175 Years of Spanish Shipowning

In the early 1920s, whilst still a young man, Vicente Boluda Mari (1904-2000) purchased a tugboat in Valencia using a family inheritance and with the help of a business partner. The port of Valencia was growing rapidly at this time with the constantly expanding export cargoes of oranges, and Vicente Boluda Mari soon purchased more tugs. His son, Vicente Boluda Crespo, was born in 1929 and followed his father into the tugboat business, having studied at Hermanos Maristas College to learn the shipping industry. The grandson of the founder, Vicente Boluda Fos, was born on 31st March 1955, and entered the towage and salvage business in the early 1970s. Typical harbour tugs in the Boluda fleet at this time were Ursus Quinto (1960), Furia (1966), Boluda Primero (1971), Boluda Segundo (1972), Boluda Tercero (1973), Boluda Cuarto (1975), Boluda Quintoa (1976), Boluda Sexto (1977), Boluda Huit (1981), Boluda Nou (1982) and Boluda Veintitres (1984). Boluda Towage also acted as agents for the fleet of tugs owned by Remolques del Mediterraneo S.A., for which the former Southampton tug and passenger tender Calshot of 488 grt, built by Thornycroft in 1964, became Boluda Abrego in 1992 and worked as a supply tender in the Mediterranean.

By the 1990s decade, Boluda Towage was operating in most Spanish ports e.g. Algeciras, Cadiz, Huelva, Seville, Almeria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Arrecife, La Palma, Puerto del Rosario and Ceuta. The republic of Panama and Caribbean area, Latin America and the Middle East saw Boluda tugs operating on long term contracts at refineries and developing ports such as Charco Azul in Panama.

a big fleet of tugs was operating worldwide after the death of the founder in Millennium year, including the new tugs V.B. Atlantico, V.B. Pacifico and V.B. Caribe of 408 grt and 4,200 bhp (53 tonnes bollard pull) at Mexican and Caribbean ports, and the harbour tugs Boluda Mari, Boluda Crespo, Boluda Fos, Boluda Huit, Boluda Nou, Boluda Tramontana, Boluda Lebeche, Boluda Mistral, Boluda Segundo, Boluda Set, Boluda Treinta, Boluda Ventitres, Boluda Don Blas and Boluda Nueve of up to 360 grt. V.B., of course, stands for Vicente Boluda, and four oil rig supply and anchor handling tugs of over 1,000 grt were also owned at this time. The deep sea tug V.B. Antartico of 980 grt built at Higashino in Japan in 1977 and powered by twin Wartsila diesels of 8,260 bhp, and her sister, the salvage tug V.B. Artico built at the same time by the same yard as Shamal for international Transport inc of Panama both operated long tows worldwide e.g. V.B. Artico arrived at Trinidad in December 1999 towing the barge Eastern Falcon loaded with oil industry equipment from San Pedro de Macoris (Dominican Republic).

The son of the founder, Vicente Boluda Crespo, died on 20th January 2007 after a long illness, with all three generations of the Boluda family having worked together for many years to direct the affairs of the towage and salvage business. In the mid 1990s, Boluda had expanded into shipbuilding, the property and tourism sectors, as well as owning Valencia Water and other local Valencian businesses.

The strict cabotage rules of the Spanish coastal trades were soon to be made much freer with the liberalisation of the sector in 1997 and privatisation of the Spanish ferry company Trasmediterranea in 2002, and it was renamed as Acciona Trasmediterranea. The Boluda family undertook a big expansion into shipowning of general cargo ships, ro-ros, and feeder container ships operating from the Spanish mainland to the Canaries with an 87% purchase of the shares of Pinillos Lines on 29th November 1997 for $7.8 million. Pinillos Lines was the oldest Spanish shipping company still operating, but had become financially troubled after cut throat competition on the Canaries route.

