Bombardment of Funchal

The city of Funchal was bombarded twice by German submarines while the state of war between Portugal and Germany lasted. The first bombardment took place on 3 December 1916 and the second on 12 December of the following year.

The first bombardment was preceded by the torpedoing of the gunboat La Surprise, of the French navy, the Kanguroo, a steamer of the same nationality, and the Dacia, a British merchant steamer in the service of the French government. These vessels, which lay at anchor in our harbour, were torpedoed a short distance from the shore, the pirate having managed to approach them without being seen by their crews. The American yacht Eleanor A. Percy, which was also in the waters of our bay, was spared by the submarine, because Germany was not yet at war with the United States of America at that time.

The first ship to be hit was the gunboat La Surprise. After an explosion in her magazine she sank in about 2 minutes, dragging down with her a barge, crewed by Madeiran workers of the firm of Blandy, which was supplying her with coal. Of the gunboat’s crew 33 died, including Commander Ladonne, 2 officers and 7 petty officers; of the barge’s crew, Manuel Rodrigues Teixeira, Manuel Rodrigues Vieira, José Gomes Camacho, Augusto Garcês, Manuel Rodrigues, Francisco Franco and Frederico Vieira died. Manuel Rodrigues Teixeira, an employee of the firm of Blandy, had gone aboard the gunboat to direct the coaling.

The crews of the other ships managed to save themselves by swimming and in boats. Mr Bernard, captain of the Kanguroo, helped by two Frenchmen and a Madeiran, succeeded in firing 25 rounds from his gun at the submarine when his ship was already on the point of sinking. The brave men who helped Mr Bernard were the Madeiran José Alexandre Gomes, skipper (arrais) of a steam launch, and the gunner Tonnerre and the apprentice Provenzalé, crew members of the Kanguroo.

The explosion aboard La Surprise shook the houses of the city and was at first taken to be accidental. But when two more followed and the small steamers of the coaling firms began to sound their whistles insistently, everyone realised what was happening. A veritable panic then seized the population, a panic that grew still worse when the shells fired by the submarine’s two guns began to fall on the city.

Having escaped the fire of the Kanguroo and of the shore batteries, the pirates’ boat took up a position some 12 kilometres away, beyond the range of our artillery, and from there it bombarded the city without running any risk.

The bombardment lasted from 9 to 11 in the morning; La Surprise had been torpedoed at about half past eight. The Vigia (‘lookout’) battery fired 34 rounds and the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater) 18, none of which hit the submarine. The submarine fired some 50 shells at the city. Some burst in the air, and the rest fell at the following points: 2 in Rua Júlio da Silva Carvalho, 1 in Rua das Queimadas de Cima, 1 in Rua do Bispo, 2 in Calçada de Santa Clara, 1 in Rua Direita, 1 on the Pelourinho factory, 1 on the Quinta Vigia, 1 in the Jardim Municipal and 1 in the Angústias cemetery.

No one died in the city, and the material damage caused by the shells was not great. Only at sea were there dead and wounded. The wounded were taken to the Civil Hospital (Hospital Civil) by the staff of the Red Cross (Cruz Vermelha) delegation in Funchal, who gave excellent service.

As soon as the first explosion occurred, Mr Carlos Pio de França and Mr Afonso Coelho had two boats launched, which picked up 15 survivors, some of them wounded. The seaman João de Gouveia, known as ‘o Gordo’ (the Fat One), a crew member of one of these boats, gave valuable service, rescuing 8 of the gunboat’s crew and 2 Madeiran workers.

In the Angústias cemetery stands a small monument, commissioned by Mr Henrique Augusto Vieira de Castro, to perpetuate the memory of the French sailors and the Portuguese workers who perished in the bay of Funchal on the tragic morning of 3 December 1916. This monument, the work of the chisel of the prize-winning sculptor Mr Francisco Franco, was unveiled on 3 December 1917.

Lieutenant Max Valentiner, commander of the submarine that committed the cowardly act of torpedoing three ships inside our harbour and bombarding the city from beyond the range of the shore batteries, was decorated by the Kaiser, and Sonderburg, his home town, named him its ‘beloved son’!!!

The second bombardment of Funchal took place on 12 December 1917. The submarine fired its first shots at 6.20 in the morning, when the first light of day was barely beginning to show. It had been sighted by the crew of a fishing boat, who at once warned the crew of the Dekade I of what they had just discovered. That steamer, and later the Mariano de Carvalho, set out to meet the enemy and give battle.

