One of the most beautiful tall ships on the water, the Chilean Navy’s Esmeralda, will be docked in Balboa, Panama through tomorrow. Esmeralda, a steel-hulled four-masted barquentine, is nicknamed the “White Lady.” She is the sister ship to the four-masted topsail schooner Juan Sebastián Elcano, a training ship for the Spanish Navy.
The White Lady has a dark past. According to Amnesty International, the US Senate and Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the ship was used from 1973 to 1980 by the Chilean regime of Augusto Pinochet as a floating prison where political prisoners were tortured in some cases to death. In December of 2009, the Chilean Navy temporarily suspended the Esmerald’d sailing schedule after after 12 men, including four retired senior navy officers, were arrested on charges of torture and kidnapping charges that allegedly occurred aboard the ship.
It is perhaps better not to get involved in the politics of countries not your own. However in this case my in-laws are Chilean. The history of the ship is as it is and since a ship is an inaminate object she depends on her officers for her reputation. Sadly it does appear that some of her officers did not behave in the traditional gracious manner of the Armada de Chile. As to her not sailing to Brazil this was a piece of grandstanding by Francisco Vidal. He served two left-of-centre Presidents of Chile Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet as Secretary General of Government of Chile prior to serving as Minister of Defense under Michelle Bachelet. He is now a professor of history at the University of Chile. All three had had their “adventures” during the regime of President General Pinochet. As it happened Minister Vidal may have done the Armada de Chile a favour by forbidding the departure of the BE Esmeralda to Brazil the President there is left-of-centre to leftist. Who knows what the result of the vessels visit might have been as that President’s behaviour is somewhat odd at times. Considering that Chile has resolved these issues of political history it is perhaps better for others not to raise them when this beautiful ship visits other countries in a different time with different politics Chilean politics. We have more than enough to deal with at the present time here in these United States.
Good Watch.