Famous – La Luz Port (2024)

Winston Churchill engaged in conversation with Aristotle Onassis

Mr. Wiston Churchill arrived in La Luz Port (Puerto de La Luz) on the 22nd of February in 1959 onboard Mr. Onassis’ luxurious yacht (M/Y Christina) which laid at anchor in front of the Alcaravaneras beach.
The shipping agency in charge of representing the shipowner (Mr.Onassis) during his vessel’s call at Las Palmas was “C.F. Staib y Compañía”. Actually, it was the the owner of the firm (Mr. Kenneth Staib) who acted as a cicerone (guide) for this illustrious visitor.

Gerald MIller and Sidney Head playing tennis with the Duke of York (later KIng George VI) on 11 January 1927. (Gerald is the man with his belt undone)

The story goes in the Miller family that, during the tennis, reports came to Gerald that the Duke’s ship (Royal Naval cruiser) HMS Renown, slipped its anchor by accident and began to drift in the harbour. Elizabeth, duch*ess of York was understood to have been aboard. Miller/Cory tugboats frantically tried to catch and make fast the enormous ship, and whilst this was going on, Miller and his colleagues had to prolong the tennis so as to distract the attention of the Duke. Should he have found out it is thought that the ship’s captain would have been disciplined or lost his job. William’s father, Basil Miller (Geralds’s son) was a ball boy at the game aged seven years.

The Duke of York (later KIng George VI) on 11 January 1927 (on the right of the photo). Duke of York’s tennis partner was Ernest Wootton (on the left of the photo).

In 1936, Francisco Franco was appointed General Commandant of the Canaries. He joined the military revolt of July 17 which began the Spanish Civil War.Franco quickly took control of the archipelago, except for a few points of resistance on La Palma and in the town of Vallehermoso, on La Gomera.

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Captain Murakami takes over as skipper of the Azuma Maru, replacing the well-liked former captain. Murakami forces the crew to work harder than they ever have, creating enmity and exhaustion. Just when the ship has taken a huge catch of tuna in its nets, Murakami learns that his ship is the only one in position to rescue the crew of another ship, sinking in a storm. He must choose between saving the catch or saving lives. Either choice may mean his ruin

Source: Mr. Jim Beaver

Jean de Béthencourt (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɑ̃ də betɑ̃kuːʁ]) (1362–1425) wasa French explorer who in 1402 led an expedition to the Canary Islands, landingfirst on the north side of Lanzarote. From there he conquered for Castile theislands of Fuerteventura (1405) and Hierro, ousting their local chieftains (majosand bimbaches, ancient peoples). Béthencourt received the title King of theCanary Islands but he recognized King Henry III of Castile, who had providedaid during the conquest, as his overlord.Jean de Béthencourt was born in Grainville-la-Teinturière, province ofNormandy. To finance his expedition he sold his house in Paris valued at 200gold francs and some other small pieces of property in December 1401.[1] Hisuncle, Robert de Braquemont, loaned him 5,000 pounds (to which he lateradded another 2,000)

The ship’s master radioed for help as the ship approached La Luz Port (Canary Islands). He said the jaguar had practically taken possession of the ship. The jaguar could be seen pacing the deck Police at Las Palmas went aboard and shot the jaguar after first efforts to put the jaguar to sleep with meat dosed with veronal had proved unsuccessful. Crowds massed on Las Palmas docks cheered “victory” since the only casualties on board had been four monkeys eaten by the Jaguar.

La Luz Port is also well-known as an ideal refreshment station for ships using this route, as a matter of fact, back in August 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed to the Canary Islands, where he dropped anchor. After restocking provisions and making some repairs, the three vessels weighed anchor on September 6th and finally departed for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean resulting in the discovery of America. At present, you can visit in Las Palmas a museum called “La Casa Colon” which pays tribute to the famous former resident of the island, Christopher Columbus. Here you can find many interesting facts and memorabilia pertaining to him.

After leaving Valencia, still in August 1501, Kemal Reis headed south and bombarded the coastal defenses of Andalucia before landing his troops, where the Ottomans raided several ports and towns. Kemal Reis later sailed westwards and passed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Atlantic Ocean, where he and his men raided the Atlantic coasts of the Iberian peninsula. From there Kemal Reis sailed southwest and landed on several of the Canary Islands, where the Ottomans faced moderate opposition from the Spanish forces.

Source: Wikipedia

Right:
Alonso Fernández de
Lugo (the founding of
Santa Cruz de Tenerife)

He was often the first to board an enemy vesselduring an attack or raid. It was this brazen style that eventually caused him to suffer the loss of a leg and severe damage to one arm while fighting theEnglish at Guernsey in 1549. Although manypirates would have had their careers ended by suchan injury, le Clerc refused to retire and insteadexpanded the scope of his piracy by financing thevoyages and attacks of other pirates as well.

