A literary side to an historic sailboat
The Rafael Verdera hasn’t only sailed the seas and taken part in unforgettable voyages: she has also inspired writers and been brought to life in literature.
In 1994, Josep Lorman wrote an adventure novel for young readers titled “El Galeón de las Islas Cíes”, whose action takes place largely aboard the Rafael Verdera. With it, Lorman won the prestigious “Joaquim Ruyra” award for Catalan literature. El Galeón de las Islas Cíes, Editorial Galera, narrates the adventure of a group of young archaeologists who discover the wreck of the Santo Cristo de Maracaibo, a Spanish galleon sunk near the Cíes Islands carrying a great fortune, when, in 1702, English and Dutch ships attacked the Spanish Silver Fleet in the Vigo estuary.
The Rafael Verdera inspired Josep Lorman to write five more maritime adventure novels for young readers, with part of the action set aboard the Rafael Verdera:
“La Punta del Diamant”, “El nen que jugava amb les balenes”, “La febre del corall”, “Els pirates de Lampedusa”, and “Juliol en Mallorca”.
Jack London wrote The Fish Patrol, a collection of sea stories first published in 1905, inspired by his own experiences patrolling San Francisco Bay. The photo on the cover shows the Rafael Verdera sailboat.
Among the stories of the illustrious Catalan writer Josep Pla, specifically in the collection “Contraban i altres narracions”, all written in Cadaqués and based on smuggling themes, there is one titled “Pa i Raïm”. Among its protagonists is “Gras Verdera”, an Ibizan skipper of an old vessel…
