estuary, that together constituted the Lisbon Naval Base, concentrating them in a single place. The plans for the new Naval Base facilities also foresee the transference of the Lisbon Naval Air Station, from the Bom Sucesso docks to a new air base to be built at Montijo. The first naval facilities at the Alfeite were finished in 1924, with the Naval School being transferred to there in 1936 and the Alfeite Arsenal being finished in 1937. The construction of the new facilities would continue gradually until the 1950s. Due to the frequent piracy attacks and the civil conflicts affecting China, in 1927 the Portuguese Navy reinforced its station at Macau, with the cruisers República and Adamastor, that joined the gunships Macau and Pátria already based there. As part of the Portuguese naval forces in Macau, a naval air station was created at Taipa island, operating Fairey III seaplanes. In 1937, the Chinese Civil War and the Japanese invasion, would lead the Portuguese Navy to reinforce again the naval forces in Macau, this time with sloops in rotation. The Macau Naval Air Station would be reactivated with Hawker Osprey seaplanes. On the early morning of 4 April 1931, several officers of the Madeira garrison, that opposed the National Dictatorship Government, revolted. As part of this movement, military uprisings are also planned for other parts of the Portuguese territory, but they either fail to occur or are quickly dominated by forces loyal to the Government. However, in Madeira, the rebels have the support of part of the population and of several exiled opposition politicians, managing to prevail and control the island. Under the threat of a possible intervention from foreign powers that send warships to the area and the threat from the Portuguese opposition politicians that suggested the creation of a separate "Republic of the Atlantic", the Government finds itself under pressure to quickly dominate the rebellion. This could only be accomplished by conducting an amphibious operation to retake the island, but this showed difficult to execute without a properly equipped Navy that had been neglected for years and was in a state of almost "naval zero". Under the leadership of the Navy Minister Magalhães Correia, the Portuguese Navy will, however, demonstrate great ability to improvise, mobilizing a flotilla of merchant and fishing vessels, that are urgently fitted for naval service. This flotilla includes the seaplane carrier Cubango (a cargo ship transformed