Darwin's Spanish Connection

When the name Charles Darwin is mentioned, wherever you are in the world, it is invariably in the context of nature and especially on the evolution of the species. In his work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, he was perhaps the first big-name scientist to clearly challenge the biblical account of creation.

Charles Darwin

But the idea of evolution, that plants and animals had changed and developed in the course of time, was not new. Even in classical Greece such an idea existed and geological discoveries in the 19^th century gave rise to considerable scientific speculation. What Darwin did was to provide an acceptable explanation of how such development could take place. This was his theory of natural selection, that all living things reproduce themselves with slight variations to adapt to a changing environment.

But behind a great mind which was in the right place at the right time, there is often another great character, or several, who manage to remain less acclaimed or even anonymous, depending upon whose history books one prefers to read. Alexander Von Humboldt, for example, is perhaps the best known of these and, if you were to read Andrea Wulf’s The Invention of Nature, in which she describes Humboldt as “The Lost Hero of Science”, you might be forgiven in thinking that perhaps Mr Darwin was, in fact, behind the times.

The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf

In fairness, Charles Darwin was a huge admirer of Humboldt and, having read so much of the Prussian’s writings, how disappointed he was in January 1832 when he and his expedition were prevented by the local authorities from exploring the island of Tenerife, from seeking out the amazing Dragon Tree in the Orotava Valley and from climbing the great Mt Teide volcano.

Mount Teide through the retama and flixweed in Spring

The famous Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco) at Icod de los Vinos

HMS Beagle anchored in the Bay of Santa Cruz on 6^th January but, before anyone could be rowed ashore, a little pale-faced man, as described by Darwin, informed them that the Beagle was to be placed in quarantine for twelve days because of a suspected outbreak of cholera in England. HMS Beagle sailed on her way, catching los Alisios, the north easterly trade winds, towards the Cape Verde Islands.

Painting by Conrad Martens of the Beagle at anchor whilst surveying Tierra del Fuego

One of Spain’s own great adventurers and travellers had also been discovering the wonders of nature before Charles Darwin, and perhaps never received the attention he deserved. This often happens when a great nation or empire is in decline, as Spain’s was in the early 19^th century. His name was Felix de Azara. He was a soldier, mathematician and engineer by profession. However, he was a marvellous naturalist at heart and has numerous species named after him, like Azara’s Night Monkey (Aotus azarae). 

Azara´s Night Monkey at Cristalino Jungle Lodge, Matto Grosso, Brazil

He is also believed to have had a considerable, if unrecognised, influence on Darwin’s philosophy. Whilst Azara played out his role as a military defender of the Spanish Empire he still found time to make amateur notes on the virgin ecosystems of the South American continent. 

Azara's illustration of his "Tamandua noir", a species of anteater

He illustrated over five hundred birds and fifty mammals in a military exact manner but, what caught Darwin’s eye were Azara’s ideas about evolution which appeared in his later manuscripts. Azara´s findings were published in England and France but not in Spain, possibly due to greater religious pressures.

Sculpture of Felix de Azara by Eduard Alentorn (Barcelona's Martorell Museum)

Felix de Azara was more than a just naturalist. Indeed his adventures in the name of the King of Spain would make a thrilling movie. It all began in 1781 when he was ordered to set sail for Montevideo on a secret mission. He was a reputed engineer and loyal to King Carlos III when he was commissioned to draw up the borders between the Spanish and Portuguese South American territories, as agreed under the 1777 Treaty of Ildefonso. In this task he covered a surface as big as Western Europe from the Andes to the Atlantic coast, from Patagonia to the dense forests of Brazil and the Bolivian hills. 

It was evident, perhaps as scientists like Humboldt, Azara and Darwin began to understand that everything in nature appeared to be connected somehow, that the Spaniard had also, by accident, become a pioneering anthropologist. He identified forty different tribes or nations, as he preferred to call them, and studied their customs. Running against the tide of European colonial methods Azara is possibly one of the earliest Europeans to have shown concern for the manner in which different peoples in remote parts of the world were being cultured by advanced civilisations. Some movements today, in their absurd quest to annihilate history as a remedy for our sins, are asking Europeans to apologise for what Felix de Azara already recognised over two hundred years ago.