In 1997, Pinillos Lines was one of seven lines operating in the Canaries Conference on this important route, which collectively protested that 45% of the available containerised cargo was being carried by Contenemar S.A. offering big 40% reductions on tariffs but which also owed large sums of unpaid taxes to the Spanish government. The seven month banana season in the Canaries gave the most important northbound cargo of the Canaries Conference in ventilated containers or reefer lorries and trailers. The Pinillos fleet of eight refrigerated feeder container ships continued to operate under this name for ten years until Boluda Lines S.A. was registered in 2007. The long history of this the oldest Spanish shipping company of Pinillos Lines is now given.

Pinillos Lines

The origins of this Spanish shipping line date back to 1840 in Cadiz when Miguel Martinez de Pinillos y Saenz de Velasco, and originally from the La Rioja region of Northern Spain, established a shipowning venture with the large sailing ships (or ‘bricbarcas’ in Spanish) named Castilla and Apolo. These and other sailing ships participated in the Spanish coastal trades for the next three decades. The son of the founder, Antonio Martinez de Pinillos y Izquierdo then modernised the fleet with the first steamer and registered her under Pinillos, Saenz & Company. This was the British steamer Lamperts of 2,020 grt launched at West Hartlepool on 18th May 1878 for Pyman, Bell & Co. Ltd. of Newcastle which was purchased in 1883 and renamed Apolo in memory of one of the first sailing ships in the fleet. She was powered by a two cylinder compound steam engine but unfortunately, she was lost in the North Atlantic in February 1885, having sailed from Havana on 2nd February of that year and coaled at Newport News (Virginia) a week later, but was never heard from again.

The Pinillos fleet operated Transatlantic services without subsidy from Barcelona to Caribbean ports including San Juan on Puerto Rico, Havana on Cuba, Vera Cruz in Mexico and U.S. gulf ports such as New Orleans. A service to the Philippines via the Suez Canal operated briefly between 1895 and 1898 until the Philippines were granted independence in 1898. A regular service to the river Plate area was begun in 1908 calling at Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. The company title had been changed to Pinillos, Izquierdo & Compania in 1895 with early steamers such as Miguel Martinez de Pinillos of 2,999 grt and 4,252 dwt completed in 1885 by the Laing yard in Sunderland. She had dimensions of 109.7 metres in length, beam of 13.7 metres and draft of 8.7 metres and was powered by a two cylinder compound steam engine to give a service speed of 11 knots. She also unfurled three square sails on each mast for extra speed and as insurance for engine breakdowns. She sailed on the route from mainland Spanish ports to the Canaries, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Santiago and Havana de Cuba, Cienfuegos in Cuba to load sugar, and New Orleans. She carried 550 passengers in three classes and had a long career of thirty years and was broken up in 1925.

In September 1885, a three masted auxiliary sailing ship was purchased from Compania Trasatlantica and renamed Martin Saenz. She was of 2,304 grt with accommodation for 346 passengers and had been launched on 8th July 1876 at Blackwall by Money, Wigram & Sons for their own account. She was sold in 1880 to the Marques del Campo for £42,000 and renamed Barcelona and became part of the Compania Trasatlantica fleet. She was sold by Pinillos in 1888 to owners in Marseille and renamed Ocean.

The passenger steamer Pio X of 5,437 dwt was completed at Sunderland in 1887 on dimensions of 115.5 metres length, beam of 13.1 metres and draft of 6.3 metres. She carried passengers in First and Second Class cabins, with a large number of emigrants in steerage in the holds outward bound to the Caribbean. She was chartered to a Norwegian line in 1890 and sailed under the name of Olora for a few years, but she sprang a leak on 5th December 1916 when 360 miles west of Madeira while on a voyage from New Orleans and Havana to Barcelona. The passenger liner Buenos Aires, owned by Trasatlantica of Barcelona, came to her rescue and eleven crew members were taken onboard with another eleven rescued by a French steamer, but forty of her crew were lost. She had a near sister in Conde Wilfredo of 5,500 dwt completed in 1889 by the Joseph L. Thompson yard at Sunderland and wore the same black funnel bearing the Pinillos white houseflag with a red cross.

