La Coronilla also hides its stories and legends around the shipwrecks of Rocha. In 1873, the Porteña steamer was intentionally hit on the beach of the resort, after a series of vicissitudes of a political and revolutionary nature.
The Vapor Porteña and its history
On October 6, 1873, while the Porteña (which was the "Vapor de la Carrera" of those times) was serving its usual passenger service, between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, was hijacked by 50 armed Argentine revolutionaries, who wanted to support a political coup in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos. The group had boarded the ship incognito, assaulted the captain's cabin and took control of the ship.
The next morning, passengers were allowed to disembark. The pirates (as they were called by the press), headed east, pretending to reach Brazilian waters, where they would be safe from reprisals and political trials. After several days of persecution, at the height of the coast of La Coronilla, when the warships were about to reach the Porteña, on October 11, 1873, the revolutionaries opted to leave the ship and escape in boats to the Uruguayan coast.
Stories and legends
Among fishermen in the area, it was said that under the wreckage of the Porteña, there was a treasure of doubloons, gold coins and jewels. The Ventura family would have found some of those coins. Other settlers, claim that the treasure would be of another ship, a Spanish galleon, sunk in the same place, many years before.
Today the Porteña
Today it is possible to see the Porteña boiler on the sands of La Coronilla beach, walking from the main slope heading south, in front of the area of fishermen's house.
