ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The Rice Boat is the name given in Andalusia and Extremadura to several urban legends concerning ships loaded with humanitarian aid that mysteriously disappeared, without reaching their destination in several times (decades of 1940, 1950, 1980, 1990). These legends gave rise to the expression being more lost than the rice ship.

Calcium
We could consider it the precursor to these legends. It happened in January 1937, in the middle of the civil war, when Málaga was besieged by the national side. The Republican government chartered a ship, the Dolphin, loaded with food, a rice ship, as it was popularly called, even if it did not carry this cereal on its cargo.

This ship was torpedoed by Italian submarine Cyrus Menotti on January 30, 1937. The ship carrying a load of flour, oil and cod bagged near the beach, the crew could be saved but not the cargo, which was lost also producing a fuel spill. That "black tide" named the beach in front of which it sank, Caloil.

Over time, the specio gave rise to visits by numerous divers.

Alcatraz
The Alcatraz was an Argentine ship sent in the 1940s by the government of Juan Domingo Perón to the Spain of the post-war. This ship, according to the Argentine government, was loaded with rice, but never reached the Andalusian coast. The most widespread version of the miscarriage is the sinking of the ship, which gave rise to the locution.

It is also speculated that the ship's crew would have kept this and its content. Other versions report that the crew suffered a contagious disease and all died, without the possibility of the cargo reaching port.

The Steam of Cadiz
It is said that, in the 1950s, a steamboat loaded with rice was released from its bins when it was tied to the Cadiz Pier, was dragged by the current to the coast and opened, releasing all its cargo. On this occasion, rice could be saved with cranes.

Humanitarian aid to Ethiopia
In the 1980s, a collection of rice from the Marismas del Guadalquivir was carried out in Seville to be sent to Ethiopia. Once the ship sailed, the Sevillans had no news of the East's arrival in the African country, nor of its return. This fact further popularized the saying.

The "rice ship" of Sanlúcar de Barrameda - Chipiona

On 27 February 1994, a Cypriot ship loaded with 6080 tons of rice from Bangkok, the Weisshorn, was to enter the Guadalquivir River to the port of Seville. At the height of Chipiona, due to the low tide, the ship was silenced on the continental shelf, causing water. The rice was inflated with sea water to the point of abolishing the metal doors that kept it. The ship ended up breaking into two and the crew fled the ship towards the coast of Chipiona. It is said that the ship did not soften by