Portuguese ship

“ The Portuguese of South America have yet a privilege of dealing in slaves on a certain part of the African coast, but it was the intention of the captain of this vessel to exceed the limits of his trade, and to run farther down, so as to take his cargo of human beings from a part of the country which was proscribed, in the certainty of being there enabled to purchase slaves at a much lower rate than he could in the regular way; or, perhaps, to take away by force as many as he could stow away into his ship. He therefore required a considerable number of hands for the enterprise ”

“ A tall merchant ship unarmed, well laden with goods of which I shall have received notice, sails very stately out of the port, say, of Lisbon. She has a barrel or two of money in her lazarette for the planters of the Portuguese settlements. She has forty men before the mast, and twenty in officers and idlers abaft it. Presently a white gleam is seen by the light of the moon. No notice [Pg 120] is taken. Why should notice be taken? There are no pirates in those western seas so close aboard the coast. ”

“ List of the Portuguese Fleet that came out of the Tagus on the 29th of November, 1807.
Of these vessels, the Martin Freitas is now the Pedro Primero. The Principe Real is the receiving ship at Rio. The Rainha de Portugal is at Lisbon, as well as the Conde Henrique. The Medusa is the sheer hulk at Rio. The three other line-of-battle ships either broke up or about to be so. Of the frigates, the Minerva was taken by the French in India. The Golfinho is broken up, and the Urania was wrecked on the Cape de Verde Islands. The Voador is now a corvette. ”

“ For over an hour they remained, and on coming on deck we noticed that Captain Poynings and his officers looked highly pleased, though the Portuguese still wore an impassive look.
"Send the ship's company aft," said the captain. "'Tis but right that they should know."
Eagerly the men clustered in the waist, while from the poop their gallant leader addressed them.
"Hearken, my men," quoth he. "It has come to our knowledge that a vast amount of treasure lieth hidden on a cay the bearing whereof is known only to this Portuguese. ”

“ The Portuguese assented; but, previous to this, the shipping agents of the town had conferred with him, and, discovering that he was not bound to the ship, had offered him a seaman’s wages to sail in their employ; consequently, he imbibed a notion of the real value of his services, and when taken to the consul’s office and offered a landsman’s lay by the captain, he demanded a greater proportion of the vessel’s earnings—one commensurate with his services. ”

“ Under this intelligent stimulus, Portuguese navigators within a century rounded the Cape of Good Hope, opened the sea route to the Indies, discovered Brazil, circumnavigated the globe, and made Portugal the richest nation in Europe, with a great colonial empire and claims to dominion over half the seas of the world. Portuguese ships carried her flag from Labrador (which reveals its discoverers in its name) and Nova Zembla to the Malay Archipelago and Japan. ”

“ The Portuguese have three line-of-battle ships, five frigates, five corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. The worst of the thing is that we cannot depend upon our crews. I think that our ship will be all right, but the others are all largely manned by Portuguese, who are as likely as not to mutiny directly we get near the enemy, and to take the ships over to them. ”

“ A voluntary subscription was enthusiastically entered into; artisans flocked into the dockyard; the only ship of the line in the harbour required to be nearly rebuilt; but to man that and other available vessels with native seamen was impossible—the policy of the mother country having been to carry on even the coasting trade exclusively by Portuguese, who could not now be relied on by Brazil, in the approaching contest with their own countrymen. ”

“ The Caroline is a fine frigate, but not commissioned, for want of men. The Unaŏ is a very fine ship, wants copper, and is commanded by Captain Jewitt. The Nitherohy is a corvette, well found, and in good repair, but a heavy sailer; and the Maria da Gloria, a fine corvette, is commanded by a French officer, Captain Beaurepair. The great difficulty the navy here has to dread is the want of men. [101] Portuguese sailors are worse than none; few Brazilians are sailors at all, and French, English, and Americans are very scarce. ”