A switch to the Charles Connell yard on the Clyde was made for the next steamer in 1890. This was Martin Saenz (2) of 3,466 grt and 4,760 dwt, and she was powered by a triple expansion steam engine. She had dimensions of length 107.6 metres, beam of 12.8 metres and draft of 12.8 metres, and she sailed for Pinillos Lines until the early 1920s when she was sold to argentine owners and was broken up in 1924. The passenger liner Catalina of 5,291 grt was launched at the Scotstoun yard of Connell on 31st May 1893 on dimensions of length 415 feet and moulded beam of 48 feet. She served Pinillos Lines well for 28 years until she was sold, and she was later broken up in October 1924.

Three twin funnelled four masted sister passenger liners Manila, Barcelona and Cadiz of 8,700 dwt were completed by Connell in 1895 on dimensions of 119.0 metres length, beam of 14.0 metres and draft of 8.1 metres and powered by a triple expansion steam engine. They sailed for three years to the Philippines via the Suez Canal and coaled at Aden on their long eastbound voyages. They carried one thousand passengers in four classes, the lowest class being steerage in the holds when outward bound to the Philippines on a four weekly service with an extension to Hong Kong.

On the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898 due to an attempt by Spain to quell a nationalistic uprising in Cuba, the steamer Miguel Martinez de Pinillos arrived in Puerto Rico on 23rd April 1898 but found she could not continue her voyage to Havana due to a blockade of the port by U.S. Navy warships. The next Pinillos liner to sail from Cadiz was Manila, but she suspended her sailing from the port and remained laid up with her sisters Barcelona and Cadiz. The Pinillos family unfortunately were forced to sell this trio, with Manila becoming Salacia of Donaldson Line for Transatlantic sailings, while her sisters became the argentine Navy transports Chaco and Pampa for £47,000 each. Manila was later sold to a German company in 1912 and then to an Italian company two years later, and was converted into a seaplane tender and submarine depot ship during World War I and was broken up in 1920.

The liner Valbanera of 5,099 grt was the next Pinillos steamer from the Connell yard in November 1906 on dimensions of 121.9 metres length, beam of 14.6 metres and draft of 6.5 metres. She carried 1,200 passengers in four classes, the fourth being emigrants in the holds with special ventilators on deck to clear the air as well as awnings to allow them to walk and exercise on deck. She was powered by twin triple expansion steam engines to give a service speed of 12 knots, and served on both the Caribbean route of the company as well as from Cadiz to Montevideo and Buenos Aires calling at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santos. On 7th September 1919, she sailed from Santiago de Cuba to round the coast to Havana despite a hurricane warning, and found it was impossible to enter Havana harbour due to high waves. A few days later her wreck was found sunken on the Rebecca Shoals on the coast of Florida with no survivors from the 488 persons on board. This tragedy and one other during the period from 1916 to 1919 as well as an economic crisis in Spain in the early 1920s led to the end of Pinillos Transatlantic sailings.

The second Pinillos liners named Barcelona and Cadiz were completed in March and April 1908 by the Connell yard on the Clyde and able to carry 166 passengers in three cabin classes as well as one thousand emigrants in steerage class in the holds. They also carried 6,800 tonnes of cargo on dimensions of length 126.5 metres, beam of 16.2 metres and draft of 6.2 metres, and were triple expansion steam engine powered with a service speed of 13 knots. Adequate provision on deck was again made with ventilators and awnings for the steerage class passengers housed down in the holds on the outward passages. As built, they had open navigating bridges, but these were soon closed in as navigation equipment improved and the officers and equipment could not stand prolonged exposure to the elements. After the sale of the majority of the Pinillos Transatlantic liners in 1921 to Transoceanica de Navigacion of Barcelona, this pair of liners was broken up in 1928.

The last pair of Pinillos Transatlantic liners were Infanta Isabel and Principe de Asturias of 8,182 grt and 5,380 dwt and able to carry 390 passengers in three cabin classes plus 1,500 emigrants in steerage class in the holds. They had four passenger decks with a long Bridge deck ‘midships and a fo’c’stle of length 45 feet on dimensions of length 460 feet, beam of 58 feet and draft of 26 feet on a moulded depth of 32 feet. There were three continuous steel decks beneath the Bridge or Shade deck with a fourth deck in the forward hold. They were twin screw liners from the Russell yard at Port Glasgow, with a pair of rowan built quadruple expansion steam engines taking steam from five coal fired boilers. Infanta Isabel was launched on 29th June 1912 and completed in the early autumn of that year, with Principe de Asturias following in 1914.

