In addition to the approximately two thousand castaways who were found and saved by Portuguese ships, there were other men and women - close to four thousand - who also saw their ships sunk by enemy action, but reached Portuguese territory by their own means or in ships that were diferente nationalities.
In some cases we witness curious situations where survivors from the same ship arrive in the Azores and others on mainland, hundreds of miles away. More rare we find situations as mentioned above, were shipwrecked were also picked up by Portuguese ships. You will find all those cases in this page, although they may also a+era in other lists.
The period between 1939 and 1941 saw the arrival of hundreds of persons in various parts of the country and the former colonies. At first there was some confusion due to the lack of infrastructure and experience, but the reception and treatment of these men and women would improve a lot, especially from 1941 onwards.