The Dekade I and the Mariano de Carvalho were two small steamers, each armed with a small gun and crewed by sailors of the navy, which served as patrol boats in the port of Funchal. The former was the first to open fire on the submarine, which, as it drew away to place itself out of range of our boats’ guns, kept raining shells on them and on the city.

The steamers suffered no damage, but in the city there was considerable destruction: 5 people were killed and some 30-odd wounded, some slightly, others seriously. Shells fell at the following points: in front of the fortress of São Tiago; 1 in Rua de São Filipe; 1 on the Lombo da Boa Vista; 1 at the Quinta Mãe dos Homens (Mother of Mankind); 1 on the Levada do Bom Sucesso; 2 on the Lombo do Terço; 1 in Rua do Dr. Juvenal; 1 at Choupana; 1 in the Jardim Municipal; 1 in Travessa de Santa Catarina; 1 in Rua dos Aranhas; 1 at the Fortress of São Lourenço; 1 at the Convent of St Clare; 3 on the beach, 1 of them in front of the customs house and 2 beside the Funchal Harbour Master’s Office (Capitania do Porto do Funchal); 1 in Rua da Bela Vista; 1 near the Torreão factory (this one did not explode); 1 near the Pico de São João; 1 in Rua 5 de Junho; 1 near the Jewish Cemetery; 1 near the Hotel Jones; 1 near the Castelo do Pico; 1 in the sea, opposite the point where the submarine cable comes ashore; and 1 near Travessa do Pasto. Other shells burst over the city, but caused no damage.

This second bombardment lasted only 30 minutes, during which the submarine fired some 50 rounds and the patrol boats 40-odd. The batteries of Vigia and São Gonçalo never opened fire on the submarine, because, pursued by the patrol boats, it quickly moved out of their range.

Those killed on the day of the bombardment were: Augusto Teles de Vilhena, aged 25; Carolina Adelaide Rodrigues, aged 50; Firmina Augusta Figueira, of the same age; Maria José de Mendonça, aged 45; and Emília Augusta, aged 40.

The wounded were treated at the Civil Hospital and at the branch of the Portuguese Red Cross Society, where both the branch’s physician, Dr João Albino de Sousa, and its stretcher-bearers gave good service. At the Hospital the wounded were attended by Dr Álvaro Tertuliano da Silva and Dr José Joaquim de Freitas.

The shell that burst in the Convent of St Clare wounded Father Manuel da Silva Branco, who was celebrating Mass there, the sacristan and two women, one of whom died shortly afterwards at the Red Cross branch in Rua dos Netos.

For the bravery they showed during the submarine attack, the crews of the Dekade I and the Mariano de Carvalho were commended by the harbour master in an order of the day.

Because of the bombardment, a large part of the population of Funchal left for Monte, Santo António, São Martinho and other places, and many people rented houses on the outskirts of the city, supposing that they would be better protected there against the dangers of a fresh attack by the pirates. The panic lasted a long time, and on several occasions we saw people of all ages and social conditions fleeing in terror in every direction, merely because they had heard that a new submarine had been sighted near our port or that the Germans had landed somewhere on the coast. There were nights when cars and carriages had not a moment’s rest, so great was the number of people seeking to escape the danger they believed they faced if they stayed in the city.

Some people had trenches dug inside their houses and gardens, into which they retreated whenever some ill-humoured individual took it into his head to announce a new bombardment as imminent. Street lighting was banned as a defence measure on the day of the second bombardment, and was restored only on 11 November 1918, when the first news of the cessation of hostilities between the belligerents reached Madeira. After the first bombardment, lighting had been banned for only a few days, after which the lamps were lit again in the streets that could not be seen from the sea.

To protect Madeira against any attempted German landing, the government sent us, after the events of 12 December, a company of position artillery with its guns, which was quartered in Rua do Carmo. What we never had was the artillery needed to respond effectively to a bombardment carried out at long range. It was for lack of it, both on land and at sea, that the pirates were able to carry out, without any risk, the two acts of brutal aggression recorded here. The only large-calibre gun at our disposal, mounted at São Gonçalo, could not be used on 12 December 1917 because the submarine, it is said, had placed itself out of its range when carrying out the bombardment.