ARCHAEOLOGY OF A PORT CITY: CANANÉIA (SP, BRAZIL), XIX-XX CENTURIES Prof. Paulo Fernando Bava-de-Camargo, PhD Laboratory of Aquatic Environment Archaeology / Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), BRAZIL (
[email protected]) CASE 2: THE SHIPWRECK OF THE CONDE D’ÁQUILA (1858)
INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
The archaeological site formed by the shipwreck of the Conde d’Áquila lies at a bit more than 30m from the sanitation wharf of the sidewalk down Beira Mar Avenue and a bit less than 25m from the Northeast summit of the port of Bacharel, 7m deep.
The aim of this poster – based on my PhD thesis (2009) – is to discuss the results of the research on some landing places and harbours in Cananéia (South coast of São Paulo State), especially those that provide information about the period between 1800 and 1950, when the capitalist mode of production was developed in the region. The justification for this approach is the necessity to evaluate the contradictions between the real society and the discourse on it. Nowadays the region is known for its natural resources and historical buildings, while at the same time it is the poorest region of São Paulo State. However, since the XIX century until today, the harbours have experienced a relatively deep physical development. How to explain this conflict between structures and social contexts? By observing the diachronical disposition of these contexts through Maritime Archaeology based on the Historical Materialism.
Conde d’Áquila’s hull was made of wood and it was propelled by sails and steam powered side paddle wheels that, according to contracts, should have at least 400 tons of tonnage. It traveled the route between Rio de Janeiro – Desterro (present day Florianópolis, SC) and, in one of its defeat, was on fire likely because of an explosion of the steam-boiler when returning from a stop in Iguape, sinking on the 4th of May, 1858. (SANTOS, 1952; ALMEIDA, 1952; RAMBELLI, 2003).
These contexts have been delimitated with mapping, registering and extensive surveying of the structures, equipments, buildings and places related to the evolution of watercraft, ports and the commercial dynamics in the urban environment. The result of the research was the understanding that two changes have transformed the productive dynamics of the entire Ribeira Valley. The first one was the transition from boat building and commercial agriculture to commercial fishing and tourism. The second one was the inversion of the direction of the trade caused by the substitution of maritime transportation, first by multi modal river navigation/ railroad, and then by road transportation. This process put the profits in the hands of new economical agents, but kept the production of the discourse under the old owners of the political and economical power. Wikipedia
The most interesting aspect of the shipwreck is thinking about the process of formation of the archaeological site that ensued. If, on the one hand, its commander looked for the best spot to run aground and save lives and goods, on the other, he could have doomed the place, given that the vessel made it harder for larger ships to access that port. Would that shipwreck have done harm to the port operations? Probably, yes, for in the 1930’s, more than 70 years after the shipwreck, the Navy took down part of the ship’s hull for it was a hazard for ships navigating those waters (RAMBELLI, 2003, p. 107). Besides the partial obstruction in the central port area, the shipwreck worsened the wellknown issues of erosion and siltation. The large hull of the Conde created a barrier that might have altered the local coastal dynamics. At the time of the shipwreck, his structures might have worked as a jetty, increasing the erosion of the coast to the north of the shipwreck, and causing siltation to the south.
J. Angueira, 2003
Erosion was natural, but the sharpening of its effects and of those of the siltation to the south were determined by socio-cultural factors, never by purely natural causes. As leaving the area was unthinkable, for its port functions had become essential, new works to stop the effects of erosion and siltation were needed. The charms of a naturally suited area were no longer enough – the port had become a human creation which depended on constant Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT interventions.
Rambelli, 2003
2 1
Side scan sonar
4 3
1920’s
Map of Cananéia and sorroundings. Above: View of Cananéia Harbour from São João Hill.
