Saving Lives from the Sea

The catalogue presented herein falls within the responsibilities of the Navy's Cultural Directorate in supporting the activities of its cultural bodies, among which the Maritime Museum stands out, particularly in its mission to disseminate and support the preservation of the Navy's historical memory, thus contributing to national cultural and scientific development.

This catalogue is not limited to being a physical record of an exhibition, which has an opening and closing date, boundaries not found here, with the reader and researcher being the master of time, extending the enjoyment of the exhibition, in addition to constituting a relevant source of consultation for delving deeper into some of the themes.

An exhibition conceived and organized by the Director of the Maritime Museum, Commander Alves Salgado, in this catalogue he brought together the collaborators who best convey knowledge about this period of the Second World War and about some of its nefarious events, but always with a glimmer of hope.

With an unparalleled historical and scientific value, this work also includes the complete repository of all rescues carried out by Portugal, through its ships, in their various typologies, and by its people, who often encountered shipwrecked individuals arriving at a beach or cove.

(Vice-Admiral Edgar Marcos de Bastos Ribeiro, Cultural Director of the Navy)

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In the midst of a war in which thousands of men and women died every day, saving 1,800 people from the ocean may seem insignificant and providing support to another 4,000 irrelevant. (..) At the end of the war, the British "Ministry of War Transport" (...) acknowledged in an internal document that Portugal had "probably done more than any other neutral for our sailors." (Carlos Guerreiro)