Second in Command: the Three Imperatives

By Dr. Paul A. Rivera

The storys time frame is set in the late 1700s, nearing the end of the regions Spanish monopoly on trade with increased competition for dominance among France, England and the Dutch. The time was wrought with complex and multiple world conflicts among the various and dominant world powers of the time. The American colonists had declared their independence from England. In support, and for self interests, other countries including Spain (with troops and supplies from Cuba and Puerto Rico) and France provided aid and logistics to the American colonists in their fight for independence.

The political and economic strife in France had positioned it for upheaval and revolution. The Spanish monarchy had declared the Americas to be free and open to trade by all nations and the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic sea routes had become a competitive arena among the major world powers of the time striving for dominance and economic opportunity.

The story is presented in third person narrative form as it was the authors intent to also incorporate historical facts of the time into the sequence of events, and sailors in particular may empathize as it utilizes many nautical terms and tactics in depicting many of the events at sea. In light of such, the various nautical terms and maneuvers that are introduced throughout are clarified in the appendices as an aid to readers not familiar with the tactics of sailing.

It is the authors hope that sailors and non sailors alike will find the incorporation of historical facts of the era with plausible fictional events a pleasant reading experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462040629

Dr. Paul A. Rivera

DR. PAUL A. RIVERA is Executive Director, of PAR Enterprises, Inc. - a Stamford based Human Resources/Benefits /Insurance Consulting Practice, Licensed in CT, NY and FL. He received his Doctorate in Finance from Pace University, an MBA, cum laude, from Pace and an Electrical/Computer Engineering Degree from Manhattan College. He retired in the mid 1990’s with over 30 plus years in corporate management responsibilities with Fortune 50 companies and continues to lecture as a professor at Fairfield University, Sacred Heart University and Pace University. In that regard he has written other Business related works. As an avid sailor since the 1970’s he has skippered sailing sloops in the North East Coastal waters, the Florida Inter-coastal waterway and the Caribbean sea. As a cruise passenger he also has enjoyed sailing the Mediterranean, the South Pacific and the Gulf Stream along the Atlantic Coast - all of which would have been sea routes traveled by sailors of the story’s era. Therefore, in this fictional maritime adventure which also encompasses historical events of the time, Dr. Rivera relates the eventful voyage of merchant sailors making a passage from the Caribbean to Spain during the late 1700’s.

Book preview

SECOND IN COMMAND :

The Three Imperatives

–BY DR. PAUL A. RIVERA

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SECOND IN COMMAND: THE THREE IMPERATIVES

Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Paul A. Rivera.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4061-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-4062-9 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 08/08/2011

To my Editor in Chief,

Letty,

who as the Navigator of my Life’s Journey,

provided the Treasure

of a beautiful and caring family.

Contents

PROLOGUE

WE ARE THE ROMANS

The Demise The Roman Military Dominance

Roman Society Transforms Into Christianity

Iberia—An Early Christian/Roman Outpost

Roman Christianity Supercedes Secular Rule

Defenders Of Christianity

Latin Undergoes Transformation

The Emergent Roman Monarchs

The Pantheon Of The Roman Monarchs

Expansion Into Western Society

The Maritime Adventure:

THE SEÑORA NUESTRA

State Of The Art:

Second In Command:

The Ship’s Crew:

El Capitan:

Caribbean PiracyAnd The Costa Garda:

El Pirata Cofresi:

THE PASSAGE

First Week At Sea:

Gold And Silver

Perusing Navigation Charts

Meeting Up With The Gulf Stream

THE ENCOUNTER-THE EXPERIENCE IMPERATIVE

A Spec On The Horizon:

The Skillful Navigator:

The Carronades:

Letters Of Marque:

THE SEA BATTLE

The Privateer:

On A Beam Reach:

Spilling The Wind:

The Kill:

THE CROWS NEST—THE DISCIPLINE IMPERATIVE

The North Atlantic Drift:

El Burro:

THE KNOWLEDGE IMPERATIVE—MAKING NUESTRA READY

Unsettling Barometer Readings:

Reading Cloud Formations:

Confronting Northeasters:

THE GALE

Hoisting Storm Sails:

Darkness At 1800 Hours:

Wrestling In The Dark:

A Bright Light In The Distance:

El Toro

Appendix A—Points Of Sail

Appendix B—Common Nautical

Appendix C—Navigation Bearing Chart

PROLOGUE

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Roman legacy: Second in Command: The Three Imperatives, is a maritime adventure set in the late 18th century, in an era that may be as historically significant as that of the emergence of the Roman and Greek civilizations i.e., the discovery, conquest and exploration of The America’s.

