THE HABANA
The Alfonso XIII, ordered by the company Compañía Trasatlántica, was the first boat to be built on the shipyard La Naval in Sestao and was launched in 1920, becoming the biggest boat in the peninsula to that day. It held 1.809 passengers, had 14.000 gross tonnages, was 146,30 metres long, its beam was 18,6 wide, a mean depth of 10,9 metres, and its draught was 6.3 metres long. Two steam turbines propelled it, and it had two propellers that would create 10.700 horsepower and reach 19.5 knots (36.11 km/h).
In April 1931, the Alfonso XIII changed its name to Habana and dedicated itself to transporting cargo and passengers.
In 1936 it served as a shelter for people from the Gipuzkoa front. In 1937 it was used as a hospital, and finally, it made six trips to help with the immense evacuation of children from Santurtzi in 1937. The steamboat Habana stayed moored in Bordeaux, serving as a hospital until the war’s end.
In 1961 the boat was transformed into a factory freezer and renamed it Galicia. It worked until 1975 and was dismantled in 1978.