Principe de Asturias had a very short career on the mainland Spain route to the Canaries, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, as she became the first disaster in the annals of Pinillos Lines. On 5th March 1916, she was en route from Barcelona and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Rio de Janeiro and sailing in thick fog off the Brazilian coast. A serious navigational miscalculation during the night while the passengers were still sleeping put her aground and she began to sink immediately. Most passengers had only time to wake up in the early hours of the morning and then be engulfed by the heavy seas, with 425 crew and passengers drowned, and only 57 crew and 86 passengers saved by the Spanish steamer Patricio de Satrustegui and the Brazilian warship Vega.

The first year of World War I saw the Pinillos fleet of eleven steamers sailing more than half a million miles on only 42 voyages. In the Spring of 1917, the decision of Cuba to take the side of Britain and her allies brought the possibility of German U-boats attacking Spanish emigrant ships off the Canaries and off the Eastern seaboard of America. a blockade by the U-boats of the Eastern seaboard did take place in the autumn of 1917, and by early 1918 the Pinillos steamers Cadiz, Barcelona, Miguel M. de Pinillos and Martin Saenz were laid up at Galveston without coal and by the intervention of the American authorities. This loss of revenue was a contributory factor in the sale of seven Pinillos steamers in 1921, namely Infanta Isabel, Martin Saenz, Miguel M. de Pinillos, Barcelona, Cadiz, Catalina and Balmes, the latter being of 3,794 grt and built on the Clyde in 1898 and purchased in 1911.

Retrenchment to Canary Islands Route

The disasters to two of their great liners, Principe de Asturias and Valbanera, plus the loss of a third ship Pio IX, and the laying up of the rest of the fleet during the war combined with a terrible economic crisis in Spain in 1920, forced the liquidation of the company after struggling on until 1923/24. Most of their seven liners and cargo ships were sold to Transoceanica de Navegacion of Barcelona, with the last to go being Infanta Isabel, which was resold in August 1926 to Japan and renamed Midzuho Maru and she became a war loss off the north coast of Luzon in September 1944. The Managing Partners of Antonio M. de Pinillos Izquierdo, Luciano B. Saenz and Miguel M. de Pinillos also relinquished the lease of their offices in San Juan and Havana, the latter being in an impressive five storey stone building with a tall dome set back from the projecting front facade. Hundreds of thousands of Spanish and Italian emigrants had crowded into the fo’c’stles and holds of Pinillos ships for eighty years since 1840, with immigration labels stuck to the lapels of their coats and on their meagre possessions.

In 1923, the Pinillos family were formulating a plan of returning to cargo only services to the Canary Islands. Miguel Martinez de Pinillos y Saenz, grandson of the founder, formed Pinillos Lines in 1923 for outward shipments of coal and homeward shipments of general cargo and fruit. Two new engines ‘midships steamers of 1,970 dwt were ordered from the Robert Duncan yard in Glasgow for delivery in April 1924 and June 1926, and were powered by triple expansion steam engines burning thirteen tonnes of coal per day to give a service speed of nine knots. Two more small steamers were purchased in 1928, the engines aft Ario of 959 dwt and engines ‘midships Duero of 1,480 dwt, together with the first of a series of four sister banana reefers delivered during 1928/31 as Ebro, Sil, Turia and Darro.

This quartet of motor reefers of 2,610 grt and 2,200 dwt were built by the Euskalduna yard in Bilbao on dimensions of length 290.0 feet, beam of 42.0, and depth of 26.5 with a Bridge deck of length 98 feet and a fo’c’stle of length 35 feet. They had white hulls and accommodation for a dozen passengers, with five cylinder two stroke Sulzer diesel engines giving a good service speed of 14 knots. They had an open monkey island above the bridge as built but this was later covered in for the benefit of the passengers.

