Manuel Calderón interceded with Franco when the Basque seamen were sentenced to death in retaliation for the shooting of two crewmembers of the armed trawler Virgen del Carmen, captured by Republican sympathizers and diverted to Bilbao in December 1936. The survivors were eventually acquitted and released in 1938. In contrast, one of the passengers aboard Galdames, Christian Democrat politician Manuel Carrasco Formiguera, from Catalonia, was imprisoned and executed on 9 April 1938. See also List of classes of Spanish Nationalist ships of the Spanish Civil War Spanish Civil War Republican ship classes War in the North References 1937 in Spain Basque history Conflicts in 1937 March 1937 events Maritime incidents in 1937 Naval battles of the Spanish Civil War Atlantic naval operations of the Spanish Civil War