CASE 3: SEARGENT-MAJOR COSTA SHIPYARD (XVIII-XIX Centuries) In the detail of João da Costa Ferreira’s plan, c. 1815 (REIS FILHO, 2000) one finds the depiction of two buildings, a vessel and two slipways between first elevations of São João hill and the sea, where today is located the research base of the Instituto Oceanográfico da Universidade de São Paulo, where there is intense nautical activity. The bibliographical information on the area suggested that this old shipyard, also known as estaleiro da Paixão (Passion’s shipyard), after the name of a rock, might have been the property of Sergeant-major Joaquim José da Costa. He was born in Lisbon, circa 1754 (ALMEIDA, 1968, p. 437), but there is no information as to how he ended up in Cananéia, supposing he had settled there precisely because of his occupation. Between 1798-1799, he married the widow Ana Lourença de Souza, the daughter of Captain-major Alexandre de Souza Guimarães. This Captain-major, who was Portuguese himself, arrived from Rio de Janeiro in Cananéia probably before 1763-1765 (the date of his wedding), as he had been hired to build a smack, establishing, for this end, a shipyard on the southeast side of São João hill (ALMEIDA, 1968, p. 443), a place still know as Argolão, where there remains an mooring ring and sockets of two others for the careening of the vessels (to lean to one side). As to the when the shipyard of Sergeant-major Costa came into existence, A. P. de Almeida implies that it was operating by the time of Costa’s wedding. It is believed that the shipyard operated until the 1830’s, when the Sergeant-major moves to Paranaguá. A document dating back to 1855, signed by the son of the Sergeant-major, already in the condition of heir, makes no allusion to the existence of the São João hill shipyard. The land registry of 1856 does not mention any real state in São João hill, nor the name of Sargent’s Costa’s as the owner (ALMEIDA, 1952, p. 13). During the archaeological survey were found remnants of household utensils that are chronologically compatible with the documents about the operation 2 1 of the shipyard, besides structures that suggest the existence of an operating shipyard: copper nails, other traces of metal, ground-seashell pavement, rock pads to balance small vessels, among other evidence.
CASE 1: PORT OF (THE) BACHAREL (?-XXI Centuries)
1920’s
Low tide
6
Reis, 2000
New Old
1800’s
CASE 4: FIGUEIRA SHIPYARD (XX Century)
The leading role attributed to the port of the Bacharel represents, therefore, the end of an economic process, today naturalized as a manifest fate in virtue of the exaltation of the memory of the Bacharel.
In 2008, there was an archaeological survey in an area along the Olaria river, near Figueira square, where stands an old cananean fig tree. In that lot it would be built a small laboratory for the study of the commercial reutilization of fishing byproducts. A result of the survey was the finding of an archaeological context regarding a shipyard in the first half of the 20th Century. According to recollections of the owners of the land (Mr. Bettega), in the Figueira and its surroundings two main activities took place: the slaughtering of cattle and the crafting of dugout canoes in long ranches. Although older traces have been found, the only structured contexts were the contemporary. There was a first depositional layer, made up of contemporary garbage, retroacting until the decade of 1970, and a second layer, formed in the mid20th century, containing a large amount of cattle bones, materially reflecting the reported occupation. It is worth noting that a lot of marbles were found around the area, usually associated to the layer of bones. According to Mr. Bettega, the slaughtering of the cattle was watch with enthusiasm by the city children, which explains the large amount of this popular toy. Bellow the sedimentary layer from the mid-20th century (50cm deep) and above the barren sand (80cm) a layer related to canoe shipyards was discovered.
On the other hand, in 2007, excavations in the embankment of the port revealed the presence of considerably old archeological material, from the beginning of the Conquista, perhaps with some pre-colonial material. But these traces – thumbed pottery regionally/ locally crafted, as well as pottery that copied utensils from Europe – were found in a layer that once was the beach and the sea bed (prior to 1800’s). They are not connected, thus, to the structure which is there today. Museu de Cananéia
High tide
4
1920’s
Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT
Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT
Municipal wharf
1920’s
3
5
The construction of the Municipal wharf, in turn, took place before the need to improve the docking conditions of the steamboats in the port of Cananéia since the decade of 1850. Before that wharf, the steamboats, as well as several other vessels, were moored close to the thin beach, in the shade of a steep bank (AVÉ-LALLEMANT, 1980, p. 310), where today is the sanitation wharf of the Beira Mar Avenue. There was not a specific place for embarking and, therefore, there was no concentration of port activities. Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT
Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT
Market wharf
1950’s
The port of the Bacharel represents, therefore, the final stage in the concentration of the port flow. Afterwards, the number of ships using it plunged until 1942, when the last cabotage steamship entered the port of Cananéia (ALMEIDA, 1961, p. 476). After that date, the transportation from and to Cananéia was conditioned to the road and river/railroad modes, changing the structure of the circulation of commodities and, consequently, the control over it.
1920’s 1920’s
Its original name, port of the Bacharel, was given to the structure in 1931 (ALMEIDA, 1964, p. 502). The name is an allusion to the Iberian bacharel who had supposedly been sent into exile on that portion of the shore, between the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, becoming a local magnate. The port is known as “the” ancestral wharf of Cananéia, but reality is a bit more complex: although it is located in the center of the city and has been long in use, its present structure sprung from the merger of two other stone wharfs: the Market wharf , built in uncertain date (18th – 19th centuries), and the Municipal (City) or Big wharf, built between 1885 and 1889 (BAVA-deCAMARGO, 2009, p. 86-87; ALMEIDA, 1961, p. 480).
