Tybumia (barque)
Original title: Tybumia (Barca)
The English barque Tybumia entered Funchal in November 1884 intending to smuggle goods, and fled on 2 December 1884 under fire from the Ilhéu fortress.
An English ship that entered the port of Funchal on 24 November 1884, with the purpose, as its captain declared, of taking on refreshments and allowing the passengers to get to know our island. Some days later the customs house learnt that aboard the Tybumia was a large cargo which it was intended to land without paying duties. The captain was therefore asked to present the ship’s manifest, and the vessel was closely watched with full fiscal rigour. These measures, however, only prevented the goods from being landed, for on the night of 2 December of that year the Tybumia weighed anchor and fled unexpectedly from our port, where it had lingered for some days awaiting the chance to carry out the smuggling. The Ilhéu fortress (Fortaleza do Ilhéu) fired several cannon shots at the smuggling ship to force it back to the anchorage, but the balls missed their target. Among the other passengers aboard the Tybumia were two women who, by their dress and refined manners, were at first taken by the inhabitants of Funchal for ladies of the highest English aristocracy!
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Places mentioned · 02
- Fortress of the Ilhéu
Funchal. Fortress that fired on the fleeing ship.
The Fortaleza do Ilhéu is a seventeenth-century fortress at Funchal. It held the political prisoners from the brig Douro in 1844 and fired on the fleeing barque Tybumia. Forster claimed that Cook's ships bombarded it in 1768, and it was planned to be lit with fireworks and illuminations for the Quincentenary.
- Harbour of Funchal
Funchal. Harbour the Tybumia entered and fled from.
Funchal Bay, the largest harbour of the Madeira archipelago and the leading port of the Adjacent Islands. The islet lies at its western end, and it lies 4 miles from the port of Câmara de Lobos. The Elucidário gives its shipping statistics from 1901 to 1943 and records episodes such as corsair and warship visits.