Mota Freitas (Carlos Elói)
Carlos Elói Mota Freitas (1894–1918), a Funchal-born naval midshipman killed when the minesweeper Augusto Castilho was sunk by a German submarine while escorting the steamer São Miguel. He was posthumously honoured with the War Cross and a Funchal street name.
He was born in this city on 1 December 1894 and completed the course at the Naval School in 1917. As a naval midshipman, he was serving in the crew of the minesweeper Augusto Castilho, which was escorting the steamer São Miguel on a voyage from Madeira to the Azores, when the minesweeper was treacherously attacked and sunk by a German submarine on 14 October 1918. Among those who died were her brave commander and our fellow Madeiran Mota Freitas. The heroic resistance of the Augusto de Castilho shielded the steamer São Miguel from the German submarine’s onslaught, and the Portuguese steamer was saved with all her crew and passengers. Anyone wishing to learn more about this terrible tragedy should read the interesting pamphlet 200 milhas a remos, written by Lieutenant Luís José Simões, an eyewitness to all those events. Another of our fellow Madeirans, Samuel da Conceição Vieira, then a naval midshipman, was among the survivors of the German submarine’s attack.
The government awarded Midshipman Mota e Freitas the War Cross, 1st Class, and the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), at its meeting of 8 May 1919, resolved to give his name to the former Travessa da Sacristia in Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’). In October 1921 a committee was formed with the aim of erecting a modest monument to Midshipman Mota e Freitas; on the same occasion the insignia of the War Cross, awarded to him after his death, were put on display at the Holy House of Mercy (Santa Casa da Misericórdia).
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
Carlos Elói Mota Freitas was born in Funchal.
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Carlos Elói Mota Freitas completed the Naval School course.
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The minesweeper Augusto Castilho was sunk by a German submarine while escorting the steamer São Miguel, killing Mota Freitas and its commander.
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Funchal council renamed the Travessa da Sacristia after cadet Carlos Elói Mota e Freitas.
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A committee was formed to raise a monument to Mota Freitas, whose War Cross insignia were exhibited.
Place
Places mentioned · 05
Abroad
- Azores
Portugal. Destination of the steamer São Miguel on the voyage when it was attacked.
The Azores, an Atlantic archipelago that shares plant species with Madeira. The Elucidário records settlement there by Madeiran families such as the Bettencourts, the 1801 ban on Azorean wines in Madeira, and imports of Azorean tobacco. It also notes that Azorean farmers were brought to Madeira to teach maize-growing methods.
- Funchal
Birthplace of Mota Freitas.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Holy House of Mercy of Funchal
Funchal. Where his War Cross insignia were exhibited in 1921.
Charitable hospital in Funchal that housed the old foundling wheel and keeps a life-size portrait of D. Diogo Pereira Forjaz Coutinho, with a plaque commemorating a new entrance he built. Works to house a projected oceanographic museum began there but were abandoned, and Carlos Elói Mota Freitas's War Cross insignia were exhibited there in 1921.
- Rua Mota e Freitas
Funchal. Former lane renamed after Mota Freitas by Funchal council in 1919.
Former lane renamed after Mota Freitas by Funchal council in 1919.
- Santa Maria Maior
Funchal. Funchal parish containing the renamed lane.
A partly urban parish in the eastern part of Funchal, the oldest of the archipelago, also known as Nossa Senhora do Calhau or Socorro. Its church is the former St James church, and it is noted for embroiderers producing the finest work. It became a julgado of the Funchal comarca in 1927.
People
People mentioned · 03- Carlos Elói Mota Freitas1894–1918
Funchal-born naval midshipman killed in the sinking of the minesweeper Augusto Castilho by a German submarine in 1918.
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Naval lieutenant and eyewitness who wrote the pamphlet '200 milhas a remos' about the Augusto Castilho sinking.
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Madeiran naval midshipman who survived the German submarine attack on the Augusto Castilho.