reports of their mistreatment and the revolutionaries' intentions.
This produced positive results. The tone of media reports and official statements from many countries shifted to neutral or even favorable. Most importantly, the world began to pay attention to the domestic policies of the dictatorial regimes of Portugal and Spain.
Galvao sent radiograms to the UN Secretary-General and the Secretary of State demanding that they recognize the group that had seized the Santa Maria as political rebels, but received no response. In turn, on January 25, the commando leader received an offer from Admiral Robert Dennison, Commander-in-Chief of the US Atlantic Fleet, to disembark the ship's passengers anywhere in North or South America. Galvao responded by stating his intention to do so at a location convenient to him, provided he retained control of the vessel. This marked the beginning of lengthy radio communications.
On January 25, the Santa Maria was spotted by a Danish merchant ship, and that same day, a US Navy Lockheed P2V-5 Neptune aircraft spotted the Santa Maria 900 miles southeast of Trinidad. Its commander, on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, offered Galvao the opportunity to surrender and proceed to San Juan, Puerto Rico. This was refused. Further negotiations were more subdued and culminated in Galvao personally traveling to Puerto Rico to negotiate with the admiral, but the captain refused to abandon the ship. After this, in an attempt to evade pursuers, the liner altered course, and a total blackout was declared at night.
The Iberian dictators also took action. Franco instructed forces stationed in the Canary Islands and Equatorial Guinea to cooperate with the Portuguese authorities, dispatching the cruiser Canarias for this purpose. The Supreme Council of National Defense of Portugal, meeting on January 26 under the chairmanship of O. Salazar himself, urgently ordered the organization of naval forces to intercept the Santa Maria. The resulting operation was dubbed Galvanex.
An air squadron was transferred to the island of Sal (Cape Verde Islands), which began patrolling the Atlantic on January 27. Eight ships were deployed to search for the Santa Maria and to protect the coast of the Portuguese colonies from a possible landing.
On January 26, Galvão received a radiogram from Admiral Dennison inviting him to a port in northeastern Brazil for negotiations and to disembark passengers. By this time, due to limited fresh water supplies, it had to be rationed (passengers were now allowed only six hours of shower time per day!), and fuel supplies were also becoming a concern. Given these circumstances, as well as the loss of surprise for operations in Africa, it became clear that the second phase of Operation Dulcinea was becoming increasingly precarious.
Therefore, Galvão was forced to accept Dennison's offer, but only on the condition that the ship remain in rebel hands. Negotiations with US Navy representatives were agreed to take place on January 31 near the Brazilian port of Recife, outside territorial waters, with the Americans guaranteeing the safety of the ship and Galvão's group.
For his part, Galvão was counting on a favorable change of power in Brazil. On January 31, the newly elected President Jânio Quadros took office, replacing the pro-Salazar President Juscelino Kubitschek. During his short reign, he took a more independent stance from the United States, restored diplomatic relations with the socialist countries, supported Fidel Castro, and awarded Che Guevara Brazil's highest honor, the Order of the Southern Cross. He was also an opponent of the Salazar regime and a supporter of democratic reforms in Portugal.
Brazilian President Jánio Quadros
Galvão was personally acquainted with Jãnio Quadros, who guaranteed the revolutionaries political asylum in Brazil and the opportunity for the Santa Maria to freely leave Recife after disembarking its passengers and crew.
On January 30, a gala farewell dinner was held for the passengers, and on January 31, the Santa Liberdade and the American destroyer DD710 Gearing, carrying U.S. Navy representatives, dropped anchor 500 meters apart. Representatives of the American naval command boarded the liner by boat. Negotiations resulted in an agreement that the Santa Maria would enter port to disembark passengers only after the new president had taken office and guaranteed the safety of the revolutionaries and the ship.
Santa Maria and the American destroyer Gearing
By this time, Salazar had moderated his appetite and, without insisting on charges of piracy, demanded that E. Galvao's group be brought to justice in the country of detention on the following charges: theft of private property worth $17,500,000 (the vessel "Santa Maria"), murder and wounding, illegal possession, transportation and use of firearms, use of forged documents.
On January 2, the liner entered port and anchored in the inner roadstead, where the passengers and crew disembarked. In Recife, E. Galvão hoped to replenish fuel, water, and food supplies, carry out engine repairs, and recruit a new crew. However, Humberto Delgado, who arrived on board, reported that they had been unable to raise the necessary funds. Therefore, on January 3, the rebels handed the ship over to Brazilian authorities and took advantage of the political asylum granted to them. The following day, the ship was returned to its owner, the Companhia Colonial de Navegação.
Santa Maria enters Recife
E. Galvao surrenders himself to the Brazilian authorities
E. Galvao answers journalists' questions
E. Galvão lived in Brazil until his death in 1970. He is buried in Lisbon, in the same cemetery as the deceased third mate of the Santa Maria. In 1991, Galvão was posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty.
E. Galvão's dream came true on April 25, 1974, when the so-called "Carnation Revolution" (Revolução dos Cravos) took place in Portugal – the overthrow of the authoritarian dictatorship by the military.
Residents of Lisbon welcome the rebellious army, April 25, 1974.
The symbol of the Carnation Revolution
Sources of
1. Henrique Galvão. "Santa Maria": My Crusade for Portugal. Cleveland, New York, 1961
2. Internet
Information