The First Ferry “Benchijigua”, 52 Years Later

In these days, as we mark the 52nd anniversary of the first journey of the first “Benchijigua” on the La Gomera line, which took place on July 8, 1974, we have seen these photos published on social media of the grounding of the Icelandic ferry “Saeborg”, transformed into a training ship, which is none other than that extraordinary vessel that marked the beginning of a new era in the modernity of La Gomera.

Ferry Gomera was, at that time, a family business, where everyone knew each other and where the commitment to the island it served resonated so deeply in the sentiment of La Gomera that the ferry “Benchijigua” became an inseparable part of its existence.

The provision of extraordinary services, such as the evacuation of the injured and sick until the island had a platform for helicopters and later the airport, was a reflection of that commitment in which neither the company nor its crews received any payment for their extra hours of work. All of that is history. That endearing and close company, kind and generous, is also history.

Half a century later, the first “Benchijigua” —the only ship from the first stage of Ferry Gomera that still exists— is an icon of the history of maritime communications in the Canary Islands, first in La Gomera until October 1980 and then for a short time on the Playa Blanca-Corralejo line renamed “Betancuria”, until its export in 1982 to Iceland, where it began a new chapter under the name “Akraborg”.

We acknowledge that it is moving to see it and we feel a certain nostalgia in which, once again, we pay tribute of recognition and gratitude to all those people, both on board and on land, who made the day-to-day operation of a ship that rightfully belongs to the collective memory of the people of La Gomera possible.

Since our arrival at the newspaper “El Día” just over 50 years ago, we have had a cordial and close relationship with Ferry Gomera during the era of the first “Benchijigua”, which continued for almost fourteen years at the newspaper “Diario de Avisos”, and it is only right that we remember here some of those people who showed their best nobility and made us feel the closeness of a project that was born with great humility.

We mention Fred. Olsen Sr., whom we had the opportunity to interview twice; Rear Admiral Leopoldo Boado, Álvaro Rodríguez-Lopez Braun, Cándido Luis García Sanjuán, Rafael Marín Correa, Thor O. Lindberg —one of the best Norwegians we have known—, Tomás Cerdeña Brito, Julio Mosquera Valeiras, Laly Hernando Ibrahim, José García Oliva, Servando Peraza García, Tomás González Sánchez-Araña, Francisco Rodríguez Aguiar, José Ramón León Herrera, Juan Imeldo Gómez Gómez, Sebastián ‘Chano’ Escuela, Antonio Armas Sánchez… Esteban Valentín Ledesma, Luis Dávila, Francisco Fuertes, José Ramón Herrera —the last four employed in the offices of Los Cristianos and San Sebastián de La Gomera— and the Gomero Group, made up of a handful of loyal and unconditional locals: the "admiral" Adolfo Trujillo Bencomo, Domingo León Fagundo, Lorenzo Cabeza Cruz, José Miguel Ramos Noda, Pedro Manuel Ascanio, and Pedro Trujillo.

All of them and some more won the hearts of the Gomeros with their work, effort, and dedication and made their company and their ship great, which soon became too small. This justified an extraordinary support campaign for the UCD Government during Adolfo Suárez's time to authorize the import of the second “Benchijigua”, which exceeded the limits of the REF of 1972, a process in which the then senator for La Gomera, Carlos Manuel Bencomo Mendoza, played a decisive and perhaps never well-recognized role of extraordinary importance with the support of brothers Alejandro and Jesús Javier Rebollo Álvarez-Amandi, the first Secretary of State and the second Civil Governor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. But that is another story that we tell in great detail in our three-volume book “Cincuentenario de Ferry Gomera 1974-1994. Chronicle of Fred. Olsen's success in the Canary Islands,” published at the beginning of this year.

Photos: Fridik Brekkan