“What a pity to see such beautiful and strong nations extinguished by our intervention. What I find most sad is that there appears to be no remedy”. 

It is no wonder his views were kept quiet in those days, but it is no surprise also that relatively new "nationalisms" are using these very understandable feelings to stir up nationalist sentiment today. On this side of the Atlantic, the Canary Islands were a stepping-stone for early American exploration and exploitation, and the islands' own indigenous nations or kingdoms, the Guanche people, were, as Azara would say, "cultured" and to a great extent, extinguished. It is since the Canary Islands were given the chance to have their autonomous governments, and have been governed by semi-nationalist coalitions, that interest in the Guanche heritage has become much more than just anthropological and, rightly so, helped Canary Islanders today to feel very proud of their indigenous background.  

Azara, Darwin’s Spanish connection, returned to Spain in 1801. In what is an early example of man’s continuing need to progress, even if it involves evident destruction of the environment and of the species, he discovered that many of the reports and birds he had sent back to Spain had vanished in mysterious circumstances. Nevertheless he continued to serve Spain as a soldier, especially against the French, whose culture, incidentally, he greatly admired.

(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended.)

By John Reid Young

Author of books "A SHARK IN THE BATH AND OTHER STORIES" and "THE SKIPPING VERGER AND OTHER TALES", collections of his short stories set in Tenerife and the Canary Islands.

John Reid is also owner of Tenerife Private Tours
http://tenerifeprivatetours.com/

DITCHED! When an aircraft crashed into the sea off Tenerife.

A brief, almost matter-of-fact entry in Noel Reid’s diary on Friday 16^th September, 1966 refers to an aircraft that crashed into the sea just off the northern town of El Sauzal on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

“Spantax plane for La Palma had to make a forced landing in the sea near Los Angeles. Very good work by pilot. One male passenger only lost due to fear. I think crew could not unfasten his grip”.

Lt. Colonel Noel S Reid OBE DSO MC TD

Noel Reid served in both World Wars and had been tea farming in Africa in between and for a short spell afterwards before returning to his home town of Puerto de la Cruz. His diary annotations clearly reflected his Army ways with a preference for precise notes.

Los Rodeos airport with Mount Teide in the distance

It was 08.21. The Spantax Airlines Douglas Dakota DC-3 lifted off from Los Rodeos, what is today known as Tenerife North airport, into the cloudy, panza del burro sky towards the west, heading for the island of La Palma. Apart from the pilot, co-pilot and airhostess there were 24 passengers, including three children on board.

Spantax Airlines DC-3 EC-ACX

The Dakota, a faithful old workhorse of the island airways, roared into a gentle climb. All seemed perfectly in order until seconds after entering the first cloud layer when the port engine over-revved. That was one of the worst possible failures to occur in those days and the aircraft began to lose height from 2,600 feet above sea level. The crew realised they were still flying over land but the dense cloud made it impossible for the pilot, Eugenio Maldonado, to judge exactly what their position was. He knew they were surrounded by hills and that there was a very strong possibility that they would plunge into one of them at any moment. 

“We are going to kill ourselves”, uttered Fernando Piedrafita, the co-pilot quietly. He seemed remarkably composed.

After a horrifying thirty seconds and losing height rapidly, they spotted the coastline below El Sauzal. Miraculously they had left the hills behind them and the jagged and beautiful cliffs began to drop sharply to the sea.

“It’s going to be all right. We’ll ditch her in the sea”, Maldonado reassured his colleague.

Pilot Commander Eugenio Maldonado

Eugenio Maldonado was only 26 years old but his actions were so calm and skilful that he avoided what would otherwise have been a disaster. He quickly informed the passengers of the situation and told them to put on their life jackets because he was going to try to land on the sea. He also asked everyone to remain calm but to be prepared for a rough landing.

In a local press interview thirty-seven years later Maldonado praised those aboard his plane.

 “The passengers really responded very well indeed. There were no signs of panic at all”.

Nevertheless at 08.33 the silver Dakota with the familiar Spantax Airlines white and sky-blue colours hit the sea so hard that the pilot of another aircraft flying towards Los Rodeos reported upon landing that there would be no survivors. His pessimistic report led to the emergency services taking rather a long time getting to the scene of the crash. There was nothing they could do, they mistakenly thought.

