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I
must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask
is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel´s kick and the
wind´s song and the white sail´s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea´s face
and a grey dawn breaking. —John Masefield (1878-1967) Captain Salvador Campos
Meza stood under the 20 meter high tin roof canopy trying to wipe his hands
clean on his dark blue pants. His eyes smiled apologetically as he offered
his closed fist to shake hands. He was covered in dust. He was standing
where his father had for many years, in the shipyard of Trabajos y Rescates
Maritimo, SA de CV in Mazatlán´s working docks. On the ground below him
were three drydock steel runs on which boats were pulleyed into repair bays.
He had a sailor´s squint, even in the shade. “You know my father once sailed
on the ship Los Santos, taking gold, cinnamon and passengers from Central
America to San Francisco,” he said, with a sailor´s pride in his voice.
It turns out that was one of many adventures his father, Don Salvador Campos
Podilla, experienced before becoming the head of a Mazatlán shipbuilding
dynasty. This is a Mazatlán success story of three generations of sailors
and shipbuilders which began on March 6, 1914. On that day, Captain Salvador´s
father, future Master Shipbuilder Don Salvador Campos Podilla, was born
in San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco. Eighty years later the Campos family
reputation is spoken of with respect among shipbuilders in Mexico, North
America and South America. As Captain Salvador tells it, in 1923, at nine
years old his father, Don Salvador, left school to work and support his
mother, brothers and sisters. His father learned carpentry and eventually
took this trade with him into the Navy, sailing the world for three years.
After leaving the Navy, his father headed for Mazatlán looking for a job.
He met Don Tomas Rueda Cope who hired him initially to dismantle a boat.
Twenty-one years later Don Salvador was Superintendent of 500 employees
and under his guidance 214 boats were built. It was during this time that
his father´s reputation as a man of positive convictions, integrity and
good character took root. His father soon opened his own shipyard building
wood hull fishing boats. They were so well constructed his reputation grew
until he was making hulls in one place, and the rest of the ship in another.
He founded a salvage and boat rescue company and began building docks. Then
he left for the States to improve his knowledge. When his father returned,
family friend Sr. Antonio Cevallos reminisced that “without being a naval
architect or engineer, Don Salvador was able to build the best boats anywhere.”
With the help of a Cuban engineer, his father brought his shipyard up to
American Bureau of Shipping Standards and expanded his business into diverse
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buildings, gasoline tank boats, containers for dump trucks, glass reinforced
and steel hull boats, shrimpers, yachts and sailboats. In the meantime,
explained Captain Salvador, “We three children were making lives of our
own. My sister, Maria Lourdes, became my father´s right hand at the yard.
I was away working as a Captain in the Merchant Marine. My brother, Amador,
worked at the shipyard for a few years before opening his own business in
the marine industry. But after five years of traveling the world, I came
home at Christmas one year. My sister was getting married and leaving the
yard and my father needed someone to help him. It seemed a good opportunity
to settle down, get married and work with my father. I was just 24 then.”
Together, father and son continued to expand the shipyard, enlarging the
carpentry and ironwork shops and eventually becoming specialists in building
and repairing shrimp trawlers. His father died on July 17, 2002, at the
age of 88, leaving behind three children, 19 grandchilden, a reputation
for being a fair and honest man, and 336 boats built to the strictest international
standards which continue to sail the waters of the world today. Enthusiasm
for the sea and ships that began with Don Salvador and passed to Captain
Salvador has now found a seed in the family´s third generation. Today, Captain
Salvador´s sons, Jamiro and Salvador, are carrying on the tradition. Jamiro
and Salvador are both taller than their father. They are both engineers,
with Salvador studying law when time permits. They stood companionably on
either side of their father under the tin roof canopy pointing out the expansive
shipyard, drydocks, new construction and boats waiting for repairs. Their
respect for their grandfather´s legacy is evident in their memories. “Before
our grandfather died in July, 2002,” they explained, “we worked with him
building one of the largest boats ever built in Mexico. It was a shrimp
seiner and a beauty. He gave us advice and guidance constantly. He was a
great designer and inventor when it came to boats.” With pride they added,
“Someone from a New England shipyard even offered us money for the plans
and design. Right now we have a large Azimuts Italian yacht, 98 feet long,
which we are cleaning and painting.” But times have changed, agreed Captain
Salvador and his sons. The construction industry has fallen due to over-fishing.
Fishing boats constructed 30 years ago are still plying the Sea of Cortez.
No one can afford new boats. As a result, the shipyard now maintains its
30 employees by doing repairs. Jamiro and Salvador are young, energetic
and thinking of the future. Their cousin Edgar has joined them as a buyer
for the yard. They plan to diversify by putting in a freezing plant for
shrimp. None of them are married. But the odds are, if and when they have
children, the skills of their great-grandfather, Master Shipbuilder Don
Salvador Campos Podilla, will pass naturally to a fourth generation. |
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