The Pinillos Lines fleet of eight Canaries routed vessels mostly sailed for the republican side in the Spanish Civil War begun by the Nationalist dictator general Francisco Franco in July 1936. The colliers were put under the registration of a British company and transported coal on charter to the Dutch government, and were returned safely to Pinillos ownership at the end of the war, while the reefer Sil served as a prison ship in Alicante and Cartagena for the republican side. Sil also along with two of her sisters made voyages to Vera Cruz in Mexico to load war material that was delivered to the Basque fighters in Santander and Bilbao in July 1938. Ebro, on the other hand, sailed for the Nationalist side under the names of Amoris and Aniene and was camouflaged as an Italian vessel carrying war material from Italian ports to the Nationalist side. The overwhelming strength of German Condor air squadrons and Italian soldiers fighting alongside the Nationalists in very bloody battles with appalling slaughter and destruction finally won the war for the Nationalists of Franco in the summer of 1939.

The new engines ‘midships collier Tormes of 2,530 dwt with a black hull, completed at Kristiansand in Norway in 1937 as Tornes for Oluf S. Knudsen, was purchased by Pinillos Lines in 1938 and had also sailed for the Nationalist side. She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine boosted by an exhaust turbine by Lindholmens of Sweden, and she was very active during World War II. She sailed with coal from European ports to the Canaries, and was able to tow the badly damaged Duero into Tangier after the latter had hit a mine in the Straits of Gibraltar on 10th July 1943. Duero was patched up and was then towed to Cadiz for full repairs. Duero also caught fire in her holds at Barcelona on 1st May 1944, and the fire-fighters found it necessary to cut a hole in the side of her hull to get at the seat of the fire. She was repaired at Cadiz but was later sunk in the Straits of Gibraltar on 26th July 1953 in a collision with the British tanker Culrain in thick fog, her crew fortunately being rescued.

Post-War Pinillos Lines

The trading pattern in post-war years was homeward cargoes of fruit from both Canarian and Moroccan ports to either Spanish and European ports or to ports in Italy, Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Two new steam powered reefers of 2,750 dwt with two ‘tween decks joined the fleet in Segre and Tajo after completion in 1944/45 at Bilbao by the Sociedad Espanola de Construccion Navales and were the first Pinillos vessels to be registered under Compania Maritima Frutera, a Pinillos company set up by Miguel M. de Pinillos in 1940. This company operated a fleet of ten vessels until the death of Miguel in 1954, when his daughter Carmen took over the company and changed the name back to Pinillos Lines.

A series of eight ‘a’ class motor fruiters were built between 1948 and 1953 at Cadiz and Bilbao for the Spanish national fleet of Elcano. They were given names beginning with ‘villa’ from towns in all of the regions of Spain. They were four hold engines ‘midships vessels with two masts of length 89.6 metres and a draft of 18.9 feet and able to carry 2,950 tonnes of fruit and general cargo. In 1952, Villamanrique and villacastin were sold to Pinillos Lines and renamed Esla and Genil respectively, and sailed for fourteen years for Pinillos until bareboat chartered to Castaner y Ortiz with an option to purchase. This option was not taken up and they were returned to Pinillos Lines in 1968 and continued sailing until hulked in 1974, and the hulks were broken up in 1979.

The Pinillos funnel colours were now yellow with a smaller white houseflag bearing a red cross. More white hulled reefers followed for Pinillos Lines in post-war years, including the engines ‘midships four hold Miguel M. de Pinillos of 3,000 dwt in 1957. She had two holds in front of the bridge and two aft with derricks on two bipod masts and a set of posts in front of the bridge. This cargo gear was later removed and she was converted into a feeder container ship renamed Jucar after a Spanish river. She survived until 21st December 1984 when she went aground on the mountainous North West coast of Fuerteventura while on a voyage from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Arrecife in Lanzarote. She broke into two halves six days later and became a total loss.

