Costa da Morte and some of its most famous shipwrecks

The lines that draw the Costa da Morte are full of legends and beliefs that reach our days. The end of the world, pirates, witches, Celtic tribes, altars destroyed by orders of the Apostle Santiago or holy stones are some of the many mysteries it holds and today we talk about the many shipwrecks that Finisterre witnessed!

The lines that draw the Costa da Morte are full of legends and beliefs that reach our days. The end of the world, pirates, witches, Celtic tribes, altars destroyed by orders of the Apostle Santiago or holy stones are some of the many mysteries it holds and today we talk about the many shipwrecks that Finisterre witnessed!

The Costa da Morte coastline has seen more than 100 shipwrecks in just a century, despite the fact that the Fisterra lighthouse guides ships through its waters.

Some of the most famous ships that met their end in these Galician waters were the Sunrise, the Monitor Captain, the merchant ship John Tenant, the Blas de Lezo or, more recently, the Casón (1987) or the Prestige (2002).

• Spanish Fleet (1596). Twenty ships of the Spanish Armada fleet sank in a violent storm at the entrance to the Corcubión estuary. The disaster claimed 1,706 lives.

• HMS Captain (1870). A Royal Navy warship which, due to errors in its design and construction, capsized and sank in a squall at Finisterre Cape, killing 482 crew members when it ran into the rock Centolo. The same happened, eight years later, to the English merchant ship Bitten, which met its end when it struck the rock, and to the Spanish Navy ship Blas de Lezo in 1932.

• Sunrise (1882). A sailor and his two young sons in a small boat saved just over thirty of the crew of the English cargo ship that sank on the Fisterra reefs.

• Svtpord and Tang Castle (1903). In 1903 a collision occurred between the Swedish ship and the English ship.

• Ulster Duke (1951). The English ship, pulled by the Dutch Hudson, sees the tug's ropes break, hitting the Bufadoiro rock.

• In the last few years. The shipwreck of the merchant ship Casón (1987) and the Prestige (2002) stained the coast with toxic substances. After these two, other shipwrecks, sinkings and groundings occurred in the Costa da Morte, such as the Nuevo Luz, Siempre Diana or Segundo Hermanos Papín. 

In spite of the gloomy and sinister nature of the shipwrecks, nowadays, one of the most interesting tourist attractions in the area is the route of the shipwrecks, which goes from the Vilán de Camariñas lighthouse, through the Arnela inlet, Piedra del Oso, Foso de los Lobos, Punta do Boi and up to the English cemetery.