The second son of William Hawkins, a wealthy West Country merchant trader, John Hawkins was born at Plymouth. As a youth, he made a number of voyages to the Spanish-held Canary Islands, where he first learned of the profits to be made from selling African slaves in Spain’s American colonies. His associates in the Canaries, Pedro Soler and Pedro de Ponte, gave him contacts and legal protection to take slaves over to Guinea which he later sold in the West Indies. In the 1560´s he often visited the Archipelago as a pirate having no hesitation in boarding other slave ships to rob them of their valuable human merchandise.

Throughout the whole of the XVI century the coasts of the Canary Islands suffered attacks by the corsairs from North Africa and Turkey under the occasional command of Drub “The Devil” or Cachidiablo. The east islands, in particular, were under the constant threat of the barbary pirates and corsairs, who were pirates and privateers operating mainly from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers. San Sebastián de La Gomera was one of the ports in the Canary Islands which suffered from looting and pillaging at the hands of these corsairs. Another renowned privateer was Dogali nicknamed “El Turquillo”, a North African pirate who landed in Arrecife during 1571, they too made it up to Teguise where they ransacked the town and set fire to the parish church.

On the outbreak of the War of Spanish Succession, Jennings commanded HMS Kent under Admiral Rooke at Cadiz and Vigo (of 70 guns) in 1702, where he played a part in the destruction of the Franco-Spanish fleet. He took part in the capture of Gibraltar, and was captain of the 96-gun HMS St George at the Battle of Malaga in 1704. He was knighted for his exploits by Queen Anne on 9 September 1704, and was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1705, Vice-Admiral in 1708 and Admiral in 1709. His attack on Tenerife in 1706 was unsuccessful.

J. Edens, whose 1715 ascent and observations of Mt. Teide influenced many subsequent expeditions.

Louis Feuillée (1724), who was sent to measure the meridian of El Hierro and to map the islands.

Jean-Charles de Borda (1771, 1776) who more accurately measured the longitudes of the islands and the height of Mount Teide

The Baudin-Ledru expedition (1796) which aimed to recover a valuable collection of natural history objects.

The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson on 22 July 1797, the assault was defeated, and on 25 July the remains of the landing party withdrew under a truce with the loss of several hundred casualties. Nelson himself had been wounded in the arm, which was subsequently partially amputated: a stigma that he carried to his grave as a constant reminder of his failure.

The attack was successfully repelled by Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana.

In the painting, Nelson’s barge is shown beached in the surf, in port-bow view. Hit on the point of landing he reeled and staggered back into the boat where he lies, having transferred his sword to his left hand. He is supported by a sailor and there is blood on the sailor’s shirt and on the lining of Nelson’s coat. Lieutenant Josiah Nisbet, Nelson’s stepson, stands behind him and is saving his life by staunching the blood. Behind him and to the left are two other lieutenants. Also in the barge and to the right of the group is a third lieutenant grasping a boarding pike, with two sailors behind him. In the left foreground standing in the shallow water is Captain Thompson, arms outstretched towards Nelson, together with another lieutenant. In the left background is a bow view of another boat approaching the beach. In the right foreground the artist has used the waves to enhance the dramatic impact.

Spheniscus humboldti — Humboldt penguin
Dosidicus gigas — Humboldt squid
Lilium humboldtii — Humboldt’s lily
Phragmipedium humboldtii — an orchid
Quercus humboldtii — South American (Andean) oak
Conepatus humboldtii — Humboldt’s Hog-nosed skunk
Annona humboldtii — Neotropical fruit tree or shrub
Utricularia humboldtii — a bladderwort
Geranium humboldtii — a cranesbill
Salix humboldtiana — a South-American willow
Inia geoffrensis humboldtiana — Amazon River Dolphin
subspecies living at Orinoco River basin

Ordronaux later became an officer in the American navy, andwas so famous in that role that a warshipwas named USS Ordronaux in the Second World War.

1. The first member of the family to arrive in the Canary Islands (in 1812) was James Swanston Miller (1798-1855). He founded Swanston & Co. in 1820 which became Thomas Miller & Co in 1854.

2. Thomas Miller Swanston (1805-1885), cousin of James Swanston Miller, founded the first company with the Miller name in 1854.Thomas Miller traded from the Muelle de San Telmo.

3. The senior partner in Miller & Co. by the Santa Catalina mole was James Miller Vasconcellos (1839-1915).

4. The partners in Swanston & Co who built the 19th century Port (Puerto de La Luz) were Juan Swanston (1843-1918) and Joseph Miller Vasconcellos (1840-1920).

