British in Iberia

Firstly, Salvochea was a  “child from a good family”, driven crazy by the epic,  generous and unselfish struggle.  Next he was an internationalist with a first-class passionate support for the militants and later on, a communist.  This was Salvochea when he fuelled the uprising in Cadiz.  His republic represented communism and a universal brotherhood…..  Later on, the Republic itself and its republican counterparts proved him wrong.   Later still, a study showed him that it was anarchism that he dreamed about, or rather fantasized about.  From that moment onwards, he became an anarchist.

Fermín Salvochea was born in Cadiz in March, 1842 and died there in 1907.  He was educated in England where he stayed until the age of 20, dedicating all his free time to the study of radical English literature.  Firstly he studied the work of Thomas Paine which had a powerful influence on the young man.  Later on he got to know personally Charles Bredlow and his friends.  Atheist propaganda in England encountered many problems during this period, but Bredlow and his friends put all their energies into standing up for their convictions, attempting to destroy the medieval idea of theism which permeated all echelons of English society.  

He began his political operations in 1866, committed to the plot to free the military prisoners of Madrid who were incarcerated in the castle of San Sebastian who had taken part in the events at San Gil barracks, awaiting deportation to Manila (Philippines).  

During this time there were anarchists in London, theosophists and Christian anarchists, and throughout the islands there were also various groups of “tolstoyan” communists.  However, in contrary to the spiritual communism on the continent, the English never renounced their church in favour of the common good.  They were deeply religious but not deeply catholic or protestant and they didn’t  pin their passions to any positive cults or to the communist rules that demand a rigid and gloomy lifestyle.  Theirs was a different type of anarchism, a psychological anarchism.  There were anarchist-communists who sacrificed absolutely everything, including themselves, to the common good.  Just like religious legends who converted everything into the love of God, these anarchists turned it all to love of humankind.  Their passion for others and for humankind made them pay so little attention to their own wellbeing that they often fell ill.  The perfect example of this type of anarchist was Luisa Michel.   From this type of sentimentalism and deep sensitivity was born the so-called action anarchists.

The psychology of the Spanish anarchist was, and still is, a lot more complex.  In Spain, even the communists were individuals in both their own lives and their activities.   However, the Spanish anarchist who was most similar to those in central Europe was Fermín Salvochea, whose morals were characterized by Luisa Michel.

If Fermín Salvochea wasn’t the first Spanish anarchist, then he was definitely amongst the first communists.   In this unusual case of a Spaniard who was a communist before becoming an anarchist, we need to remember that Fermín Salvochea was born in Andalucia and was educated in England.   The republican communist phenomenon was nothing new in Spain; many republican activists believed that the Republic represented communism and in Andalucia they not only believed it, but some were even waiting for the success of the Republic to be able to distribute the land amongst the rural folk.  This was Salvochea’s belief.  

Salvochea outlined his Andalucian origins and the development of his ideas  in England:

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Salvochea’s teachers were the following: Paine, English but also a French MP and one of the driving forces behind the independence of the USA, Robert Owen y Bradlaugh, an Anglican preacher who ended up questioning the doctrines of the church.  However, the real masters in the true sense of the word were the rural folk of Andalucia.  It was in one of these men, in the details of his everyday life that he saw reflections of nobility and generosity at an almost exaggerated level despite the fact that social injustice made them permanent victims of the environment which surrounded them.

At the outset of the movement in 1868, he was part in the revolutionary junta in Cádiz and when, under orders from the provisional government, General Caballero de Rodas and his vast number of troops entered Cadiz, Salvochea was imprisoned in the Castillo de Santa Catalina until 1869.  Subsequently, he emigrated once again to London and Paris until 1870.  On his return to Spain he was one of the first to enroll with International, not because he stopped being a republican, but because he was a man of progress who supported everything that represented progress.  He was always a enthusiastic follower of Owen’s doctrines.

In 1873, whilst Mayor of Cadiz, he started a cantonal movement and, due to his selflessness and nobility, the Republic rewarded him with a life sentence in the prisons of Africa.  Granted amnesty although not wanting to accept it, he finally returned to mainland Spain only to receive other prison sentence when,  in 1892, an insurrection broke  out amongst the rural folk in Jerez.  Following this he was sentenced to twelve years in prison for being an anarchist.

