“El Fausto” — The Fishing Boat that Disappeared Three Times
A Mystery from 1968
Photo by: Ian Sherlock, 2009 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fishing_boat_in_the_Canary_Islands.jpg
The oceans are dangerous places; we still do not know what happened to this boat and crew. Your suggestions are welcome. These are the known facts:
El Fausto was similar to the fishing boat above. She was 14 metres (46 feet) long, and based at Tazacorte on the Canary Island of La Palma. Big enough also for cargo, the boat had delivered explosives and other agricultural materials to El Hierro. On her return voyage, she carried fruit and other provisions back to Tazacorte.
An Apparently Simple, Routine Journey
On the night of 20 July 1968, her crew were: Miguel Acosta Hernández, and brothers Ramón and Eliberto Concepción Hernandez. They were all from the same family, very experienced sailors, and knew their boat. Yet they disappeared, on a calm, windless night with only slight mist, between the islands of El Hierro and La Palma, a route they travelled often.
Before they left Las Puntas, Frontera, Julio García Pino, aged 27, asked them to take him too. He was working on El Hierro but his baby daughter was sick so he wanted to return to La Palma quickly. They agreed to take him, refusing his offer of payment, and the boat left El Hierro at 2.30am on 21 July.
The distance from El Hierro to La Palma is 98 km (61 miles). There are two lighthouses which would have been visible at times during their journey. Faro de Orchilla, on the far west of El Hierro, had a range of 36.8km (24 miles). Faro de Fuencaliente, on the southern tip of La Palma, was damaged by an earthquake in 1939 and replaced by an acetylene light, flashing every 6 seconds, with a range of 24km (15 miles).
To the left (west) is the Atlantic Ocean, to the right (east) the coast of Africa (Morocco).
Oona Räisänen (Mysid), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Canary_Islands.svg
Duquesa
On La Palma, 10am, their estimated arrival time, came and went. Rafael Acosta, owner of El Fausto, suspected mechanical failure and sent another boat to look for them. Finding nothing, they sent an emergency message that El Fausto was missing. Ships and planes searched the area, but it was not until 25 July when the crew of the Duquesa, a British refrigerated ship travelling from South America to the Netherlands, found them in the Atlantic Ocean, 175km (108.7 miles) from La Palma.
They reported that El Fausto´s crew were well, but had refused their offer to tow them to Tazacorte. Duquesa´s crew gave them food, fuel, and cigarettes and each went on their way. Canary Islanders are very family-minded. It is puzzling they would not accept the tow. It is not impossible that the crew of the Duquesa were lying, or at least knew more than they told.
Again, their estimated arrival time came and went and a new search was started, involving many boats and planes, but El Fausto had disappeared again. On 7 August, the boat was declared lost and this second search called off.
Anna di Maio
On 9 October 1968, the crew of an Italian ship, Anna di Maio, on her way to Venezuela, reported finding El Fausto “near the Tropic of Cancer”1, “in the middle of the ocean, more than 1,000 kilometres (621.4 miles) from the Canary Islands”2.
First Mate Luciano Ascione, boarded El Fausto. In the engine room below, he found “a dead man who was partly mummified”3, clutching a transistor radio, in the engine room. This was Julio, who was later identified due to a scar which Ascione observed on the body; there was no trace of the others.
Julio’s body was naked; possibly because he took his clothes off to have them dry to put on later, but more likely due to “paradoxical undressing,” where a person suffering from hypothermia feels hot.
Ascione saw no sign of violence or damage on board. He took some papers and the dead man´s notebook to give to Spanish authorities, who later returned only one or two pages. The crew attached a cable to tow the boat to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. That night, the boat suddenly sank, bow first, snapping the tow cable.
Many Different Theories
The most likely explanation for El Fausto initially going off course is mechanical failure and/or failure of navigational equipment. At any point in their ill-fated voyage, El Fausto´s crew may have seen, or been involved in, something secret or illegal.
Julio was probably trying to fix engine problems when he died. His wife, Luz, translated the notebook pages. He knew he would die, because it´s partly a will, but ends: “Don´t ever tell our son what happened to me. You know that God wanted this fate for me. I love you.”
We do not know what was written on the missing pages.
Some historical background may, or may not, be relevant. In 1968, Spain was a Fascist dictatorship under General Franco. The Canary Islands were a relatively poor region, and some were used to house prisoners, including “Fyffes Prisons” in old banana warehouses. Spain was isolated, and not aligned to NATO or the Warsaw Pact.
Less than 7 years since the October Missile Crisis in Cuba, most of the world was living through the Cold War. Submarines from both sides were often found in the Atlantic, officially only in international waters. The final, sudden sinking could have been caused accidentally by a submarine, though a large marine creature is also possible. It takes force to snap a towing cable.
So that´s what we know. I´d be interested in your theories, and will answer questions where possible. (Hint: “El Fausto” means “splendid” in Spanish. No connection to Goethe or Marlowe.)
Bonus fact: Trade through the port of Las Puntas was declining in 1968. The building there was sold in 1969, and restored in 1975. It is now Hotel Punta Grande, officially the world´s smallest hotel (Guinness Book of Records, since 1984):
References
1 El “Fausto”: Tres Desaparaciones Inexplicables, by Susana Alba Montalbano, 30 July 2018. Includes interview with Luis Javier Velasco Quintana, author of: “El Fausto, Historia y Misterio de Una Tragedia”, 2014.
*This book has now been re-printed and is available, though only in Spanish as far as I know. It answers a number of questions. (Velasco doubts the Italian crew’s story, but trusts the British crew; I’m not convinced either is completely truthful. He does not dismiss the theory they carried another passenger but thinks it unlikely.) Details: Luis Javier Velasco Quintana, “El Fausto, Historia y Misterio de Una Tragedia, 4th Edition, CSB Ediciones, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2021.
http://www.micinexin.net/2018/07/30/fausto-tres-desapariciones-inexplicables/
2 The Three Disappearances of “El Fausto” by Rafa Hernández, 30 November 2018:
https://www.coolturalanzarote.com/en/the-three-disappearances-of-el-fausto/
3 “Secret Note Found on Abandoned Ship,” Mr Ballen´s YouTube Channel, 5 November 2020, is where I first heard this story.
