THE STATION
Where are we 
The station 
History 

THE TEAM
The crews 
Training 
Exercises 

IN ACTION
The fleet 
Divers 
Covered area 
events 

SOS CALLS
Rescues 
The System 
Press 

WE NEED YOU
Join us 
Help us 

Links 
E-Mail 
 

The rescue station of the Sea Red Cross of Arriluze, at Getxo, is housed in one of the most emblematic buildings of the town: The Wrecked-Shipmen's House.
 

It is located at the so-called Point of Begoña, at the root of the dock of Algorta, besides the old quay of Arriluze. The House for the Wrecked-Shipmen was built in 1912 by Manuel Smith to house the Sea Wreck Men Rescue Society of that time. This was a completely altruist and independent group formed by some local fishermen and seamen who, even thought their short resources, went to the help of the sailors whenever an accident occurred.

They used to employ a rescue trawler named 'Ama Begoñakoa' (Holly mother from Begoña), a breeches buoy two line throwing guns and a cannon, pick and shovels, and some precarious wicker worked helmets. The reason for the existence of this rescue society comes from the high rate of wrecks that occurred at the port of Bilbao along history.

The Royal Orders of the time of the Catholic Kings remarked that there usually occurred three or four shipwrecks per year at that time.
But it was during the works for the construction of the iron dock, in order to eliminate the bar, when the chief engineer Evaristo de Churruca found the first traces that confirmed the black legend of the Abra of Bilbao. During the dredge of the bar, some coins from times of the roman emperor Adriano where discovered.

During the fever of the iron, the british cartographers did also warn their sailors about the Nord-West bar at the entrance to Bilbao. A tongue of sand between the 'Mojijonera' at Areeta and Santurtzi that, till the building of the iron dock finalized, claimed thousand of lifes.
 

The reduced depth at this sea spot, which barely reached one meter at low tide, shear opened the ribs of ships, leaving them at mercy of the waves and, thus, leading them to sink with no chance. In fact, the cargo ships that used to visit Bilbao in order to load ore had a flat hull, to avoid hitting the ground.

Sometimes the channel was completely closed and the authorities and 'leman' pilots (the old version of the port pilots of the present) had to open another access way from the beach of 'El salto' to Santurtzi, even if this alternative also presented the danger of getting ashore at the reefs.

The Wrecked-Seamen's House also had space to house the victims of sea wrecks but, as time passed, that area was assigned for the direction of what today is the Autonomous Port of Bilbao. Nowadays there is no such a place in the house, and the possible victims of an hypothetical sea wreckage would be allocated in the Seamen's House, at Santurtzi.
 

The Sea Red Cross was born in 1971 as an addition to the humanitarian work of the Red Cross, absorbing the Society for the Rescue of Sea Wreck Men inside. Its main goal would be to 'procure the rescue of those human lifes in danger at sea, coast or inner waters'.

In 1973 the Society for the Rescue of Sea Wreck Men was completely integrated within the Sea Red Cross and, since that moment, the renewal and improvement of all their resources commenced.