The Indian Ocean - Michael Pearson [138]
We have seen both normative and folk elements in Christianity and Islam, and these were both to be found in the various rites, ceremonies, and practices of men in trouble at sea, or men trying to get divine blessing for a safe passage. Horden and Purcell made two useful comments about this matter in a Mediterranean context which apply equally well to the Indian Ocean. They point out that rites performed on ships were 'not a superficial sprinkling of the holy onto the mundane and normal, but an integral part of the way that the world was experienced.' So also, in a landed context, they comment on 'the apparent continuity or repetitive similarity of religious responses to the environment in different periods, under different religious systems.'34 We will find that seamen from different faiths often mirrored the rites of those of other faiths, even if this was not usually acknowledged.
Portuguese ships nearly always had priests on board, and they played a prominent role on the voyage. Priests about to embark on the carreira to India were excused from Lenten fasts so they would be strong enough to withstand the rigours of the voyage. They did general confessions before the ship set sail, so that any who died on the voyage would have no, or few, unconfessed sins. They led processions around the ship if it was in danger.35 A voyage of 1629 was perhaps typical. The Jesuits on board spent much time hearing confessions and ministering to the sick. One of the ships ran aground, and the Jesuits on board spent the entire night on the poop hearing confessions, so that those who were to die would be in a state of grace. When another ship ran aground a priest calmed the sea by suspending holy relics in the water. He then heard confessions, and distributed devotional objects to all and sundry.36
St Francis Xavier was often called on to protect ships in peril. A Jesuit wrecked off Mozambique struggled ashore, pushed and buffeted by an incoming tide, his feet badly cut and bleeding from the sharp coral. To add to his peril, he was no swimmer. Regardless, he carried a relic of Xavier around his neck, and so was saved.37 Father Lobo decided to return to Portugal on the beautiful new ship the Belem:
Not the least of my reasons, among others, for liking this ship were that it was said to be less heavily loaded, that it was a powerful ship, and that Saint Francis Xavier had performed a great and evident miracle by defending it one crucial night on its voyage to India [in 1633]. At anchor on the bar of Mozambique, the carrack was being battered by a furious storm which had broken four of the five cables. Since there was no reason to believe that one could hold where four others had failed, the poor sailors placed all their hope in a relic of the saint, which they lowered into the water with the sole remaining cable. The winds increased in fury and the people saw cruel death before their eyes at every moment, since they were so close to the reefs that they could not have escaped alive if that single cable had not held fast all night long, which the four other cables had been unable to do. What was even more remarkable was that it could do this without any flukes on the anchor,