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Caños de Meca History |
Caños de Meca History is related to the Straits of Gibraltar, the Roman Fretus Herculeum and the Arab Boughaz el Tarek.
In Antiquity, the only trade routes were by sea. Phoenicians and Romans could not navigate far from the coastline which made geographical references vital for Phoenician and Roman trade. Trafalgar was a necessary passage to go to Hispalis, Onuba, etc. Given the rich fish resources, fish salting factories were set up, of which some remain today in the Marisucia beach and near the lighthouse. They produced the renowned Garum, a fish sauce very popular in Rome. The Garum was a sauce made of the viscera of tuna, sardines, and other fish left to ferment in salt (unfortunately it is impossible to reproduce the recipee !) Phenicians already knew about it.
An important historic tradition is the "Almadraba": the use of a maze of nets, to trap the tuna fish on their return trip from the Mediterranean to the Northern Atlantic waters. When the tuna get caught in the nets, boats form a circle closing in on them until it is possible to catch them with a stick and poke a hook into their soft sides - the eyes or gills. The fish caught in this way is greatly appreciated in Japan and Japanese entrepreneurs sell the best pieces at a high price back home. The Almadraba is a very difficult task, and in the past it was left to convicts who while on the job suffered the danger of being kidnapped and enslaved by roaming pirates!
The Romans left the temple of the God Juno, today submerged under the water. Some divers say they found it, and there seem to be remains amid the lighthouse installations. As for the Visigoths, they left the foundations of the San Ambrosio church, today you can see a single nave made of 4 pointed arches that used to support the ceiling.
In the Middle Ages, the Arabs colonized Vejer. They named the promontory "Trafalgar", which means promontory of the cave. In those times it was unsafe to live on the coast because of the constant presence of pirates. The population lived in the town of Vejer.
The Arabs left the Tower of Trafalgar, near the lighthouse, dating back to the 9th century. These same Arabs, surprised by the abundance of water, named the area after the sacred city of Meca. Having been reconquered by the duke of Medina Sidonia, it bordered the reign of Granada. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the area belonged to the Dutchy of Medina-Sidonia, and the area became a tuna fishing centre. From this period date the watchtowers of Meca and Tajo, that were used to announce the arrival of moorish corsairs from the nearby ports of Asilah, Larache, Tetuan and Sale; these were the times where the coast was clear. These coasts continued to be uninhabited.
The watchtowers were essential for security: there were three watchmen, one looked at the horizon and the other two watched the sea. If they saw any sort of peril, they would send smoke signals on the same day to warn nearby villages. The tower system all along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast allowed the villages to communicate within hours. At night, fire-lighted arrows were used to signal the arrival of pirates. The danger was very important indeed and could implicate towns as far as Seville. A smoke communication system made it possible to pass on signals from tower to tower over very long distances all along the coast. When the towers were attacked, the watchmen used to throw boiling water or oil through conducts especially made for that purpose.
The Tajo tower dates back to the 15th century. Its construction was ordered by Felipe II, who sent various envoys in charge of protecting the coast. It is 100 meters above the coast, and almost 14 meters high. The Meca tower dates back to the 17th century, it is almost 11 meters high, and rises 164 meters above the level of the sea, 2,5 kilometers away from the Trafalgar Tower, and 4 km away from the Tajo. It's entrance is on the opposite side of the sea. Both towers are trunk shaped and the interior is rounded with access to the superior part.
At the beginning of the 19th century (1805) the famous battle of Trafalgar between the English and Franco-Spanish navies took place. They left respectively from the ports of Gibraltar and Cadiz, and met in the middle. This battle has given international reknown to the area, and has covered the seabed with remains of ship wrecks. At the end of the 19th century (1874), the Trafalgar lighthouse was built over an antique roman lighthouse. They used the material of the Roman temple, and the altar of sacrifices. In those times, the Faro beaches were known as the "calderas", because of the large amount of shipwrecks. Trafalgar can be cruised either very much far into the sea, or very much inland, to avoid the reefs in the middle.
The 20th century saw the birth of forts to keep enemies at bay. Some remain, one on the Pirata beach, the other in los apartamentos. The Guardia Civil headquaters were also built to watch the coast, and the Brena zone was replanted with pines, producing today's pinewood.
After the the civil war, the municipality of Barbate was founded and the area was administratively dependent on this town, including Caños de Meca. Over the last years, the abundance of water has facilitated the creation of little gardens. Tourism rose in the 1960s in Los Canos, with the populating of nearby towns and thereafter other places in Andalucia, Cadiz and Sevilla. Roads were built, and in the 1970s the area became a famous centre for the movida and nudism …which is still the case today ! Over the last years the number of tourists has been rising steadily and new urbanization projects have got under way.
The Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) proved the most significant naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars and the pivotal naval battle of the 19th century.
The British Royal Navy led by Horatio Nelson destroyed a combined French and Spanish fleet and in so doing guaranteed to the United Kingdom uncontested control of the world's oceans for more than 100 years. Because the British won the Battle of Trafalgar, they, not the French, would rule an expanded empire that included India, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, around the world and a world economy with London, not Paris, as the pre-eminent financial seat of Europe.
In 1805 under Napoleon, the French were masters of the European continent, while the British still ruled the seas. The British, during the course of the war, managed to impose a fairly effective blockade on France. This blockade had the effect of keeping the French from fully mobilizing their own naval resources and kept the French from invading Britain although Britain could always land in France. Disgusted with this situation, Napoleon Bonaparte determined to sweep the Royal Navy from the seas, and issued orders for the French Navy to combine with forces from the Spanish Navy (Napoleon ruled Spain), break the British blockade, then escort an invasion force of some 350,000 French soldiers to the shores of England.
Napoleon had had his troubles with the Royal Navy before. The French occupation of Egypt was ultimately undone when Nelson smashed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile off Alexandria. Were this all Nelson had done, he would be still be regarded as a famous admiral, but his greatest day was yet to come.
By the late 1700s the development of the modern "ship of the line" had progressed to the point where the larger naval cannons were just able to break through the ever-thickening sides of the ships – but only after repeated shots. This led to battles of attrition where lines of ships battered at each other until one side lost, at which point both would limp home for repairs.
Ships had one weak spot, however, on the stern. Here a single shot would often penetrate the thinner plankings, and if it did so, could run down the length of the decks. However tempting this sort of attack might be, ships were so slow to maneuver at the time that it was unlikely that one could make such an attack en masse while still protecting yourself from being attacked in the same way in return.
Instead both admirals would attempt to form up into long lines and pick a sailing angle to the wind that made it difficult for the opposing fleet to catch them if they picked any other angle. The two lines would then maneuver, sometimes for days, in an effort to gain position in which a small part of the opposing fleet could be attacked by your entire force.
A hint of a new tactic came to be known in 1782. After defeating the British attempt to reinforce their deployment in what would soon be the United States during the Battle of the Chesapeake, the French decided to attempt the taking of Bermuda. Facing them was a smaller fleet under George Brydges Rodney. When they met on April 12th things looked excellent for the French, but a missed signal made their line split up. Rodney quickly signaled a 90 degree turn in his own line, running his ships between the French line while they continued to sail in their original directions. His ships ended up firing right into the sterns of the French ships and soon reduced six of their main ships.
In the Napoleonic era, the Royal Navy had long been mired in pointless tradition. A young class of admirals quietly undertook to overthrow much of accepted naval strategy; Nelson was part of this movement. After proving himself at the Battle of the Nile, he was inclined to reconsider much of the former tactical doctrine and to experiment with new methods.
Knowing that the coming battle would be in open waters, "tricks" of bravado like those of the Nile would not be applicable. Instead they selected Rodney's battle as the pattern for their strategy and set about investigating ways to perform it on command. The night before the battle all was in place.
At Cádiz, in Spain, a combined French and Spanish fleet finally set sail. Lord Nelson's fleet had bottled up the Mediterranean, and so the combined French and Spanish fleets came to fight their way out. The French and Spanish Fleet numbered 33 ships, and Nelson had about 29.
The battle progressed pretty much according to Nelson's plan. At 11:50 AM, Nelson sent throughout the fleet the famous flag signal, "England Expects that Every Man will do his Duty". He then charged the French position, leading one column in HMS Victory; HMS Royal Sovereign led the other column.
As the battle opened the British fleet approached the French and Spanish from right angles, sailing in two lines on either end of the opposing line. This way the best the French could have done would have been to turn their ships 90 degrees, essentially splitting up into 33 individual lines. Instead they held their ground, and watched in dismay as the British sailed right through the lines.
A general mêlée ensued, and during that fight, the Victory locked masts with the French Redoubtable. A sniper's bullet struck Nelson in the spine. Nelson was carried below decks and died as the battle that would make him a legend was ending in favour of the British.
France was forever altered by their loss at Trafalgar. Napoleon's ambitions against England were thwarted. Nelson would go down a hero, and the most famous square in England, Trafalgar Square, would be named for the victory. Without France to challenge her – Germany was not yet unified, and Russia was no naval power – Britain would rule the world's oceans for 100 years. |
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