The story’s time frame is set in the late 1700’s, nearing the end of the region’s Spanish monopoly on trade with increased competition for dominance among France, England and the Dutch. The time was wrought with complex and multiple world conflicts among the various and dominant world powers of the time.

The American colonists had declared their independence from England. In support, and for self interests, other countries including Spain (with troops and supplies from Cuba and Puerto Rico) and France provided aid and logistics to the American colonists in their fight for independence.

The political and economic strife in France had positioned it for upheaval and revolution.

The Spanish monarchy had declared the Americas to be free and open to trade by all nations and the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic sea routes had become a competitive arena among the major world powers of the time striving for dominance and economic opportunity.

The author had envisioned writing the maritime adventure, back in the late 1970’s. At that time in his mid thirties and working in Connecticut for the International headquarters of a Fortune 50 multinational company, he had concluded that the era of the Spanish conquest of the Americas as well as the exploration by Western European nations was, in essence, a continuing legacy of the Roman Empire, as suggested in the historical facts presented in the first chapter. The story incorporates fiction with historical facts of the time.

Not readily accepted by historians who generally believe that the Roman Empire came to an end, the premise that the discovery of the Americas was legacy of the Roman Empire was the result of a conversation and question that the author had posed to a colleague, who was then Corporate Director of Training and Development for the multinational company that employed both in Greenwich Connecticut.

An Argentine expatriate working in the US headquarters, the Director was a more seasoned, knowledgeable and well traveled colleague.

In conversation, the author had inquired of his colleague as to what had become of the Romans. To the author’s surprise, his more learned colleague had replied that "We are the Romans".

He explained that though the Roman Empire had lost its centralized military and economic dominance around the 6th century, it still continued to expand throughout Europe as dispersed monarchies and empires for centuries after, undergoing assimilation and transformation as it did, and that the discovery and exploration of the Americas was Roman legacy, with Western Society in the Americas having become the final resting of the Roman Empire.

In essence, as described in the first chapter, Roman Society survived the 6th century demise of its centralized military dominance and was transformed into the Spanish, French and British exploratory and empire building endeavors.

It was not that the Roman Empire suddenly became extinct but, as it always had been a transnational empire, it was more that it transformed and re-established itself with Spain, France and England being the most Romanized societies.

In the process religion and Christianity became the driving force of the transition and the Roman Empire became the Holy Roman Empire.

The proposition is that the discovery and exploration of The Americas was, in essence, the result of the Roman expansion into Spain, France , England as well as all of Western Europe and eventually into the ‘The New World". This became an intriguing motivation for the author.

This idea that the discovery of the America’s was legacy of Roman empire building was one of the motivating factors for the story, and so in the first chapter entitled We Are The Romans the author digresses from the story to present some historical basis for the premise.

Historical facts are also interlaced throughout the maritime fiction while the historical perspective presented in the first chapter, as a backdrop for the hypothesis, serves as a segue into this story of two 18th century Roman maritime adventurers.

Given the nature and purpose of the first chapter, readers can forgo reading such without loss of any continuity in this maritime adventure which begins in the second chapter.

WE ARE THE ROMANS

(A case and historical perspective for CHRISTIANITY

AS THE CATALYST in THE TRANSITION OF THE roman

EMPIRE FROM Western Europe Into western

hemisphere CHRISTIAN SOCIETIES)

1

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The Demise The Roman Military

Dominance

The end of Roman world military dominance is suspected to have been the result of a major global climatic change that impacted all the world societies in the 6th century. Research findings have led to the conclusion that the resulting atmospheric and significant secondary climatic changes from a massive volcanic eruption around the mid 500’s in Southeast Asia triggered worldwide and far reaching adverse conditions including plagues, barbarian migrations and revolutions.

According to historian David Keys, this global climate change transformed our planet in the sixth century AD. Further support of this is found in the writings of the sixth-century church historians such as that of Evagrius Scholasticus (536/537—after 594) which described the horrific symptoms of a major plague which caused the decline of Roman world dominance and decimated world societies and their economies.

The following quote and analysis in 2000 by Ken Wohletz of the Los Alamos National Laboratories, further supports the occurrence of the 6th century global catastrophe,.i.e.

"Modern history has its origins in the tumultuous 6th and 7th centuries. During this period agricultural failures and the emergence of the plague contributed to: (1) the demise of ancient super cities, old Persia, Indonesian civilizations, the Nasca culture of South America, and southern Arabian civilizations; (2) the schism of the Roman Empire with the conception of many nation states and the re-birth of a united China; and (3) the origin and spread of Islam while Arian Christianity disappeared. In his book,