A Sea of Misfortune: A History of People Who Ventured out to the Sea

By James Nolan

In 1503, upon hearing of these voyages and, later, studying charts of the 1492 voyages of Admiral Christopher Columbus and of his fellow Portuguese navigators Pedro Alverez Cabral and his fellow Captain Amigo Vespucci, who, in 1500, discovered Brazil, he was prepared to make his fortune supplying the new Rio de Janeiro colony with trade goods, building materials, seeds, and muskets. He was not interested in making further discoveries or of finding gold; he would continue to make his fortune in trade.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jan 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490780436

James Nolan

James Nolan is a former United Nations Interpreter, where he retired with the rank of Deputy Director of the Meetings and Publishing Division (which encompasses the Interpreting and Verbatim Reporting Services). He also served as Director of Language Services of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. He is the author of Interpretation: Techniques and Exercises (Multilingual Matters, 2012) and has extensive experience in training interpreters.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

At the end of the fifteenth century, the kings of Portugal and Spain were still engaged in the routing of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula.

War is always costly in lives and treasure. From 1095–1291, Europe had embarked on seven crusades to repulse the Muslim invaders who had held the Holy Land hostage, and for the past three centuries they still controlled the spice road to Asia. Only Venice had paid tribute to resume this lucrative trade. It was worth the cost in gold and honor because spices, such as nutmeg, were as valuable as gold in the European market, and the other Eastern spices were also in high demand as well. The solution was to circumscribe the land route by sailing to the ports in Asia.

The answer lay in the rapidly developing navigational schools being set up in Portugal under the direction of Prince Henry the Navigator. He invited cartographers and shipbuilders with the best nautical knowledge to help build bigger and better ships. From all over Europe these men flocked to his academy in southern Portugal.

Before he was to ascend the throne as King Henry II, he had sailed to Africa. This was to foreshadow the circumnavigation of Africa.

Captain Vasco de Gama set sail in 1497 and was the first to make port in the Canaries and then in subsequent voyages down the west coast of Africa. He rounded the fierce southern tip of the continent, which he christened Cape of Storms, as its location is washed by three oceans and consequently has severe currents. In spite of this obvious danger, it was later to renamed The Cape of Good Hope. This change was made by edict of the king who thought it to be a more positive and attractive name.

Then in future sailings, which were made from the cape up the east coast of Africa and east to India, these intrepid Portuguese ventures all paid off well in trade goods and gold.

The Portuguese Trading Company eventually hit the jackpot in India and the Far East with concessions in China and subsequently making port in Japan.

CHAPTER 1

The Port of Lisbon, Portugal

José Nevarez, one of the leading merchants and captains who had followed in Admiral Vasco de Gama’s flotillas as they sailed down the west coast of Africa and rounded the Cape of Storms. He was a handsome man who, at the age of forty-five, had acquired both wisdom and muscle. His honesty was his trademark.

In 1503, upon hearing of these voyages, and later, studying charts of the 1492 voyages of Admiral Christopher Columbus and his fellow Portuguese navigators, Pedro Alverez Cabral and his fellow captain, Amigo Vespucci, who in 1500 discovered Brazil, José was prepared to make his fortune supplying the new Rio de Janeiro, Brazil colony with trade goods, building materials, seeds, and muskets. He was not interested in making further discoveries or of finding gold. Rather, he would continue to make his fortune in trade.

As much of his fortune was already made, he could afford to build the newest and largest ship ever built. Sailors were eager to crew such a vessel, so he could pick the best and brightest of blue-water seamen. José’s handpicked officers were also honored to be selected in this sailing venture to the New World, for this was the way captains were made and given their own ships.

It was the usual sunny day in Lisbon as the guests gathered to attend the grand ceremonial ‘christening’ of the biggest ship to be constructed that year in Europe. The heavy smell of tar, resin, and newly sawn wood competed with the heady essence of the best port wine that filled the glasses of the nobility, knights, and envious fellow merchants of their host.

Envious, yes, but they were also proud of José, for he was an honest man and was going to spend his fortune to promote the Portuguese empire while he made a living. Now on this day José was going to have to make a speech. When this reality was thrust on him, he was, to say the least, unprepared, and a little tipsy. After all, he had to taste the wine that had been delivered. He also had to answer the toasts made to him and his ship, Santa Teresa.

He mounted a box and began to speak. My Portuguese sires, nobles, knights, fellow merchants, navigators, friends, and family, a toast to you from me! Yes, we can admire this ship. It’s a Portuguese ship, not a Spanish ship! This ship is so seaworthy, so capable of exceeding the cargo record. Yet it will be so fast and so safe that … well … that I would not hesitate, in good conscience, to board my family on its maiden voyage.

The crowd was at first stunned but then burst into shouts of approval. Mariners looked at one another in disbelief and then shrugged and shook their heads as if to say, This is indeed a new world.

Upon hearing this news, José’s children were amazed and delighted. This time Papa was not going away without them! They had spent years praying for his safe return from his long voyages. Then after a hiatus of a month or so, he would be off again. But now they would be with him on his big ship, sailing on an adventure that few of their friends could even imagine. The more they thought about this voyage, the more jubilant they became.

Their mother, Isabella, was aghast at her usually sober husband’s statement. She could feel on her the eyes of the women of her status, wives of men like her husband who formed the Portuguese East India Trade monopoly. She smiled and said to them, Well, my husband has never been wrong. But inside her fancy clothes, which displayed the wide-hipped skirt called the farthingale, popularized by Portuguese Princess Juana, she was beginning to feel seasick. Then she said, Only if the ship’s officers’ wives and children are also going on this glorious trip! While José’s sons and daughters, who had seen so little of their father during their lives, were delighted to hear this news, their mother was not too sure that she was ready, or would ever