After the impact the young pilot knew he only had five minutes to get survivors out before the aircraft disappeared under the surface. Luckily, a fishing boat had been netting an early morning catch nearby and was quickly alongside the steaming aircraft to help pick up some of the passengers and crew. The trickiest moment for the pilot was when he asked the mothers to hand over their children. The mothers refused to be separated at first but Maldonado was firm enough to persuade them. The children, followed by the women and the older men were lifted into the fishing boat. The remaining passengers simply had to make do with hanging on to the side of the swaying little falua as best they could.

Meanwhile, Commander Eugenio Maldonado realised that one passenger had a firm grip on the aircraft’s doorway and was refusing to let go.

“I can’t swim”, was the only thing the man would say.

“I will take you to the boat. You can hang on to me”, implored Maldonado, trying to get him to let go.

But the man wouldn't reply, however much Maldonado insisted. In fact his eyes appeared to stare straight at the pilot. What Maldonado did not realise was that during those few seconds the man was actually dying of a heart attack as the Dakota flooded and began to sink fast. The pilot grabbed the passenger but both men were sucked down into the deep with the aircraft and Maldonado, still holding on to the dead man, began to lose strength. He really thought he was done for but, during those desperate minutes, the airhostess, Mari Carmen Vázquez, in another act of courage, plunged into the depths herself to save her Captain’s life. The pilot, whom she pulled to the surface just in time, was still holding on to a piece of shirt torn from the passenger whose life he had attempted to save.

After recovering enough to check that the rest of the passengers and crew were safe he was landed ashore and was able to report to the emergency services that all except one person on board flight IB261 had survived.

Under Spanish transport and maritime laws at that time Commander Maldonado was actually condemned to death for the loss of one passenger. Perhaps it was assumed that most pilots would die anyway. Nevertheless he was released after an autopsy proved the lost passenger had died of a heart attack and had not been drowned as a result of the accident. The unfortunate passenger, Fernando Izquierdo, was a justice of the peace from the town of La Victoria where he had once been Mayor. So perhaps he would have been pleased to hear that justice had been done.

The Dakota crashed off the stunning northern coast of Tenerife

Maldonado eventually moved to live in mainland Spain. He was distinguished and praised for his skill and bravery in 1966 and never forgot any detail of that particular flight.

“What you always have in mind is how to save the lives of the passengers and crew. You automatically organise yourself in such a way that you really believe in what you are doing. A pilot is capable of giving his life to save others.”

His advice to young pilots in an emergency today is not to abandon hope. There is always a solution. Nevertheless, despite modern technology, old twin-engine Dakotas, ungraceful as they might have looked, were probably simpler beasts to fly. There were fewer reasons for failure and the pilot, ultimately in control, had fewer possible solutions to consider.

(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended. This is an adapted version of an article published by the same author in the Island Connections newspaper of Tenerife)

By John Reid Young

Author of books "A SHARK IN THE BATH AND OTHER STORIES" and "THE SKIPPING VERGER AND OTHER TALES", collections of his short stories set in Tenerife and the Canary Islands.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/8469761609

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/8461596323

John Reid is also owner of Tenerife Private Tours
http://tenerifeprivatetours.com/

A Flying Boat in Tenerife

An entry in the diary of a British resident living on the Atlantic island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands remarked on how an afternoon tea on the veranda with her baby daughter on 9^th January, 1956 was suddenly interrupted by a far-off drone.

Although she was blessed to be living just above Puerto de la Cruz in the Orotava valley, a tranquil paradise where birdsong competed for attention only with the laughter and shouting of the men in the banana plantations, that sound made her shiver. Just for a second the deep humming noise reminded her of a German bomber high over her father’s farm in Kent as it headed to release bombs on the London docks during the war. She put her child down and walked to the edge of the garden to look into the sky.

Puerto de la Cruz, between the sea and the bananas

It was certainly an aeroplane but she knew it wasn’t one of the island-hopping Dakotas on its way from Los Rodeos, the old airport in Tenerife, to the landing field above Santa Cruz, the capital of the island of La Palma. 

Los Rodeos airport with a Dakota just visible to the left of the control tower

As she searched in the sky the drone suddenly turned magnificently into the impressive roar of a huge sea plane and it made a triumphant low pass over the lush northern coastline of Tenerife. What she didn’t know was that her cousin Tom was a passenger on the plane and that this once in a lifetime flight over Puerto de la Cruz was the result of another of his entrepreneurial ideas.