Three motor reefers of 3,050 dwt were completed in 1961 as Argo, Duero and Ter with three holds in front of their sloping streamlined superstructures and one hold aft with their Bridge deck carried aft to the poop. The similar Carmen M. Pinillos followed in 1968 with three holds in front of the bridge and one aft, with cargo handling by a dozen derricks on raised hatch coamings forward and on a goalpost mast aft. However, Jucar of 4,550 dwt was engines aft in 1974 with six derricks on two masts and a goalpost mast in front of the bridge. She was sold in 1977 to Caltram of Algeria and renamed Oued Sour but sank at Oran on 28th December 1980 and was later raised and broken up.

Passenger carrying ceased in 1970, and the cargo gear of a trio of fruiters completed in 1973/74 as Darro, Segre and Jalon was soon removed to enable them to operate as feeder container ships to the Canaries. They could carry two hundred containers in their three holds and on deck, with Jalon still in service at the Millennium. Two feeder container ships entered service in 1978 as Jaral and Romeral, renamed as Ter and Turia in 1989, and the similar Esla and Tajo of 4,955 dwt and carrying 216 TEU of containers were in service between 1979 and 1995.Naviera Lagos and three vessels (Lago Enol, Lago Garda and Lago Victoria) was taken over in 1988, with Pinillos Lines having acted as their agents since 1964, and frequent chartering of ships to Pinillos Lines. A fleet of eight vessels was being traded a year later, with larger feeder container ships now being operated including Guadalquivir (ex Lago Enol) of 318 TEU capacity and 4,844 dwt, and Duero (ex Lago Victoria) of 4,100 dwt and 300 TEU capacity. This size of fleet continued through the 1990s, with Darro, Guadalquivir and Segre having considerable refrigerating capacity. In 1994, a further step up in size was taken with the new feeder container ship Carmen Dolores H of 758 TEU capacity and 10,487 dwt. She was built with a special refrigeration system in her six cellular holds for banana transport by the De Hoop yard at Lobith in Holland. This gave eighty air circulations per hour in the five holds forward of the bridge, with a different cooling system employed in the aft hold. She was powered by a nine cylinder Wartsila diesel engine of 11,930 bhp to give a service speed of 18 knots to and from the Canaries. The feeder container ship Francoli of 907 TEU was also on charter to Pinillos from 1995.

Boluda Lines Purchase of Pinillos Lines

After the majority 87% purchase of the shares of Pinillos Lines on 29th November 1997, the Boluda family within a year or so began to rename the Pinillos fleet with mostly names of girls followed by the prefix ‘B’ e.g. Guadalquivir became Candelaria B and Carmen Dolores H became Lola B. a long list of such names followed for Boluda Lines trading to the Canaries and including second-hand feeder container ships and ro-ros such as Africa B, Beatriz B, Charo B, Cuevasanta B, Daniela B, Elena B, Elisa B, Gema B, Isabella B, Lidon B, Luz B, Macarena B, Mar B, Montserrat B, Nieves B, Pino B, Reyes B, Rocio B, Vero B and veronica B. Montserrat B of 935 TEU capacity was purchased from Croatian Shipping in 2000 as Trsat and was broken up in 2010 after a thirty year career, having been completed at Szczecin in 1980 as Rijeka Express. Feeder container ships now operate for Boluda Lines of 1,100 TEU capacity, and ro-ros of up to 1,225 metres lane length. Many vessels in the above list have been chartered, current charters include Evidence and Sloman Producer B.

A new Pinillos logo was adopted in February 2008 with a red ‘B’ within a double red ring, the outer one of which is thinner, and was subsequently used on the red funnels and houseflag. Project cargo to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at this time included humanitarian aid in containers for the Red Cross and other aid agencies e.g. a classroom for thirty children to Dakar in Senegal with the help of the Valencia local authorities. Boluda Towage purchased the Le Havre towage company of Les Abeilles, part of the Bourbon group of France, for 270 million Euros at the end of 2007, and with tugs stationed at Le Havre, Marseille, Dunkirk, Brest, St. Nazaire and La Rochelle.

