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Barometer from the Serpent

CAMARIÑAS

Another of the material traces of the H.M.S Serpent (10/11/1890) shipwreck is the barometer placed on the façade of number 3, calle Alcalde Noguera Patiño, facing the port of Camariñas. It was, among other things, one of the gifts from the British Royal Navy to thank the locals for their help to the three survivors and for the search and rescue of the 142 bodies later buried in the English Cemetery. A barometer is an instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure.

The mayor received a watch and the priest of Xaviña, who “buried the Protestants”, a shotgun with the incription “The Lords Commissioners of the British Almiralty” on the grip. For a long time, every anniversary of the shipwreck, an English warship would approach the area and honour the deceased with a wreath and supply the parish priest with ammunition for the gun.

Connection with A Coruña. In the garden of San Carlos in A Coruña, a plaque was placed in memory of the shipwrecked Serpent, almost by chance due to bad weather. Did you know this part of the story?

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