Ferries from Santander

On 3 November 1893 a steamer called the Cabo Machichaco caught fire at the quay in Santander with fifty-one tonnes of dynamite in her holds. The explosion killed more than five hundred people, injured over two thousand, destroyed sixty buildings and rearranged the waterfront. The terminal you sail from today is being remodelled to hold the museum about it.

The worst day in the port's history

The fire began with a sulphuric acid flask and reached the cargo. Contemporary accounts describe a city changed in an afternoon; the disaster remains one of the deadliest industrial accidents in modern Spanish history.

The Port Authority has set aside space inside the Estación Marítima for a museum, to open after the building's refurbishment. It is an unusual thing for a ferry terminal to commemorate, and an appropriate one — the explosion happened at the working quay, not at sea.

The port has three separate jobs

• Estación Marítima — the passenger terminal in the city, used by the Brittany Ferries crossings to England and Ireland and by the bay boats.
• Raos — the commercial port. The first piers opened in 1985; the north breakwater and the Ro-Ro and Ro-Pax ferry terminal were finished in 1989.
• Cruise berths at Muelle de Malata and the Raos cruise terminal.

A container terminal operated by Boluda opened on the Raos north pier under a 40-year concession running to 2063, with a 472 m berth and annual capacity of roughly 35,000 to 45,000 containers.

⚠ Which part of the port your ticket means

"Santander" on a booking can mean the city-centre passenger terminal or a Ro-Ro berth out at Raos, and they are several kilometres apart. Foot passengers on the UK routes use the Estación Marítima; freight and some vehicle traffic does not.

Check the terminal name rather than the port name, particularly if you are being met or dropped off.

What sails from here

The Portsmouth and Plymouth crossings to England, a link to Rosslare in Ireland, and the local bay launches to Somo and Pedreña that account for most of the port's actual sailings. The Santander guide covers the choice between the UK routes and what the crossing is like.

Season

Portsmouth runs year round, Plymouth from roughly March to October, and the bay boats intensify in summer when Somo's beach is the destination. Cruise traffic has grown and is now spread across a longer season than it was.