Monument to the Unbowed Sailor

In the early hours of 8 September 1936 Portuguese navy sailors too control of three warships lying at anchor in the Tagus estuary, in Lisbon: the two largest vessels in the fleet, the sloops Afonso de Albuquerque and Bartolomeu Dias, and the destroyer Dão.   Led by members of an underground Communist organisation, the ORA [Organização Revolucionária da Armada], they overpowered the officers on board and attempted to sail the ships into open seas. Their ultimate destination remains a source of contention, but Salazar’s government was sure that the final destination was Republican Spain, whose fleet they would join. The Afonso de Albuquerque had recently called to Alicante to pick up Portuguese citizens; officers had noted a high degree of fraternization between their crew and republican elements ashore, which had led to arrests among the former on the ship’s return to Lisbon.

Only the Afonso de Albuquerque and the destroyer Dão managed to set sail that morning, but the alarm had been sounded (it was said afterwards that the Government had been aware of the plan, and had let it go ahead in order to arrest as many conspirators as possible) and the Lisbon garrison was ready. As they tried to make it to open waters, the ships were fired on from the forts which protected the capital. Hit repeatedly, both vessels were disabled and brought to a halt: the Afonso de Albuquerque in Algés, not far from the tower of Belém, and the Dão on the river’s southern shore. There were casualties among the sailors, twelve of whom died, and over two hundred arrests were carried out. Many of these would be sent to the Tarrafal prison camp in the Cape Verde islands, where a further five would die. Salazar, linking the revolt to events in Spain, wrote in an official note that ‘the ships of the Portuguese navy can be sent to the bottom of the sea, but they cannot serve under any flag other than Portugal’s’.

In 2009 the city of Almada unveiled this monument, built by sculptor Rui Matos, which evokes the Russian Constructivist movement.