Written by Jesús Castro

Translated by Rachael Harrison

Sponsored by www.costaluzlawyers.es

The coastline of the Straits of Gibraltar, 8th July, 1868.  The Englishman, Mr. Garlick, grandson of one of the English who remained in Spain following the war of liberation against France, is the owner of one of the most unusual marine collections along this rough stretch of coastline.  He has dedicated over half of his life to his obsession with collecting all the warnings, requests for help and the final wishes that the sea regularly throws up, creating one of the most unique collections in the world.
Every one of the thoughts which are written down in these documents is a story which sheds a gloomy light on us mysterious humans, our virtues and our miseries.  Some messages show the final desperate cry of a man who is slipping away into the waves and others paint an image of a poor shipwrecked man who sees the hook of death taking its hold.

Three years ago Garlick found a tin can with a note inside signed by someone named Browning, claiming that his ship had been wrecked on purpose as it was insured for the amount of two million pesetas, the new Spanish currency.  The captain, pilots and two sailors had escaped in rowing boats, but the remainder of the crew, including the writer of the message, drowned.  Two days after the disaster, the tin receptacle was picked up by a boat heading for Gibraltar y sold to Garlick without being opened.   Garlick opened it, read the contents and made the information known to the insurers, first making sure that they would give him back the tin container and also a small amount of money as a gesture for his honorable and prompt actions.  The delivery of the message was so opportune that the insurance company managed not to lose the two million pesetas and the captain and the owners of the wrecked boat received a prison sentence.

As you can see, Mr. Garlick’s collection was not simply the satisfying of an innocent and childlike desire to hoard objects of interest, but he also strove to meet the final wishes of the unfortunate shipwreck victims.

One of his bottles tells a tale worthy of telling, written by James Gibson, captain of a coal ship which sailed the Libson-Gibraltar route – a sailor who had saved an enormous amount of money and who had decided to retire from merchant sailing and was making the final journey of his career.  During this final crossing his ship collided with another and several hours later was completely destroyed.  In haste, Gibson wrote his Will and before the ship finally sank, he found a bottle, put his message inside and threw it into the sea.  The bottle was found by a tuna fisherman in Barbate who, informed of Mr. Garlick’s interest in the coastline, hurried to take it to his house in Punta del Camarinal in Zahara de los Atunes.  Thanks to this message, Garlick discovered that the unfortunate captain had a son who he tracked down with the satisfaction of knowing that he was meeting the final wishes of the boy’s father.

In order to obtain the largest of these types of objects in Spain, Garlick cooperates with over 300 fishermen and sealovers along the coast of Spain and Portugal, so that they advise him of their finds, and bring him the messages tossed up by the sea.
In January, 1869, Garlick received an unusual bottle which had been found along the coast of La Coruña and in the mouth of the bottle was a small vial containing a small amount of phosphorous, designed so that when the sea shook up the bottle, it set alight.  The glass bottle contained the following message: “ My darling wife, in the hope that it reaches you, I am writing you these few lines.  Our boat has sunk after colliding with another.  I am letting you know that David Hill has the share of capital which is owed to me from the sale of the mine.  David will give you this money.  Pray for me”.

Garlick sent the note to its destination and several months later he was informed that this final wish had been met.

Garlick’s unusual hobby means that he is always close to the coast and always watching it closely, especially in the rough and stormy days.   He once found a can tied to a piece of cork used in fishermen’s nets, and the note which was found inside the can said, “If God doesn’t help us, no-one will.  Tell Rachael MacLeod that I love her.”

It took Garlick one year to find the young Rachael referred to in the note, but in the end he didn’t want to deliver the note to her.  As Rachael MacLeod had recovered from the loss of the shipwrecked sailor and was about to marry another sailor, Garlick felt it was not the right thing to do to bring up such a tragic event.

Mr. Garlick has paid up to two thousand pesetas in Spain for some of the objects found by the sailors, although the majority of them are handed over purely to ensure that those final written requests reach their required destination.
 

Written by Jesús Castro

Translated by Rachael Harrison

Sponsored by www.costaluzlawyers.es