A Short Solent flying boat of Aquila Airways

That Short Solent flying boat belonged to Aquila Airways Ltd. The company began a regular service from Southampton after its founder, Barry Aikman, bought a number of the aircraft from BOAC, which was withdrawing its fleet of sea planes. To begin with they were just used as freight carriers but they were later converted into luxury passenger aircraft for the new tourism routes. The company’s first holiday destination was Madeira via Lisbon but they later extended it to Las Palmas, on the Canary island of Gran Canaria and opened new routes to Capri, Santa Margarita and Montreux. Passengers travelled in great comfort and service a l'anglaise or “silver service” was provided during meals aboard, reflecting early days of tourism when standards were extremely high.

Advertising posters, so typical  1950s, added a touch of magic

It was a time when the thoughts of attracting mass tourism to the Valley of La Orotava were beginning to take shape and the British lady’s diary seemed rather sceptical and concerned about her cousin, Tom’s ideas. He wanted Aquila Airways to fly to Tenerife as well as to Las Palmas. That is the reason he was on that Short Solent flying boat and why he had agreed with the company and pilot Jim Broadbent to make a small diversion, by flying round the coast of Tenerife before continuing on their way to Las Palmas. Naturally passengers on their way to holiday in Las Palmas were thrilled. Teide was sparkling with a fresh coat of snow and the Orotava Valley, as the flying boat passed by, was an enticing vision of paradise.

Sadly the Aquila Airlines flying boats never came to Tenerife. The idea never prospered. To begin with the local authorities took their time to digest the initiative, especially as the aircraft would have to compete for space with ships in the Santa Cruz harbour and landing in the rarely calm seas off Puerto de la Cruz was simply out of the question.

Ships line the south mole at Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife

But tragedy marked the end of the Tenerife project. In fact, it also brought a rapid decline to Aquila Airways. Just two years after that flying boat interrupted the British lady’s afternoon tea on the veranda overlooking the colourful town of Puerto de la Cruz a Solent flying boat on its way to Las Palmas developed engine trouble after taking off from Southampton and crashed on the Isle of Wight. The crew and all 35 passengers were killed. As a result confidence in the safety of those flying boats began to falter. At the same time it became known that Aquila had begun to have difficulty finding spare parts for the aircraft. They were forced to cease flying in 1958.

Captain Harry Frank (Jim) Broadbent

Coincidentally it was the same year when Jim Broadbent, who flew that magnificent aircraft past Puerto de la Cruz in January 1956, is presumed to have died. A legendary pilot who began his flying career in Australia, he started flying for a Portuguese airline called ARTOP after the demise of Aquila Airways. On 9th November he took off from Lisbon to Madeira in a Martin Mariner flying boat. An hour into the flight, at 13.21, a member of the crew reported they were making an emergency landing in the Atlantic. No trace of the aircraft, crew or passengers were ever found.  

(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended. This is an adapted version of an article published by the same author in the Island Connections newspaper of Tenerife)

By John Reid Young

Author of books "A SHARK IN THE BATH AND OTHER STORIES" and "THE SKIPPING VERGER AND OTHER TALES" , short stories set in Tenerife and the Canary Islands.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/8469761609

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/8461596323

John Reid is also owner of Tenerife Private Tours

http://tenerifeprivatetours.com/      

An English Major and his Canary Island Sunset

     The Illustrated London News, for decades an essential newspaper and reflection of British imperial glory, often carried sketches and photographs from those fearless adventurers and explorers who helped shape British dominions. It was also an educational magazine in which contributors described interesting events and picturesque lands Victorian ladies and gentlemen might like to visit. The Canary Islands were idyllic and conveniently placed on steamship routes to India and Cape Town before the Suez Canal was opened in 1869. Travellers found themselves enchanted by the Spanish Macaronesian archipelago and contributed articles and images to British and European publications, including the Illustrated London News.

