MOSQUEIRO
Estado do Pará
BRASIL
POR / BY
Allen Morrison
In
1927 a group of 14 anthropologists, zoologists, ornithologists and
other naturalists associated with Pitt Rivers Museum in Liverpool
(England) booked round-trip passage from that city to Manaus (Brazil)
on Booth Line’s 7,000-ton s.s. Hildebrand. The 18,000 km / 12,000 mi journey via
Porto, Lisboa, Madeira, Belém and up the Amazon to
Manaus, then back, lasted 45 days. The museum
curator Henry Balfour kept a diary of the excursion and a
passenger named David Vladimir Gutman took about 500 photographs. The
latter are preserved today by his great-grandson, Dave Logan, who
kindly allowed reproduction of nine of them on this page. Mr. Gutman took
the picture below of the Hildebrand:
The ship left Liverpool on July 12, arrived in Porto July 15, Lisboa July 16 and Madeira July 18. Crossing the Atlantic required eight days. The ship crossed the Equator and finally arrived in Belém, near the mouth of the Amazon, on July 27. It spent three nights in Belém (the British call it Pará), then traveled four days up the Amazon to Manaus (formerly written Manáos), where it arrived on August 2. There were plenty of exotic animals and birds to see along the way. The red line on the map shows the ship's 1,600 kilometer / 1,000 mile course on the river [Bing Maps]: |
|
It
was possibly the first ride on a horsetram for some of the visitors,
since Liverpool ran its last one in 1898. The origin of the Mosqueiro
trams is uncertain, but the tramway company in
nearby Belém operated similar vehicles and probably sent
surplus to Mosqueiro [D.
V. Gutman]:
Belém's horsecars had been built in the 1870s and 1880s by John Stephenson Co. in New York, and in the 1890s by J. G. Brill Co. in Philadelphia. The photograph below, taken at its factory in New York, shows a car that John Stephenson built for Belém in the 1880s (bond or bonde is the uniquely Brazilian word for tram) [col. Museum of the City of New York]:  The new company, Empreza de Bonds do Mosqueiro, inaugurated its animal-powered tramway line, from Mosqueiro port to Chapéu Virado, on 10 January 1904. The line was later extended to Carananduba, a total distance of about 10 km. Balfour continues: "Some of us bathed, while I had a stroll along the coast...We returned to Mosqueiro the same way in the trams." Here is another nicely posed view of the English group. This tram is signed "RESERVADO" (reserved). It seems that the group changed vehicles several times during the day [D. V. Gutman]:
This forward shot shows some of the houses in the island's residential section. Today this is a broad thoroughfare called Av. 16 de Novembro [see end of this page]. Track gauge of the Mosqueiro tramway is unknown, but if it acquired vehicles from Belém it was probably the same: 750 mm / 29.5 in [D. V. Gutman]:
Closeup of the preceding view [D. V. Gutman]:
Balfour:
"At a siding our tram’s front wheels jolted right off the lines
and
let us down with a crash. Giving us a good shake up." The photo might
show the station at Chapéu Virado. The woman appears ready to
return to Belém [D. V. Gutman]:
"The car was
eventually lifted back onto the lines and we passed on, but stopped to
see how the other tram would fare and whether it would follow suit..." [D. V. Gutman]: |
|
"It
did – first the front wheels and then the back jumped off the
track and crashed onto the sleepers. It, too, was lifted back onto the
track and
we managed to get to Mosqueiro with only one more accident, to the
vilely-driven second tram. The mules, while pulling wide in trying to
round a sharp curve, fouled an iron post, smashing the traces and
detaching the mules. We walked from there to the pier!" [D. V. Gutman]:
Henry Balfour does not report final thoughts on the Mosqueiro adventure. The Hildebrand left Belém the next day, August 11, and arrived back in Liverpool on August 26. THE TRAMWAY FLEET The
view below of another excursion – date and photographer unknown
– is the best illustration of a
Mosqueiro tram that the author could find in Brazil. Fleet number "8"
was not seen in Gutman's photographs – although, of course, the
number was obscured in many views. It was probably eight such vehicles,
numbered 1-8, that opened the tram line in 1904 [col. AM]:
However, on 19 June 1912, Empreza de Bonds do Mosqueiro ordered two 2-bench
trams, order number 18405, from J. G. Brill Co. in Philadelphia. One
of them was numbered "9". Such vehicles were probably used on
special occasions or as inspection cars by the management [col. AM]:
And on 16 September 1913, EMB ordered this platform car from Philadelphia, Brill order 19121,
which was mysteriously numbered "3". Such a purchase was usually an
economy measure: the company saved money by completing construction
itself. But the chassis here bears little resemblance to the chassis of
the "3" photographed by D. V. Gutman in 1927 [col. AM]:
Animal
power at sea level near the Equator was cruel and impractical and in
1931, four years after the English excursion,
Mosqueiro replaced its mules with a wood-burning steam locomotive. Its
origin is
uncertain, but "Pata Choca", as it was called, looks like a product of
Société Decauville in France. The passenger cars appear
to be the earlier horsecars. Judging by the women's clothing, the
photograph below was taken in 1932 or 1933 [col. Luiz
Anciães]: |
|
The
railway continued operation into the 1940s. The ultimate fate of the locomotive
and the tram cars is unknown. The photograph below
shows the portal that stands today in the middle of the island, where highway PA-391 from
Belém divides – straight ahead for Carananduba, turn left
for Chapéu Virado:
This
Google "Street View" shows how the tram route looks today. No trace of
the former tramway, nor of any of the structures that once lined it, can
be found on Av. 16 de Novembro today. Population has moved farther north on the island.
In addition to Henry Balfour and David Vladimir Gutman, the author wishes to express his gratitude to Graeme Pilkington of England for providing the information and supplying the pictures of the 1927 excursion. The author is also, of course, indebted to Dave Logan for preserving his great-grandfather's wonderful photographs and granting permission to reproduce them. D. V. Gutman was killed, shortly after the excursion, when he was hit by a tram in Liverpool. Henry Balfour died in 1939. Here is the original transcription of the Diaries of Henry Balfour [ignore the title "South Africa"] Also see Mosqueiro: a história de um arquipélago singular no estuário Amazônico by Eduardo Brandão and The Tramways of Belém by Allen Morrison
–––––––––––––– If you have comments, criticism or suggestions,please send an email to Allen Morrison This page was first uploaded on 10 September 2017 Copyright © 2017-2117 Allen Morrison Todos os Direitos Reservados All Rights Reserved
|
