Two images of the Port of Vigo and the terrible event that occurred between both

@ElentirENG ES 1·29·2024 · 23:14 0

I have been taking photos with a SLR camera for two decades, and in these years I have taken hundreds of thousands of images. I have them all saved.

The Monument to the Galleons of Rande, one of the most famous symbols of the city of Vigo
Always Beneficent: the monument that evokes the help of the city of Vigo to Spanish soldiers

When you've been taking photos for so long and have taken so many, it's inevitable that sometimes your lens will capture terrible events. I saw the worst of all on the night of July 24, 2013, when my camera captured photos of the derailed train at the Angrois curve, in Santiago de Compostela. When I got home, when I enlarged some of the photos, I saw the bodies covered with blankets of some of the deceased. I have never published those photos out of respect for them and their families.

Last Sunday I was on the terrace of the third floor of the Vigo Congress Palace, covering a political event. I had never been there and I took the opportunity to photograph the Port of Vigo from above (the fishing markets, the docks and the Bouzas area), as it is an opportunity that does not occur to me often . At 12:17 noon I took this photo of a part of the port, in which there are moored deep-sea fishing boats (you can enlarge it by clicking on the image, I have linked the original in 6K):

When the event ended, I went back to the terrace, in case I could get some clearer photos (the day was a bit cold). I then took this other photo at 1:33 p.m.:

The photos are very similar, only the framing changes a little. When I left the Conference Center, a Vigo Firefighters truck passed by with its sirens on. Later, I found that that truck had stopped at the port, and that several vehicles from the Local Police and the Civil Guard were also there. When I got home I found out that at 1:10 p.m. the body of a 78-year-old man was located floating in the port. The body showed no signs of violence.

I then looked at the two photos I had taken. Here is the enlargement of the place where the body was found in the photo I took at 12:17:

And here the same place in the photo at 1:33 p.m.. It's a little dark, but I preferred to upload the photos to Flickr without any retouching. In this photo we see the emergency vehicles:

I don't know if any of the figures seen in the first photo are of the deceased man, the figures are somewhat blurred and it is impossible to recognize anyone. It makes me sad to think that I have been able to capture the last moments of a person's life. Whoever you are, rest in peace.