Pontinha mole (breakwater)

The contract for the Pontinha (‘little point’) mole (breakwater) was awarded to the French engineers Combemale, Michelon and Maury under an agreement of 30 June 1885. The works lasted until 1889, and their provisional acceptance was authorised by a ministerial order (portaria) of 16 August 1890. The design had been drawn up by the engineer Mariano Augusto de Faria e Maia, although it underwent some modifications, some proposed by the said contractors and others imposed by the Consultative Board of Public Works and Mines (Junta Consultiva de Obras Públicas e Minas).

The work cost 447,256,855 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). However, since a large part of it was destroyed by the storms of 28 February 1892, the Government was obliged to spend 90,000,000 réis on its reconstruction, which was completed in 1895. Adding to these two sums the 2,502,960 réis spent on supervising the works, we see that the expenditure on building the Pontinha mole rose to the considerable sum of 539,759,815 réis.

It is worth noting that a mole was already being considered for Funchal as early as 1823. The governor and captain-general even asked the Council for its opinion on the proposed mole, and on 13 September of the following year a royal letter (carta régia) was published ordering Brigadier Francisco António Raposo to travel to the island of Madeira to carry out the studies needed for its construction. It was on the shoals near the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater) that the brigadier intended to build a mole and quay, and to this end the considerable sum of 37 contos (1 conto = 1,000,000 réis, from 1911 1,000 escudos) was spent on breaking and dressing stone, most of which was left to go to waste.

At a session of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) on 26 November 1824, the governor and captain-general read out, before the Council, the nobility and the body of Portuguese and foreign merchants, a royal letter concerning the quay and mole in the city’s harbour. The juiz de fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district) then asked the governor to convey to His Majesty the gratitude of the Madeirans for the benefit they were about to receive.

As for the wall joining the Pontinha islet to the land, it was begun in 1757 but only completed many years later. The plan and model of the work were drawn up by the engineer Francisco Tossi Columbino under a royal letter sent on 22 May 1756 to Governor Manuel Saldanha de Albuquerque, ordering the construction of a harbour of refuge in Funchal. A gale that struck our harbour on 4 November 1757 caused considerable damage to the works on this wall, which had by then already begun.

The work by the late Adolfo Loureiro entitled Os Portos Maritimos de Portugal e Ilhas Adjacentes contains a detailed account of the present Pontinha mole and the quays of Funchal.