An Illustrated London News header

     One of those travellers was Major Henry Astbury Leveson. There is very little written about him, but there is no doubt he was one of those men who, if history had not forgotten them, may well have been the hero in some epic movie. He served his country as a soldier, not only in the British Army but also as a freedom fighter or on secondment to a friendly army. His courage was evident on many occasions and his body was scared from head to foot with the tell-tale signs of close encounter.

     His gallantry in battle and skill as an officer was often remarked upon and he is known to have fought in many campaigns in different countries. He served in the British Indian Army and was seconded to assist the Ottoman forces in Crimea. On 5^th November, 1854 Major Leveson took part in the Battle of Inkerman. This has often been referred to as “The Soldier’s Battle” because troops had to fight mostly on their own initiative due to the foggy conditions. The fierce Ottoman commander, Omar Pasha Latas, personally reported his appreciation of the Englishman as a brave and skilled officer.

Omar Pasha

     But, above everything, Henry Leveson was an adventurer and a big game hunter.  In Four Fathers of Big Game Hunting - Biographical Sketches of the Sporting Lives of William Cotton Oswell, Henry Astbury Leveson, Samuel White Baker and Roualeyn George Gordon Cumming, by T.R Thormanby, he is one of the big names in the “sport”.

Major H.A. Leveson, the hunter, poses with servants outside his tent 

     But there was much more to him than soldiering and shooting. He was a cultured man. On his travels he sketched and wrote books and stories. But his drawings often betrayed a certain amount of imagination, perhaps being accustomed to wilder forms of adventure. Indeed he was known to have painted somewhat surprising images, exaggerating already spectacular natural scenery.
     In 1867 he broke his journey to the African continent for a second time on the Canary Island of Tenerife. He was tempted to sketch some of the magnificent scenery and his drawing of Mount Teide, for example, published in the Illustrated London News, was quite different and less accurate to any produced by his contemporary travelling artists. He gave the volcano a sharp pointed peak when it has a rounded crater at the top.

Mount Teide has an 80m diameter rounded crater

     The drawing depicts the charm of the nineteenth-century island, with a goatherd attending his tribe and an ox drawn cart about to cross a romantic, ancient bridge.  This sketch with mountains in the background and in the distance beyond the volcano, suggest that Major Leveson was prone to use his artistic imagination for effect.

A coloured print version of Leveson's drawing for the Illustrated London News

     Rudyard Kipling, in Something of Myself and Other Autobiographical Writings, his last book, referred to Major H. A. Leveson as having published a number of stories of hunting and adventure under the pseudonym of The Old Shekarry.  Under the same name Henry Leveson also published a book called The Forest and the Field. In its introduction his 19^th century sense of soldiery, adventure and romanticism cascade, describing his life as inseparable from fatigue, privation, hardship and danger but full of fascinating excitement, and possessing irresistible charms that amply compensate for the loss of more refined pleasures and luxuries of civilised life.

Front cover of The Forest and the Field, by The Old Skekarry

     It is evident that he was quite taken with Tenerife because in the same book of stories he dedicates a chapter to the island. He also betrayed a debonair and swashbuckling attitude. It was during his second visit that he even had time to become a member of the Casino close to where he took a room in Santa Cruz and he recommended the cigars purchased at Mr Belloso’s store in Calle Castillo. He had an eye for women too and observed - the ladies are elegant and piquant as any in Spain.
     In spite of his reputation, which would be frowned upon today, as a big game hunter, his stories also suggest a man with a tender feeling for the natural world when it didn’t imply the excitement of an encounter with a dangerous, wild animal. In Tenerife he referred to the constant singing of birds, especially of the Capirote, the Canary Island Blackcap whose song, he said was the most melodious of any songster I know. Indeed, there is rarely any sound more beautiful than the male’s rich musical warbling.

The Canary Island Blackcap (courtesy Miguel Bravo photographs - see footnote 1)