“ This unfortunate voyage terminated her career under the Red Ensign, for on her arrival home in 1896 the Thomas Stephens was sold to the Portuguese Government. The Portuguese have a singularly shrewd eye for a ship; and in this year they bought at breaking up prices three of the finest and fastest ships ever built, namely the Thomas Stephens, Cutty Sark and Thermopylae. ”

“ His resistance was strong and well sustained, but the Portuguese finally fled from the deck, leaving him with only thirty men—English, French, and Dutch—and he was obliged to ask for quarter. The pirates then went down the coast in their newly acquired ship and made several prizes, some of which they burned and some of which they sank. As they now mustered nearly two hundred men, the only ones that they forced from captured crews were carpenters, calkers, and surgeons, whose services they needed greatly. ”

“ So he brings her to, by firing a musket thwart her forefoot; sends aboard her the best busker (as he himself call’d Hatley) with a boat’s crew; each man arm’d with a cutlass and a case of pistols. 26
The Portuguese not only imagines his ship made prize, but thinks also how he shall undergo that piece of discipline used by the merry blades in the West-Indies, call’d blooding and sweating; which is done by making the captain, on the ill report of his men, or his declining to discover where his money is hid, to run the gantlet naked thro’ the pyrate’s crew ”

“ The enemy knows very well that the Portuguese do not carry force enough to fight, and that on seeing the Dutch they run ashore and place their persons in safety with their gold, which is the form in which they chiefly invest their wealth. The ship which would sail from here would enter by a different channel than do the Portuguese, as the strait has three entrances. ”

“ Brazil prospered beyond expectation and absorbed all the blacks that Portuguese shipping could supply. The Spaniards had no spare tonnage at the time.
John Hawkins, aged thirty, had made several trips to the Canaries. He now formed a joint-stock company to trade with the Spaniards farther off. Two Lord Mayors of London and the Treasurer of the Royal Navy were among the subscribers. Three small vessels, with only two hundred and sixty tons between them, formed the flotilla. The crews numbered just a hundred men. ”

“ Upon this Coast our Rovers cruiz’d for about nine Weeks, keeping generally out of Sight of Land, but without seeing a Sail, which discourag’d them so, that they determined to leave the Station, and steer for the West-Indies, and in order thereto, stood in to make the Land for the taking of their Departure, and thereby they fell in, unexpectedly, with a Fleet of 42 Sail of Portuguese Ships, off the Bay of los todos Santos, with all their Lading in for Lisbon, several of them of good Force, who lay too waiting for two Men of War of 70 Guns each, their Convoy. ”

“ For he can easily exact every year, without injury to any one, five galleons—built and rigged, equipped with artillery and munitions, and even loaded with materials and military supplies. Further, if the Chinese are well treated and paid, from them will go the men necessary to work the ships; they are no less industrious and capable than our seamen, as we consider them very expert in the Portuguese ships. ”

“ Wherever maritime trade exists it must defend itself against pirates; and piracy was rife on all the Indian and Chinese shores. Hence the larger vessels, both on the Malabar coast and on that of China, were usually manned with fighting men, and those of the Arabs and Rumes occasionally carried large guns. The Oriental fleets, if assembled in one place, would have immensely outnumbered the ships capable of being sent against them by Portugal. But in regard to construction, equipment, and the art of navigation the Portuguese had greatly the advantage. ”

“ Command of the sea could not be maintained—least of all in the monsoon months—while the Portuguese fleets were based on Lisbon, which could only be reached after a six months' voyage; and experience had proved that almost every Portuguese factory required a fortress for its defence when the fleets were absent. Portugal, like every great maritime trading community from Carthage to Venice, discovered that the ideal of “sea power and commerce” led directly to empire. ”

“ Lisbon, Elvas and Angra in the Azores, were considered first-class fortresses, but only Lisbon had modern defences. The Portuguese navy in 1910 consisted of 1 armoured vessel, 5 protected cruisers, 2 third-class cruisers, 19 gunboats, 1 torpedo gunboat, 4 torpedo boats, 16 river gunboats, 4 transports and 3 training ships. Twelve other vessels, including 2 submarines, were under construction. The whole fleet was manned by about 5000 men. ”

