THE PILOT TOWER
At the end of the dock in Portugalete, before Churruca built the iron dike, there was a circular tower called «The Pilot Tower». From there the Chief Pilot would signal, with flags by day and lights by night, to guide the ships that came to and from the port. If the Chief Pilot was not in the estuary, it would then be a watchtower lookout who would replicate the signals. If there was no flag on sight, however, that would mean that the estuary was too dangerous to navigate.
Harbour pilots had to be men; they would have to have four-year experience in the open sea and have in-depth knowledge of the course and tides, sandbanks, reefs, currents, cliffs, and capes in the Bay of Biscay.
Navigation Help
TIDE GAUGE
Coming from the «Jean Wagner, neveu» house, a prestigious French watchmaker, this float tide gauge was installed in 1883 at the beginning of the Iron Quay. Its purpose was to measure the level of the tides and to indicate the variations and the height, in meters, of the level of the sea waters using a sphere with a needle, facilitating the values directly obtained by the observations. There was no record of them, so we could call it a ‘tide measurer’.
LIGHTING
In 1883 they installed electrical lighting on the port, to be able to continue working with night tides. The lighting consists of 33 lamps, a steam machine and a dynamo.
THE SIGNALING TOWER
This system was first put into practice in 1900. It would indicate the maximum draught of the estuary at every given moment. This was easy to find out even from high tide, thanks to the combination of discs that would be updated every 15 minutes.
RIALIA, Industria Museoa, Museo de la industria