     His description of the island’s varied scenery was almost poetic. He ascended Mount Teide, the island’s magnificent volcano, on a stubborn mule. Looking beyond the lava flows and down into the valley of La Orotava he saw lush green hillsides dotted with small, picturesque country houses, dark ravines, woods, vineyards and open fields.
     As we can on a clear day today, across the sea he could clearly make out the islands of La Palma, Grand Canary, La Gomera and El Hierro. The sunset captivated him and the deep blue colour of the sea, with here and there a distant white sail, formed a magnificent background to the glorious panorama.
     Like others before him, especially whom was possibly the greatest naturalist in history, Alexander von Humboldt, “the lost hero of science”², Major Henry Astbury Leveson was enthralled by what he witnessed. I have gazed upon many of Nature’s most gorgeous pictures in different parts of the world, he wrote, but never beheld anything more transcendently beautiful than sunset from the highest summit of the Peak of Tenerife.
     While it was more scientific writers who persuaded the first winter visitors to begin sailing for Tenerife, especially to the Orotava Valley in the late 1800s, there is no doubt that adventurous travellers like Major Leveson considerably helped fascinate those early Victorian tourists. The Old Skekarry was 38 when he climbed Mount Teide. He died only ten years later in England, never recovering properly from old bullet wounds which weakened him over the years.

1. Miguel Bravo  http://miguelbravo.com/VARIOSTEMAS/pajarosdecanarias/avescanarias.html
2. From "The Invention of nature - The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf

(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended.)

By John Reid Young

Author of The Skipping Verger and Other Tales, a collection of short stories set in Tenerife.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Skipping-Verger-Other-Tales/dp/8461596323

http://tenerifeprivatetours.com/

When Sunbeam and Lady Brassey came to the Canary Island of Tenerife

     At the height of the British Empire, towards the end of the nineteenth century and when British influence and wealth was flaunted with considerable pride around the world, travel was still considered something of an adventure and often perilous. But it was also a period when women like Mary Henrietta Kingsley, Isabella Bird and Marianne North boldly journeyed far from the comforts and ties of a lady’s place. One of these was Lady Annie Brassey.

 

Lady Annie Brassey

     Although it is true to say that she travelled in certain style and comfort together with a husband, her children, friends and a full ship’s company, Annie was nevertheless equally courageous. Travel in the 19^th century could never have been described as easy of course and she suffered from ill health throughout her journeys. But nothing would stop her. In fact Annie’s enthusiasm for adventure was contagious. Her letters to family in England so vividly described the first voyage aboard Sunbeam, her husband’s yacht, that she was urged to publish. Lady Brassey’s curiosity coupled with detailed accounts of ethnographic diversity, her evident sympathy for humankind and not a small amount of humour made her first journal an instant success.

     Annie lost her mother as a child and lived her first years with her grandfather in Clapham and her father in Berkley Square. Like so many young Victorian ladies she became interested in botany. At the age of twenty-one she married Lord Thomas Brassey, lawyer, historian, Member of Parliament, sailor, writer of naval books and later Governor of Victoria, Australia.

 

Thomas Brassey, Ist Earl Brassey

     Lord Thomas Brassey’s yacht was launched in 1874. She was a three-masted schooner with iron frame and teak skin. She had been designed for long distance voyages and although primarily a sailing yacht her bunkers carried eighty tons of coal and she could steam for three weeks if necessary. Accommodation for her owners and guests was luxurious, with cabins and staterooms furnished in elegant Victorian drawing-room style.

 

The Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months

     Lady Brassey set foot on many more exotic and remote places than the Canary Islands but she wrote very fondly of Tenerife in The Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months, which was published in 1878. Of course, Tenerife today is one of Europe’s favourite holiday destinations. It is dotted with modern marinas and her seas are saturated with pleasure craft and small and medium sized yachts but in the nineteenth century it was very rare to find ships of a private nature sailing the oceans. Sunbeam must have been a glorious sight as she approached from the northeast.

     “We all rose early and were full of excitement to catch the first glimpse of the famous Peak of Teneriffe” Lady Annie Brassey wrote on 21^st July exactly 142 years ago, the morning  before they dropped anchor off the coast of Puerto de la Cruz.

 

Floating above the nebulous horizon - a first glimpse of Mount Teide 

     Always a lady of action and determination Lady Brassey volunteered with Captain Lecky, as soon as they could be rowed ashore, to visit Mr Goodall, the British Vice-Consul in Puerto. She planned to make arrangements for an expedition up Mount Teide immediately and in fact they set off at two o’clock the following morning after they had assembled twelve hired horses and guides. By half past seven they were already above the sea of clouds which Annie described as resembling “an enormous glacier, covered with fresh fallen snow, extending for miles and miles while the projecting tops of other Canary Islands appeared like great solitary rocks”.