These vessels have transported some interesting cargoes to the Canaries and further south to the Cape Verde islands, Dakar and Nouadhibou over recent years. During the winter of 2011/12, Vero B transported a dental hospital from Seville to Dakar staffed by 23 volunteer dentists, hygienists, auxiliaries and assistants in a humanitarian effort that travelled 3,200 kilometres all over Senegal. Vero B and Africa B are ro-ros with capacity for two hundred lorries and trailers or a combination of lorries and 394 TEU of containers, and operate a service to Nouadhibou and Nouakchott (Mauritania), Dakar (Senegal) and Agadir (Morocco). Project cargo has included ninety civil engineering vehicles for a mining project in Mauritania, as well as helicopters for Dakar. Beatriz B transported a catamaran for the recovery of harbour and offshore buoys to Nouadhibou, which was transhipped at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria into Africa B for final delivery. The Boluda hub at Las Palmas, Terminal La Luz, is important for the transhipping of all project cargo for West Africa.

Asuncion B is a small twin funnelled river container ship with dimensions of 104 metres length and 20.4 metres beam with a capacity of 280 TEU of containers that operates from Montevideo up the Parana and Paraguay Rivers with the similar river craft Lago Ypoa and Ara Koe. The former Klyne Tugs of Lowestoft tug Anglian Warrior is also based at Montevideo. She was built at Bremerhaven in 1970 and is of 345 grt with a bollard pull of 45 tonnes from Klockner Humboldt Deutz diesels of 3,500 bhp.

Boluda Group

Boluda Lines is one of five Divisions operated from the Boluda headquarters in Valencia, a large ballustraded stone building with two wings of offices and flying the Boluda houseflag above the front facade. Another very impressive four storey Boluda office has the upper floor in the shape of a navigating bridge and two tall red Boluda funnels at the sides of the front facade. Ports served from the Canaries to Spain, Portugal and Italy include Bilbao, Villagarcia, Lisbon, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Seville, Mahon, Palma, Ibiza, Livorno and Genoa.

Vicente Boluda Fos is President of the group, and Ignacio Boluda Caballos is now vice President of Boluda Lines and is the next generation of this family owned company. An interesting diversification into vineyards and brewing led to the ‘Fos’ brand of table wines in 2006. The other Boluda Divisions are:-

Boluda Harbour, Offshore Towage, and Marine salvage with a fleet of over two hundred powerful tugs up to 10,000 bhp and 108 tonnes bollard pull are in service in Spain, the Canaries, France, Tangier, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Uruguay, Senegal and West Africa, Cameroon and Venezuela. Oil refinery and storage towage contracts are held with Cepsa, Repsol, Agip, Glencore, Pemex, BP, Total and also big container ship companies such as Maersk Line. The red Boluda funnels of their huge tug fleet can be seen at 54 ports worldwide, with three very powerful Boluda France tugs in March 2015 towing a tall meteorological mast ninety metres in height with a concrete base weighing 1,800 tonnes from Le Havre to its designated position thirteen miles from the coast at Fecamp. Three Boluda tugs with a combined power of 18,000 bhp regularly handle the arrival and departure at the Noatum Terminal in Valencia of some of the largest container ships in the world e.g. Eleonora Maersk of 15,000 TEU, MSC New York of 16,864 TEU, and Morten Maersk of 18,400 TEU capacity. The biggest and most powerful tug in the fleet, V.B. Artico, came to the aid of the general cargo vessel Pirgos of 6,789 grt on 22nd December 2014 when she was drifting without power 1,200 miles from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and towed her successfully into this port in the Canary Islands.

Boluda Tanker Transportation with a fleet of sixteen product and bunker tankers of up to 7,500 dwt including some with Boluda ‘B’ names e.g. Lorena B, Valme B and Vicky B. The first tankers were purchased in 1998 and renamed veronica B and Victoria B.

Boluda Maritimes Terminales with cargo terminal operations that include rail access.

Boluda ships agencies for shipping port operations and freight forwarding.

Boluda Lines will continue to increase their share of Canarian and European container business, as they already offer a multitude of transport solutions for dry container box types as well as reefer boxes.