Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia Caravella)
Original title: Água-mar (Physalia Caravella)
The Portuguese man-of-war, a highly stinging floating siphonophore colony occasionally washed onto Madeiran beaches; the name água-mar is also applied to jellyfish.
A floating colony of marine polyps of the class Hydrozoa and the order Siphonophora, washed up from time to time on the beaches of these islands, especially when the wind blows from the open sea. It stings extremely severely, and is known among the English as the Portuguese man-of-war and in Italy as Vascello portoghese. Portuguese sailors call it Nau da Índia (‘India carrack’).
The name água-mar is also applied to other hydrozoans in this part of the ocean, such as the alforrecas or scyphomedusae. The expression is a variant of água-má, used on the coasts of Portugal. The água-mar is also known as água-viva.
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Place
Places mentioned · 02
- Italy
Where the animal is called Vascello portoghese.
Italy is referred to in several contexts. It was the place of exile of Bishop D. Francisco José Rodrigues de Andrade in 1834, and it was visited on the 1926 Madeiran pilgrimage. An Italian sanctuary was reputedly the model for the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graça.
- Portugal
The variant name água-má is used on its coasts.
Portugal, the mother country of Madeira. The Elucidário notes that artillery detachments were sent from the mainland to garrison Madeira before 1877, that Madeira was linked to Portugal by telegraph cable in 1874, and that woad and gifts of honey were formerly sent there from the island. Mainland oranges and olives are compared favourably with those of Madeira and Porto Santo.