História do Almirante pelo próprio

CARTAS DE SINGAPURA

Cartas trocadas entre o Salvador filho do Baxi e o Pai Almirante:

Do Salvador para o Tio Té :

Saturday, 23rd February, 2008.

Dear Tio Té,

Hello! How is Portugal? Our family has finally moved back to Singapore. Mateus and I have been doing great. We are now in Singapore American School. My brother is in Grade 1 e I´m in Grade 5.

I am writing to you for a Social Studies assignment that my Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Riemer, gave to us. I have been told to gather information on your history, immigration stories and some interesting facts about you. Would you mind answering the questions below?

Firstly, I´d like some information about your history. I´ve always wondered what it was like living in Macau during World War II. Did the Japonese occupy the island? Did you see the gunshots and hear the airplanes? What was life like during this time? Next, I´d like to know where you lived or migrated to? Could you give me as much information as possible?

Secondly, I´d like some information about your immigration stories. Could you tell me where you moved to. How did you feel during these moves?

Lastly, I´d like some interesting facts about you. Could you give me as much as possible when you reply?

Also, I´d like to tell you about my school. It is the largest in Singapore. There are 22 kids in my class and it is really fun. My real teacher´name is Mr. Carroll. He is very nice.

Thank you for all your participation.

Yours sincerely,

Salvador Norton de Matos

Do Tio Té para o Salvador :

27 Mar 2008

Dear Salvador,

I was born in Faial, Açores, in 1931 and there the family remained for a couple of years.

These islands are volcanic, so the earliest memory that I have is to fall from a chair during an earthquake!!! As well, once I broke my head but at the same time whales appeared and everybody became terribly excited. In those days, it was a way of life to catch them and it happened that the doctor of the place where we were living owned a fishing whales boat, so he was not available. So, it was the pharmacist who acted as a doctor…and treated me. Well, I must say…

From Faial we went to Figueira da Foz where my mother was from, while my father , as a naval officer, embarked in as overseas voyage. When he returned, he was given the command of a warship based in the harbour of Oporto, in the north of Portugal and afterwards he was sent to Peniche as Harbour Master. He remained there for about 3 years and began going on holidays to the island of Berlenga, same 7 miles west of Peniche. We still go there for a month or more a year, on our days.

It was from Peniche that we went to Macau, by steamship. At least once, we crossed a mined camp, fortunately without bad results!

We remained in Macau until the end of The II World War.

After the fall of Hong Kong, (and from Macau we saw and heard the bombardments), the city remained surrounded by Japanese and Chinese generals, “warlords”.

For several times Macau had been very near to be conquered or by the Japanese or by the Chinese. We were always prepared with a small bag to carry with us with a bare minimum in our escape to the house of a Chinese, friend of my father. In my belongings I always included a nail scissors…when permission was received, from this gentleman, to get out (because by then everything would be calm again) we had severe orders not to forget to bow to the Japonese sentries. These soldiers represented the Emperor, who was God to them. If one person did not bow to them, was not bowing to the Emperor and obviously was not bowing to God. The punishment was severe and final. Our heads would be cut off on the spot. Very efficient, the Japanese…

With the invasion of China by the Japanese Macau population augmented terribly. The available food was not enough, and about 150 people died every day, either by famine or disease. They would remain on the streets, where they had died, up to the moment when it was possible to go for them. It was a sad spectacle and we had to overrun the emotions caused, since we had to continue our way, not by car (since gas was not available) but on foot or by bicycle. Exceptionally a rickshaw was used.

As I have told you food was scarce and the meat in existence was from buffalo. However at a certain stage, real beef appeared. It was a Success. The only problem was the true provenance of this beef…it was discovered that the meat came from the dead bodies of the Chinese who died in the streets. Not very agreable…

One day, American airplanes crossed the skies, and that became routine. Big bombers We thought that we had nothing to fear from American planes, because Portugal was neutral in the war. But the American discovered that Macau was about to trade some gas for rice, with the Japanese, and decided to bomb the place where they knew the gas was. And so they did. That afternoon, when all was over, I went to the site, that was navy (my father was the boss navy in Macau). But then aircraft carrier fighters planes returned and machine gunned and bombed again the area, where I was. I was 14 years old and I was really scared…

Afterwards the USA said that it had been a mistake and thatthey thought they were bombing Hong Kong!

Well, finally the war was over and we returned to Lisbon, by ship, in a 3 months voyage. Old days…

The family began living in Lisbon and in 1949 I joined the navy. About 1959 I became commander of mine sweeper. In one of these ships I went ot Berlenga Islands and passed between and close to two small inlets, an area that I knew perfectly well because I used to dive there for underwater hunting. My navigator was not in the bridge for some reason and when he appeared he almost had a heart attack!!!...

In 1962 I became Harbour M aster of Peniche, already married to Tia Carmo. From here I went to Bissau, Portuguese Guiné, for a tour of duty as Naval Adviser to the Commander-in-Chief, because war was going on there. Returning to Lisbon, at a certain point I was made Commander of a frigate, a NATO frigate, and when that was over, a member of the NATO Command established in Lisbon. In 1975 I was sent to Cabinda, Angola, for one year. Since the place is mainly a dense forest, I almost had a chance of seing gorillas, but unfortunately I never saw one. Once I was in a place where gorillas had been just an hour ago…but that was all.

To be able to be promoted to Rear Admiral, I was sent to the USA, to the Naval Command College in Newport, not very far from Tye, where your father lived. I already lived one year in the West Coast of the United States, because I had been a crew mwmber of a frigate that Portugal got from that country.

Promoted to Rear Admiral, I commanded the naval base in Lisbon and was 2nd Commander of the fleet.

As Vice-Admiral I was a fleet Commander and Commander-in-Chief of NATO IBERLANT area, and as Admiral (4 stars) I commanded the Portuguese Navy.
I must tell you that I had no problem changing addresses, and that I knew a lot of very different people meanwhile, of very different colour, and race, and some of them continue to be my friends up to now.

In 1952 I bought a 35 feet sailing boat, that I still own and sail with tia Carmo.. It is called “VADIO”. I also have smaller boats in Berlenga, for fishing and just for fun, that are used during the several weeks we spend there. So you may say that I am a real sailor…My mother´s family owned several codfish sailing ships. So I really belong to a nautical family!

Another story came to my mind. Once two mine-sweepers went from Lisbon to Toulon, France.The weather forecast was very bad for the waters east of Barcelona, Spain, and we were south of that city. I was commanding the 2nd ship. The senior commander asked my opinion by radio, about putting into harbor. Since the sea was calm and I was in a good mood, I replied that I did not see why should we put to Barcelona without really checking the weather to the east. So there we went, the weather became rough, night fell, very bad waves began punishing the ship. And again the senior commander asked what I thought we should do. I replied that, as far as I was concerned, I had ordered a bottle of hot water to be put in my bed and I was ready to go to sleep. But soon afterwards I surrended joking and we had a big problem turning the ships 180º… That officer never forgot this story.

After retiring I was charged by the Government to finish what I had begun as Chief of the Navy,that is to save the “D. Fernando II e Glória”, an old frigate from 1835 that was aground, almost lost and unrecoverable. There are only 4 of these ships in the world and “D. Fernando” is one of them. I did the job and was very happy with it, as the ship is a beauty, the last sailing warship in the Portuguese navy.

And this is it, up to now.

Love from
Tio Té