Secrets of the port of Mahón that will surprise you
Located in front of the Moll d'en Pons, the millstone that continues to rise towards the sea in Cales Fonts, es Castell, the Plana Island is one of the great unknowns of the Port of Mahón.
For many years when Menorca was full of replacement soldiers who came to do military service in one of the multitude of barracks that were in all the towns of Menorca.
The flat island was a base for the Spanish navy and in it there was a detachment that basically guarded and took care of the facilities, from land you can see that, a flat island where in those times torpedoes were stored in its hangars and which can only be accessed by sea, sailing through the port of Mahón from Es Castell or from Mahón.
But before, when the eighteenth century was running and the Port of Mahón aroused the interest of the naval powers of the time, France, England, Holland wanted to enjoy its magnificent conditions and location for their squadrons.
At that time, the incipient United States decided , after its constitution, to expand its business towards the Mediterranean Sea and its commercial vessels began to sail Mediterranean waters from one side of the Mare Nostrum to the other.
Georges Washington, the first president of the United States, was forced to install a flotilla in the Mediterranean to defend his merchants from recurrent pirate attacks.
But it was later with the so-called Barbary Wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century when they set their sights on our Port, an ideal place to call in winter and from where trade with safer areas of the Mediterranean.
In 1815 they asked the Spanish crown for the possibility of calling at Maó to have warehouses and permission for their sailors to stay without the need for quarantine, specifically to install their Mediterranean Squadron in Menorca in addition to their trading ships.
This squadron was a precursor to what is now called the Sixth Fleet.
Without any permission from the crown, that same year the ship USS United States directly requested the Civil Governor of Mahón the possibility of spending the winter, the latter granted it amicably and also enabled spaces in the Llatzeret of Maó as a hospital and some other warehouse.
Not satisfied with the gesture of the island's governor , the Americans contact the crown to formalize a contract in order to legally enjoy the benefits of having the largest natural port in the Mediterranean.
At that time, Spain, immersed in the French war, with Napoleon at the head, added to the revolts in the colonies, was not ready to negotiate with one of the greatest instigators of the revolts in the overseas colonies.
Years later, in 1820 William Bainbridge insisted in Madrid on the possibility of reaching an agreement between the two parties, but it was not until 1821 that Spain granted a grace period of 6 months to test how relations between the two countries worked in Menorca.
After several tug-of-war with the Spanish crown and impediments from Madrid, in 1825 an agreement was reached and the United States installed its first military base outside its territory, obtaining warehouses, lower taxes on its goods and even a place in "s'altra banda" where to install the so-called "Cementeri del anglesos" that continues to be visited once per year by the U.S . Navy and thus do its maintenance.
Their stay until 1841 brought great benefits to the Mahonnaise men and women at a time when Menorca was experiencing many hardships of all kinds, the sailors of the United States lived with the Mahonnaise for a long time and injected a lot of money into local businesses.
Those were cosmopolitan times for Mahón and the port of Mahón, France, Holland, the United Kingdom also longed to have benefits similar to those of the Americans and that and many more things left their mark on the people of Mahón and on our port.
A place full of history and anecdotes firmly tied to the Mediterranean Sea and its vicissitudes.
We with the Don Joan skirt the so-called plan island, in a one-hour excursion through the waters of the port of Mahón.
A boat trip that will not leave you indifferent, the Don Joan awaits you next to the center of Mahón ready to go to sea with its 23 m in length.
We are waiting for you!
