on 4 march, four armed trawlers of the basque auxiliary navy section of the spanish republican navy, "bizcaia", "gipuzkoa", "donostia" and "nabarra" departed from bayonne, france. their intention was to defend "galdames"s mail, passengers, machinery, weapons, supplies and 500 tons of nickel coins property of the basque government. "canarias" sailed from ferrol with salvador moreno as the captain, with orders to stop the transport ship. "galdames", which was steaming up with the lights and the radio switched off, was outrun by "bizcaya" and "gipuzkoa".