Departures
Liner Príncipe Perfeito docked at the Alcântara quay (1961). This ship carried passengers to the West and East African territories. Port of Lisbon Archive and Documentation Centre.
The Alcântara and Rocha do Conde de Óbidos Marine Stations were the scene of many and diverse departures.
Alongside the regular passenger traffic, the largest volume of departures was for emigration, the colonisation of African territories and the sending of military contingents to the colonies, which, with the outbreak of war, would increase extraordinarily in the 1960s.
Thousands of emigrants set off from these stations to the other side of the Atlantic, in an emigration movement that was resumed after the Second World War and continued to grow during the dictatorship, although it was greater for Europe than for the Americas.
From April 21, 1961, the quay at Rocha do Conde de Óbidos was above all the departure point for the hundreds of thousands of men sent to fight against the liberation movements of the territories colonised by Portugal.
After World War II, the colonization of African territories was encouraged, and families who left with the prospect of work and better living conditions in the then colonies passed through the marine stations, especially the one at Rocha do Conde de Óbidos.
From April 21, 1961, the quay at Rocha do Conde de Óbidos was above all the departure point for the hundreds of thousands of men sent to fight against the liberation movements of the territories colonised by Portugal, in a war effort that lasted more than 13 years and had heavy human, physical and psychological costs. And financial costs also, with a huge portion of the national budget spent on the Estado Novo’s attempt to maintain Portugal’s colonial territories, at a time when other European countries had already completed their decolonization processes in Africa.
Interviews with historians Cláudia Castelo, Miguel Cardina and Yvette Santos. Interviews by Mariana Pinto dos Santos, image and montage by Tiago Figueiredo, 2025.