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The Itapagé
During a dive trip to
Recife, I and Massud were invited by Edísio and Léo of Aquáticos
dive shop to dive in the wreck of the passenger ship Itapagé
in Alagoas.
The ship´s history
The Itapagé was a packet ship
use to transport cargo and passengers. It was built in 1927 in Chantiers de
Normandie shipyard in the city of Rouen in France. The owner of Itapagé was
Companhia Nacional de Navegação Costeira.
In September 26th of
1943, the Itapagé was sailing off Alagoas, comingo from Rio de Janeiro bound
to Belém do Pará when at 13:50 hs the ship was shaken by explosions and
start to sink.
The passengers and crew
was astonished to see that huge ship dissapear in only five minutes.
From 70 crewman, 18 died and of the 52 passengers, nine was never seeing
again.
A U-boat was the
responsible for the sinking of Itapagé. According to records, the
attack could have be done by U-161
or U-504.
After 60 years of the day
of this tragedy, it is hard to find hard evidence to declare with no
doubt wich U-boat was the responsible for this.For the brazilian people,
what matters is the size of the agression caused by the germans.
The sinking of Itapagé
show very whell the conditions that the brazilian navy faced day by day
while sailing in brazilian waters. The lack of protection given by the
armed forces to the ships that sail in our waters, make this ships easy
targets to the u-boats.
The dive
We left Recife in the end of
the day bound to a small fishermen village named Lagoa Azeda. This village is
60 km far from Maceio and 320 km from Recife.
In the next day, we started the
dive operations as the sun rises. From the beach to the wreckage of Itapagé
we use a fishing boat. The Lagoa Azeda village is the nearest point to the
Itapagé: 8 nautical miles. With the boat we used we spend 1:30 hs of voyage.
After the localization of the wreck we begin our dive.
Thanks to the great
visibility, it was possible to see the shipwreck at 25 meters down.
The ship is enourmous and the diving conditions was perfect !
While diving over the
bow, part of the cargo of the ship called our attention: By the sand,
thousands of beer bottles, medicine glasses e parfums and some tires.
According to the cargo manifest, the Itapagé was carrying two
thousand boxes of beer, 30 thousand pans, two trucks and others
itens. As we passed over the bow mast, Massud make the identification
of one truck. For all over the wreckage, there are a large quantidity
of sealife, many big fishes, barracudas and rays.
But without any doubt, the best
part of the wreckage is the engines !
Standing side by side, the huge
engines was built in the Chantiers de Látlantique and was responsible to the
propulsion of the 113 meters, 5000 tons ship.
We stay a few minutes staring
at that beautiful structure. The incredible visibility of the water and a
huge fishe that was swiming between the engines was a good vision
! At this very moment a huge ray flew over us heading to the
stern of the ship. So, we decided to do the same and we slowly swim between
the engines and arrive in the stern.
At the end of diving, when we
are back to the bow, we saw a big piece of the hull on the sand.It was full
of portholes ! So I decided to named this part of the shipwreck as
"The Porthole Alley" !
Back to the surface, we
figured that the history of the shipwreck and the rescue of survivors was
quite familiar to the fisherman that took us there: His father help to save
the survivors using jangada (local smal sailing boat).
All the diving operation on the Itapagé was
sensational. The dive is amazing and all wreckdiver must visit this
shipwreck. Many thanks to Edísio and Léo of the dive shop Aquáticos who
took us there.
Colaboration: Aldemar
Araújo Castro
Site:
www.evidencias.com/aldemar/
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