Aita Mari

On January 9, 1866, Mr. José María Zubia died trying to rescue the fishermen of a small boat that was hit by a storm near the port of San Sebastián (Basque Country, Spain). Mr. José María Zubia was a well-known sailor nicknamed ‘Aita Mari’ by his companions. Mr. Zubia helped throughout his whole life to rescue people that were shipwrecked off the coast of Gipuzkoa, Basque Country. Nearly, 155 years later, on the morning of the 19 th of February 2021, the rescue vessel ‘Aita Mari’ carried out a rescue of 102 people traveling on board of an erratic wooden boat in the barren and brave seas of the Central Mediterranean, in the middle of nowhere in between Libya, Malta and Italy. That was the fourth humanitarian mission of the Auxiliary Vessel Aita Mari. A rescue marked by strict health measures on board due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the Basque NGO Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario (SMH) acquired an old tuna fishing boat to reconvert it into a rescue ship. They named it ‘Aita Mari’ in honor of the memory of Mr. José Mari Zubia. And now, the purpose of this old Basque fishing ship is to help people fleeing war and famine who end up adrift in the Mediterranean.