Forgotten Valbanera shipwreck known as 'poor man's Titanic' focus of new novel

"Deeper Than the Ocean," Mirta Ojito's debut novel, centers around the Valbanera shipwreck and Canary Islands migration to the Americas that's been largely forgotten.

When author and journalist Mirta Ojito set out to explore a chapter of forgotten history, she never imagined that she would discover part of her own family’s lost heritage.

Ojito had long been fascinated by the Valbanera, a Spanish steamship known as the “poor man’s Titanic” that sank near Key West, Florida, during a 1919 hurricane after making a voyage across the Atlantic from Spain’s Canary Islands. It’s the deadliest single shipwreck off the Florida Keys.

“I was blown away by this story, because it was a huge tragedy for Spain and also for the Americas,” Ojito said of the wreck that claimed the lives of nearly 500 people. “These were all poor immigrants coming to the Americas to have a better life.”

As Ojito was writing and researching the Valbanera’s sinking, she was having long conversations with her mother before she died in 2021.

Now, Ojito is out with her debut novel, “Deeper Than the Ocean,” which spans two continents, five generations and 100 years.