The smoke of progress: the Correillo La Palma, its era and its restoration

Opening: 11 September 2026 at 8.30pm

Venue: Centro de Arte Juan Ismael

Free admission

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00am to 1.00pm and 5.00pm to 9.00pm

The horizon has always been central to the history of the Canary Islands, for it was from that distant line that the ships arrived which shaped the archipelago’s fate: the vessels that brought its earliest settlers, the ships of the conquistadors and colonists who occupied the islands, those of the pirates and corsairs who harried them, the boats that carried emigrants in search of a more promising future, and, ultimately, the smoke-belching steamers that broke the islands’ systemic isolation, linking them to one another and to lands far across the ocean with a frequency and speed never seen before.

In 1912, the entry into service of the Correillo La Palma and the five steamships that made up its original fleet substantially transformed the way of life of the island population. From that moment on, distant horizons became more accessible, and the plumes of smoke glimpsed out at sea heralded «the arrival of progress».

The Correillo La Palma is more than a century-old ship; more than the heritage value of the ageing steam engine that powered it for decades; more than a handful of rivets, steel plates and mahogany joinery.

This Correillo La Palma, still afloat in the Atlantic, brings together the history of thousands of men, women and objects who, for countless reasons, travelled aboard it over the decades. But it also stands as a living tribute to those who commissioned, designed and built it, to those who crewed and sailed it, to those who saved it from the scrapyard, and to those who now wish to see it sailing island waters once again — this time powered by an engine driven by renewable energy.