Barca turns 100 years

“HISTORY OF AN OLD BOAT – THE “MARIA PALMIRA”.

Whoever drives along this wonderful road that goes from Ovar to S. Jacinto will find at Quinta da Torreira, part of a paradisiacal region bathed by the Ria de Aveiro, an old boat built on a dune and a cement support that still bears the name of Maria Palmira. In the old days its life was to sail on the waters of Ria de Aveiro where it stood with grace among the few boats that at that time anchored in this part of the lagoon. But with time the beautiful boat’s hull began to rot and, now old and unsafe, to put out to sea, she was dragged ashore and brought there by a dozen or so yoke of oxen to be preserved from the infallible sinking that she had been subject to for too many years.

Perhaps this was not her dream of a beautiful boat; but what is certain is that today, the old boat, transformed into a kind of sand dwelling, with its deck all glassed in and serving as a magnificent bar, resembles one of those model ocean liners that some livelier tide would cause to run aground on a coral bank. He no longer goes on moonlit nights to hear the waves lapping up unknown songs; but, on the other hand, he has found that calm tranquility that how many of us would like to be assured of at the always fatal end of life.

Francisco Ramada, telling us the story of this old boat, told us that it represented a little of the story of his own life. 

It all happened many years ago, already, when a moral and physical decline seemed to want to victimize him forever.

– “Why don’t you go down to the boat,” his wife said to him when she saw him like that. It would be of little use, but Francisco Ramada went; and the boat performed the miracle. Only, in the immensity of the waters, little by little the confidence he had lost returned to him; he regained his health, and in such a way, that when eight days later he returned to the consciousness of his own it was said that he had acquired a new life and soul. That is why he wanted to keep the Maria Palmira, that old barge, which had once been new and was the pride of the Ria itself.”

In “History of Industry in Portugal” by Correia de Azevedo from 1960.

The history of Barca dates back to 1921, when Francisco Ramada dared to build a large vessel inspired by those that traveled the Thames River. Barca would thus become the Ramada family’s vacation home. 

For 26 years it sailed in the Ria de Aveiro, making the delights of those who could enjoy it. It was 1947 when the boat was put ashore. 

Impressive in its size and majestic in its characteristics, it has passed through several generations that have ensured its preservation as a jewel of the Ramada family.