The Port of Alicante has cleaned up the bust of Archibald Dickson, captain of the ship SS Stanbrook, that left the port of Alicante carrying more than 2,500 last refugees just before the end of the civil war.
A Nazi swastika had been painted on the monument, together with a black stain on the metal plate, bearing the inscription “In memory of the Republicans repressed and exiled by Franco’s dictatorship”.
The Port Authority cleaned the plaque, which is barely one month old, after it had been replaced by the Civic Commission for the Recovery of the Historical Memory of Alicante.
The Port’s intention is to establish a joint monument with the memorial of the Stanbrook and other illustrious Alicante sailors.
After the attack, the spokesman for the Alicante Civic Commission, Óscar Llopis, said that this was the third time that similar graffiti had appeared on the monument.
The first was in 2017, when they tore off the plaque a day after the plenary session of the Alicante City Council approved the twinning of the city with the hometown of Captain Dickson, Cardiff (Wales). The second occurred in 2019, when the bust was daubed with graffiti of the Falange.
We want to show our total rejection that this is happening in our city in the 21st century,” said Llopis.
On 28 March 1939, the SS Stanbrook found itself anchored in the port of Alicante waiting to load onboard a cargo of oranges and saffron. Upon seeing the thousands of refugees at the port, Welsh ship captain Archibald Dickson defied the ship owner Jack Billmeir’s order to not evacuate any civilians, taking as many people on board as possible and transferring them to Oran in Algeria.
Unfortunately, the Stanbrook had a tragic end just six months later, being sunk in the North Sea by a torpedo fired from a German. Captain Dickson was killed in the sinking.
