WALKS IN HISTORY: Old Rota in ships' logs.

             I would like to introduce you to some views of Rota. To some old, really old, views of Rota. Many of our readers will surely have seen old photographs of Rota in bars and shops throughout town. It seems to be a common fétiche to decorate places with black-and-white photographs of a small, sleepy, sea-side and white-washed town; with a small fishing harbour and no military base separating it from El Puerto de Santamaría. I cannot help whenever I see one of these images to look and think “Where would my house be on that picture?”, other times I think “How would Rota have evolved without the Base?”. Some of these images show Rota in the seventies with the first high-raise buildings near La Costilla, others are even earlier.

            I, however, would like to go even further back in time, before the Base was built, before calle Calvario was laid down.To just after the town grew out of its walls. We are going to see the first known views of Rota. We are going back to 1665.

             That year, the Great Plague of London made its debut, while in the English -not yet British- colonies in America a municipal government was first installed in New York City and a second charter was issued by Charles II to the province of Carolina. That year a young English sailor by the name of Thomas Brown drew on his ship's log several sketches of the coastlines of southern Spain

and north Morocco. This vessel, probably HMS Montague was part of Admiral Jeremiah Smith's squadron, which visited Cádiz at the time. 

Rota as seen in 1665

            These sketches would show the view from, what mariners today call, the “bajo de los Asnos”; a sandbank about a mile south-west of the harbour. Easily identified are the town walls, the Castillo de Luna castle, the parish church Iglesia de la O, as well as the rock Manzanera in the foreground. You can still see that rock at low tide from la Costilla beach all year round. It is about half a mile from the shore, and many of Rota's boys talk of attempting to swim there and back in the summer. Of course, no-one that I know has even gotten around to doing it!

Rota as seen in 1678

            Another image that we can analise is from 1678, of a similar origin and is much more realistic. It is the same view we can enjoy today when we reach Rota by sea if we take the ferry from Cádiz... only that it is 330 years older! The old pier is visible on the left with some small boats, as so are the castle, the church and the old Convent of the Mercedaries; today's Mercado Público. The sketch includes a note in archaic English which reads: “Thus skeweth Rotta as you ride at Anchor in the Bay of Bulls.”

           So, where were these sketches found? They were parts of English ship's logs... so they were in London. José Antonio Calderón Quijano, as part of his studies on the fortifications of the Spanish Empire, spent many hours digging through old documents in several archives; amongst these were the Public Record Office and the British Museum. What most surprises me about these views is how little Rota's skyline seems to have changed since then! Only the higher buildings near la Costilla beach challenge the towers of the castle or the Torre de la Merced, but if viewed from the approach to Rota's harbour, or from the Picobarro clift they are not so easily seen as they are built on lower ground.

Note. Both sketches are to be found in the book “SPECVLVM ROTAE” by Francisco Ponce Cordones, 1980. A great book if you wish to know more about Rota's history. 

(Published in the Rota Coastline the 13th of March, 2014)