“ In that year, however, all the merchants interested in the Oriental trade joined together to form the United East India Company. The first fleet fitted out by the re-organised Company consisted of four ships, of 650, 500, 300, and 200 tons burthen respectively. It had to fight its way with the Portuguese before it could commence to trade. The Portuguese considered that they were entitled to a monopoly of the trade with the East, and jealously resented the intrusion of the English merchantmen, whom they attacked with a fleet of six galleons, three ships, two galleys, and sixty smaller vessels. ”

“ As long as the Me­di­ter­ra­nean was the theatre of human history it remained in obscurity, but no sooner had mariners ventured beyond the columns of Hercules than the beautiful harbour at the mouth of the Tejo became one of the principal points of departure for vessels starting upon voyages of discovery. Lisbon became the most advanced outpost of Europe on the Atlantic, for it offered greater facilities than any other port for voyages directed to the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and the western coasts of Africa. The achievements of Portuguese mariners have passed into history. ”

“ The war with France had been already productive of the most disastrous consequences. In 1808, a French privateer took possession of one of the adjacent islands, at the season when the coasting vessels come up from Quilimanci and Sofala, and captured almost every Portuguese boat employed in the trade, which proved a serious loss in a country where wood is scarce, and where the industry requisite to remedy such a disaster is wanting. ”

“ Oporto gloves and hats are highly esteemed in Portugal, Cotton piece goods are sent to the African colonies, and, in small quantities, to Brazil; their value in 1905 was £120,360, but a larger quantity was retained for the home market. The fisheries—chiefly of hake, bream and sardines—are extensive. Steam-trawling, though unsuccessful in the 19th century, was resumed in 1904, and in 1906 there were 136 British, 10 Dutch and 3 Portuguese steamers thus engaged. The innovation was much resented by the owners of more than 350 small sailing boats, and protective legislation was demanded. ”

“ The captains by such ships are pretty deeply, if not very loudly, abused by all hands, passengers especially, who are perhaps the most dissatisfied, because the most idle, of mortals. Shortly after leaving Madeira, which is in 32-1/2° north latitude, a ship may expect to meet the Trades; but she cannot calculate with any certainty upon catching them till she arrives at the parallel of 28°. On first reaching the Trade-wind it will be found to blow very nearly from due east, and with this a course is easily steered past or amongst the Canaries, and thence for the Cape de Verdes. ”

“ He urges a powerful fleet in order to be able to show sufficient force to the natives, and to punish those who killed Magalhães. He cites the example of the Portuguese who send large fleets to the east, and gain respect through fear, "for if the King of Portugal has prestige in the Indies, it is because he has always tried to demonstrate his power there, sending as large a fleet as possible each year. ”

“ So the pirates assaulted them without any fear of ill success, and in a short space of time compelled the Spaniards to surrender.
Being now masters of the ship, they immediately weighed anchor and set sail, determining to fly from the port, lest they should be pursued by other vessels. This they did with extreme joy, seeing themselves possessors of such a brave ship especially Bartholomew Portugues, their captain, who now, by a second turn of fortune's wheel, was become rich and powerful again, who had been so lately in that same vessel a poor miserable prisoner, and condemned to the gallows. ”

“ As I was looking at her, I saw what looked like a vast cloud floating away from her mast-head. Some of the Portuguese saw it too, and cheered loudly. Her topgallant-sails, if not her topsails, had been blown away, probably with their respective masts; but the thickening gloom prevented us seeing the exact nature of the damage she had received. The Portuguese no longer feared being overtaken, but still they continued standing on as before. ”

“ Our King of Portugal is very keen in this matter and has already ordered four vessels to be got ready, besides two caravels, well armed, to sail in January with plenty of merchandise.379 Should the King of Calicut not allow the Portuguese to trade in those countries, the captain of these vessels is instructed to capture as many native craft as he can. In my opinion he will be able to capture as many as he chooses, for they are frail, and so badly constructed that they can only sail before the wind. ”