"It was like the Great Sahara"

     She wrote of the oppressive heat as they rode through what local inhabitants call Las Cañadas del Teide. “It was like the Great Sahara” she exclaimed. She mentioned huge rocks of obsidian thrown from the mouth of the volcano and then the remarkable scene of bushes of yellow broom and the beautiful Retama in full white bloom “scenting the air with its delicious fragrance, and resembling huge tufts of feathers”.

Like tufts of feathers, Retama blossom with Mount Teide in the background

     When the expedition reached Altavista, a plateau where Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Charles Piazzi Smythe had set up his telescopes in 1856 and where another Briton, George Graham Toler was to build the first climbers’ refuge,  Annie Brassey decide not to go any further. Lord Thomas Brassey and the men continued to the summit. Annie, who had found her splendid Victorian clothes unsuitable for such an adventure and her exhausted children found shelter from the sun under overhanging rocks. While the young ones slept, she took photographs. The guides who had not continued to the summit with her husband’s group returned with icy water from the cueva del hielo, the Ice Cave, a cavern in the volcano not far from Altavista.

 

The Ice Cave on Mount Teide

     They returned to the Sunbeam in the early hours of the following morning, twenty nine hours after setting out on their expedition and not without accidents, falls and becoming separated from her husband and part of the team during the night descent. “We were too tired to do anything but go straight on board the yacht, where, after some supper and champagne, we were glad indeed to retire to out berths”.

     Lord and Lady Brassey had given out invitations for people to visit the Sunbeam and there was a constant flow of visitors, now and then having to be reprimanded for being too curious. The seas off the north coast are notoriously rough but it was noted how a good many very attractive and distinguished señoritas came aboard accompanied by young men carrying bowls, presumably in case of sea sickness. Many local inhabitants brought gifts and the decks were adorned with baskets of fruit and flowers from the glorious gardens in the Orotava Valley, although in the stifling humidity they barely lasted a day.

     Afternoon tea was a necessary and elegant ritual, either aboard the Sunbeam or in the gardens of aristocratic landowners like the Marquis de la Candia where they were shown coffee plantations. Conversation was considered a stylish and necessary art in those days and Lady Brassey gathered much of her knowledge at these comfortable meetings about local customs, of botanical aspects in Tenerife and indeed about the variable weather in the north of the island. She was most enthusiastic about the variety of flora in the Orotava Valley and wrote that the temperate climate contributed to the valley being a giant greenhouse where plants from all over the planet could flourish. Indeed the remarkable Botanical Gardens in Puerto de la Cruz, which were shown to the Brasseys by the curator, Herman Wildpret, were opened in 1788 specifically to acclimatise plants from the Spanish and other European colonies before introducing them to Europe. Of the garden of the Marquis of Sauzal Lady Brassey remarked on the remains of an enormous dragon tree, Dracaena draco and “hedges of myrtle, jasmine, clematis and flowers of every description in full bloom”.

The Botanic Garden - Courtesy of the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens, London

     She was told that many landowners had been virtually ruined by disease affecting the vine industry, although historians now admit that part of the problem was due to European wine merchants being tempted by markets elsewhere. “Most of the large landed proprietors have left their estates to take care of themselves and the peasants, for the last few years, have been emigrating by hundreds to Caracas in Venezuela“. But the cochineal dye industry had been a success and coffee and tobacco were becoming alternative sources of wealth. 

     Sunbeam sparkled in the sunlight of Tenerife for just four days and departed as suddenly and splendidly as she had arrived, in full sail along the northwest and under the majestic cliffs of Buenavista before disappearing southwest towards the Americas and Brazil.

The Sunbeam -  as painted by the Italian artist Luca Papaluca

     Sunbeam was the nickname of their daughter, Constantine Alberta, who had died aged five of scarlet fever. On her last voyage aboard the schooner, nine years after visiting Tenerife, Annie also died of a fever. It had been brought on by renewed attacks of malaria, a disease she fought with for many years. She was only 47 when she made her final entry into her journal. She died four days later and was buried at sea as Sunbeam circumnavigated Australia.  

(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended.)

By John Reid Young

Author of The Skipping Verger and Other Tales, a collection of short stories set in Tenerife.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Skipping-Verger-Other-Tales/dp/8461596323

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