Small boat

Patterns.

A patera is a vessel made of white boats with a flat bottom.

Erroneously, any type of boat used by groups of immigrants to clandestinely access the coasts of southern Spain, from the coasts of Morocco and Mauritania, either through the Strait of Gibraltar or the Mediterranean Sea (for reach Andalusia or Murcia), or the Atlantic Ocean (to reach the Canary Islands).

It is a small wooden boat, without a deck with a shallow bottom, that is rarely used for fishing in shallow waters, being used mostly for the transfer of sailors from the pier to anchored boats.

Etymology

The patera is a type of open boat, that is, without a deck, short in length, flat bottom, reduced overhead, not too robust construction, generally made of wood, which has various uses. Antonio Alcalá Venceslada, in his Vocabulario andaluz, defines it as "a very flat boat at the bottom to chase ducks in places with little draft", and for José Luis de Pando (Maritime Dictionary) it is a "small-tonnage vessel, used for fishing". In the 2001 edition of the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, the word patera was added for the first time –which did not appear in previous editions–, whose definition is "small, flat-bottomed boat without a keel".

The word patera has been known for a long time, at least in Cádiz and its province. A piece of news published in the Diario de Cádiz, edition of June 21, 1917, read as follows:

“They say from Santander that two hours before the transatlantic Leo XIII to Santander, from Buenos Aires, and when the passage was lunching, a cannon was heard and minutes later the German submarine U-28 emerged near the steam. The ship's captain, Mr. Moret, ordered the ship to stop, and fired a patera with an officer who took the documentation to the submarine captain, who intended to take allied passengers prisoner, which Mr. Moret denied. After an hour, you could continue to travel. ”

Their use for the first time dates back to tribal times, when they were necessary for the attack of some tribes on others.

Features

The small boats, given their specific characteristics, are very unsafe vessels to navigate rough waters. And from its definition it can be deduced that they can be used for various legal uses and that their use for the transport of irregular immigrants is not exclusive, but occasional. Therefore, it is incorrect to call a small boat a patera for the sole fact of driving clandestine immigrants who try to enter Spain by sea, since other types of boats are also used for this purpose, as well as rigid or inflatable rafts, zodiacs and even pedalos.