Biblioteca IO-USP
Museu de Rua, CONDEPHAAT
Actual view of port of Bacharel. Left, the site plan of the stone wharf and the Conde d’Áquila wreck .
Reis, 2000
Cananéia Harbour; Author: J. Leandro Sobrinho, 1925
60 cm
Osso de boi
68 cm
58 cm
View of Cananéia in 1776. The red arrow points the local of the future port of Bacharel stone wharf.
1776 Prato de faiança fina
Areia estéril (sem vestígios)
Concreção metálica Chapas de cobre
N
It was made up of a floor of rubble and seashells, on which there were traces of small bones, fragments of ironstone, many metal nails (iron and steel), burnt wood and copper sheets used in repairing cracks on canoes. This shipyard was established between the decades of 1920 and 1950, and it is likely to have operated between the decades of 1930 and 1940. The most relevant findings are the copper sheets used for mending canoes and the iron and steel nails. In this type of repair one cannot use iron nor steel nails, for in contact with copper and salt water they function as sacrificial anodes and are easily corroded. Although large quantities of nails were found during the prospections, only two copper nails were found (one of which was attached to a copper sheet). Therefore, the iron and steel nails were supposedly being used to mend canoes, despite being inadequate for that end, because large amounts of small iron nails were found inside the floor layer of the shipyard, each about 3cm, which would only be useful in nailing the copper plate to the canoe. Besides that, some of them were located vertically, under the copper plates, proving that they had really been used in the repairs. How to account for this inappropriate use of the nails? There are two possible explanations. The first one focuses on the shortage of material: copper nails became scarce and expensive. The second explanation argues that the canoes needed to be back into the water quickly, for the earnings from using them would be much more advantageous then the cost of many careless mends. In both cases there are two reasons: whether it is because the economy is too dynamic or because it is not enough so.
CONCLUSIONS Locally/ regionally made pottery
Small fragments of copper sheet
Majolica and other foreing pottery
The study of the material remains shows there is a constant mutation in the structures associated to nautical activities, which means that the discourse of the decadent region for decades or centuries is naïve, to say the least. What happens is that these activities take different forms through time, changing according to changes in society, economy and politics. Thus, to the observer, who is frequently a researcher who does not live in the region or a citizen who has been harmed by the change, the change is often seen as the vanishing of an ancestral activity, not as its transformation into something else. Alternatively, these productive shifts – from rice planting to fishing, from the cabotage steamship to river steamship and to the train, from agriculture to tourism – change the dynamics of the use of the structures, buildings and nautical equipment, which will eventually turn them Historical Heritage. In this transition, things that were the axis of the dynamics a couple of decades ago become old heritage, ancient things, which ended up having their history covered in a thick fog, turned into elements which make up an ethereal past, that one chosen to be the official version of History.
REFERENCES ALMEIDA, Antonio P. de. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (III). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), série didática n º. 11, 1981. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (XV). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 42, nº. 86, p.491-512, 1971. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (XIII). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 37, nº. 76, p.425-441, 1968. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (X). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 31, nº. XX, p. 453-477, 1965. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (VII). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 28, nº. 58, p.483-504, 1964. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (V). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 25, nº. 51, p.192-217, 1962. ____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (II). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 22, nº. 46, p.191-237, 1961.
____. Memória Histórica de Cananéia (II). Revista de História, São Paulo (FFLC-USP), vol. 22, nº. 45, p.475-520, 1961. ____. História da navegação no litoral paulista. Revista do Arquivo Municipal [de São Paulo], ano XIX, vol. CLIII, novembro, 1952. ____. O Ribeira de Iguape. Revista do Arquivo Municipal [de São Paulo], ano X, vol. CII, abril/ maio, 1945.
AVÉ-LALLEMANT, Robert. Viagens pelas províncias de Santa Catarina, Paraná e São Paulo (1858). B. Horizonte/ S. Paulo: Itatiaia/ Edusp, 1980. BAVA-de-CAMARGO, Paulo F. Prospecção Arqueológica na Base Costeira do Instituto Oceanográfico da USP em Cananéia, Estado de São Paulo. Rev. do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, São Paulo, 18, 2008. No prelo. RAMBELLI, Gilson. Arqueologia subaquática do baixo vale do Ribeira, SP. São Paulo, 2003. Tese (Doutorado em Arqueologia) – MAE, USP, 2003. REIS FILHO, Nestor G. Imagens do Brasil colonial. S. Paulo: Edusp/ Imprensa Oficial do Estado/ FAPESP, 2000. SANTOS, Manoel Higino dos. A cidade esquecida. Boletim do Departamento de Arquivo do Estado, São Paulo, 1952, vol. 9, p.51-138, 1952.