5. The third son of Thomas Miller Swanston (1805-1885) was Thomas Miller Wilson (1857-1930) who was a farmer, merchant, banker and agent for Renault cars. He was also a non-executive director and shareholder of Miller & Co by the Santa Catalina mole.

6. The 4th son of Thomas Miller Swanston was Dr William Henry Miller (1859-1936) who was a doctor in Edinburgh and a shareholder in Miller & Co.

7. After James Miller Vasconcellos, the partners in Miller & Co by the Santa Catalina mole were Thomas Hamilton-Miller Parry (1872-1952), Harry Miller Parry (1879-1959) and Gerald Miller Parry (1889-1982), Managing Director of Miller & Co (1919-1939), wartime diplomat & head of intelligence and British Consul from 1945-1964.

8. Basil Miller (1900-2003) wartime naval intelligence officer and later director of Lambert Brothers (shipping) Ltd, the parent company of Miller & Co before the sale to Boluda.

The text of L’Histoire Naturelle des Iles Canaries took 20 years to complete. Specialists such as Justin Pierre Marie Macquart wrote appropriate parts. Webb’s herbarium was bequeathed to the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze in Florence, Italy. PB. Webb (b. 1793-d. 1854) was a rich English gentleman traveling around the world and indulging his love of botany. In the course of his travel from Madeira to Brazil in 1828 he stopped in Tenerife where he met S. Berthelot (b. 1794-d. 1880) who for some years had already been collecting plants and insects from the islands. Mr. Berthelot kindled in him such a deep love for Canary Island nature that Mr. Webb remained in Tenerife for two more years, giving up his journey to Brazil. Over the next twenty years, Mr. Webb and Mr. Berthelot devoted themselves to the drawing up their grand work which was eventually published in Paris in one hundred and six installments between 1835 and 1850.

He first visited the Canary Islands in 1820, where he taught at a school in Tenerife and managed the botanical gardens at Orotava for the Marquis of Villanueva del Prato. Berthelot studied the natural history of the islands. He was joined in this task by Webb in 1828, and by 1830 they had collected sufficient information for publication. They travelled to Geneva, and produced the first volume of L’Histoire Naturelle des Îles Canaries in 1835. Berthelot concentrated on the ethnography, history and geography of the islands, with Webb completing the natural history sections. The ornithological section was mainly written by Alfred Moquin-Tandon. In 1845 Berthelot founded the Société d’Ethnologique. In 1846 he returned to Tenerife, and in 1848 was nominated the French consular agent for the island, being promoted to full Consul in 1867. He retired in August 1874, and was given the freedom of the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

In the 1870s Thomas Fyffe, a London food wholesaler, went into partnership with a fruit dealer named Hudson who had connections in the Canary Islands. In 1878 they shipped their first cargo of bananas to England. Within five years the business had become so successful that they purchased land in the Canaries to be cultivated as banana plantations. Meanwhile, Elder Dempster & Company (a large shipping firm which traded in the Canaries) had observed the success of Fyffe & Hudson and followed suit. In 1898 Elder Dempster’s fruit importing business was extended to Jamaica, which was then the second oldest of Britain’s overseas colonies. To protect the island’s economy the British government agreed to pay a subsidy of £40,000 a year to Elder Dempster to run a regular steamer service to Jamaica and bring large quantities of bananas to the British market. In May 1901 the firms merged and Elders & Fyffes Ltd was established in London. The following year 45% of the capital was purchased by the United Fruit Company of America. Thereafter, the business went from strength to strength using specially constructed ships that ensured the fruit arrived in good condition after the long Atlantic crossing.

The bird inhabits the high pine forest of Pinus canariensis and is not found anywhere else in the world, although there is a related sub-species in Tenerife. This species is categorised at “Near found anywhere else in the world, although there is a related sub-species in Tenerife. This species is categorised at “Near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and research programme working hard to find ways of increasing the bird’s population.

British roots were established in the Canaries in the nineteenth century through media and literary elements such as Teneriffe and its Six Satellites by the English writer Olivia Stone or The Tenerife News first published on 3rd January 1891. This newspaper was created so that the considerable amount of British people who were coming to the Islands and who could not read Spanish newspapers, would then be able to read about local and national news from the area. This newspaper eventually disappeared, but a new article reporting information to the British members of The Canary Islands came in the form of an extra part of the newspaper El Iriarte, which was called El Iriarte English Supplement. It was only two pages long but represented a written influence of English being pressed upon the Islands as did The Canary Islands Review created in 1903 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.