QUARANTINE BLOG # 655

January 21, 2022

As they sailed into the Ocean Sea, on September 20, 1519, Ferdinand Magellan ordered his ships in line, the flagship, Trinidad, sailing first. Each of the first four ships carried a torch by night so they would not lose each other.

To reach his goal, Magellan would have to master both the great Ocean Sea and a sea of ignorance. Magellan undertook his voyage in a world ruled by superstition, populated with strange and demonic creatures.

In this age of Global Positioning Satellites, no one need get lost. But in the Age of Discovery, more than half the world was unexplored, unmapped, and misunderstood. Mariners feared they could sail over the edge of world, that sea monsters lurked, and when they crossed the equator, the ocean would boil and scald them to death.

The time was ripe for Magellan and his Armada to sweep away a thousand years of accumulated cobwebs.

Sailing for six days they landed at Tenerife to take in provisions. Magellan worked quickly, but not carefully, because the merchants of the Canaries falsified their bills of lading. The cheating was discovered only later, threatening the success of the fleet.

Sixty days of furious storms left the ships of the Armada de Molucca in need of repair and ruined a good part of the precious food supply. Magellan found it necessary to reduce rations. The decision created resentment among the captains and the crew.

When the gales abated, the battered ships drifted into equatorial calms. The Spanish captains, led by Cartagena, always resentful of the Portugese Magellan, began plotting against the Captain General, a man they considered their social inferior.

A crisis erupted when Magellan learned that Victoria’s master, Antonio Salamon, had been discovered sodomizing a cabin boy, Antonio Ginoves. There was no question as to whether the incident had taken place – the two had been caught “in flagrante delicto.”

Under Spanish law, homosexuality was punishable by death. Most captains simply looked the other way. Magellan held a court-martial and Salamon was condemned to death by strangulation.

After the court-martial, Cartagena declared he would no longer take orders from Magellan. Cartagena encouraged two other captains to join him. At the crucial moment, the pair  lost their resolve.

Magellan had two men seize Cartagena, and placed him under arrest, declaring him a mutineer.

Had he chosen, Magellan could have sentence Cartagena to death. But Magellan was afraid of Cartagena’s privileged position. Simply confined to quarters, Cartagena would continue to challenge Magellan. Of all the perils that Magellan faced on the journey’s first leg, the greatest was Cartagena’s treachery.

On December 13, 1519, the Armada entered the Bay of Saint Lucy and approached the River of January – Rio de Janeiro. Magellan had arrived in the New World.

The arrival of the Armada in Rio de Janeiro coincided with heavy rains that ended a two-month drought in the region. Pigafetta, the chronicler, noted, “The people said that we came from heaven and had brought the rain with us.”

As Magellan’s ships came to rest, a throng of women – all of them eager for contact with the strangers – swam out to greet them. Deprived of the company of women for months, the sailors had found an earthly paradise. Any fear they might have had of Indian cannibals melted in the flame of carnal pleasure.

Magellan took on fresh supplies of water and provisions, trading insignificant trinkets he had brought with him from Seville.

The tranquility of Rio de Janeiro was broken on December 20 when Antonio Salamon was executed. One of the sailors, his face hooded to preserve his anonymity, strangled Salamon as a warning to the others.

Five days later, the Armada de Molucca observed its first Christmas away from Spain.

On December 27, Magellan ordered an inspection of every inch of every ship for female stowaways. Several were found and returned to shore. When the fleet finally sailed away, Indian women tearfully pleaded with the men from distant shores to stay with them forever.

Five months out from Seville, sleep became the ultimate luxury. The crew took naps whenever they could. Pests were ubiquitous. Rats and mice infested every ship. Some expeditions brought cats on board to hunt the rodents, but there are no records that the Armada did. 

Sailors found it impossible to keep clean; many brought along soap and a rag for washing, but the only available water – sea-water – caused itching and irritation. 

Playing cards and books were the most popular pastimes aboard the Armada. The Inquisition imposed strict censorship laws, and sailors submitted all books they brought to sea for approval. Most volumes were devotional – the lives of saints, profiles of popes, accounts of miracles, and prayers to recite.

One of the most difficult chores aboard ship was the simple act of relieving themselves. To urinate, they simply stood and faced the ocean with the wind at their backs. Number Two was more difficult, calling for a precarious balancing act as a sailor eased himself over the rail and lowered himself onto a crude seat suspended high above the waves. He lowered his breeches and eased himself into the seat – in full view of anyone who cared to watch – and if the sea happened to be rough, the frigid spray splattered his exposed bottom. When he was done, he wiped himself with a length of pitch-covered rope, and then climbed back on deck, where he no doubt breathed a sigh of relief.

It is no wonder that these long-duration ships, with all their filth and noise and nauseating odor, were called pajaro puercos, flying pigs.

Next week, the crucible of leadership.

🛐  Today’s close is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8).

Faith builds on foundations that reach to the bedrock of eternity. Life in God acquires a steadiness that is unaffected by the tremors of anxiety. Even death cannot shake its repose.

Prayer: “O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in Thy mercy grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ our Lord”(Book of Common Worship). Amen.

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