VASCO DA GAMA’S SHIPS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT.
All authorities agree that the fleet, or armada, fitted out for Vasco da Gama’s voyage numbered four vessels, but they are not agreed as to the names which these vessels bore. We are not, however, likely to be misled if we accept the unanimous testimony of the author of our Roteiro, of João de Barros, Lopez de Castanheda, Pedro Barretto de Rezende, and Manuel Faria y Sousa: according to whom the names of the ships and of their principal officers were as follows:—
S. Gabriel (flag-ship).—Vasco da Gama, captain-major; Pero d’Alenquer, pilot; Gonçalo Alvarez, master; Diogo Dias, clerk.
S. Raphael.—Paulo da Gama, captain; João de Coimbra pilot; João de Sá, clerk.
Berrio.—Nicolau Coelho, captain; Pero Escolar, pilot; Alvaro de Braga, clerk.
Store-ship.—Gonçalo Nunes, captain.
Correa and the unknown author of the Jornal das Viagens (p. 145) call the “Berrio” S. Miguel, and make the S. Raphael the flag-ship; whilst L. de Figueiredo de Falcão (p. 147) substitutes a S. Miguel for the S. Raphael. It is just possible that the vessel popularly called Berrio, after its former owner, had been re-christened S. Miguel.
The Berrio was one of those swift lateen-rigged vessels for which Portugal was famous from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and which, after the barinel[393] had been discarded, were exclusively employed in the exploration of the African coast. Their burthen did not exceed 200 tons, and they had two or three masts, and occasionally even four.[394] The Berrio is stated to have been a vessel of only 50 tons. She was named after her former owner and pilot,[395] of whom she was purchased expressly for this voyage.
A Caravel.
(After a Painting of the sixteenth century, in the Monastery of the Mother of God at Lisbon.)
The store-ship was of more considerable size. Sernigi (p. 123) says she measured 110 tons; Castanheda credits her with 200. She may have been a so-called caravela redonda, that is a caravel which carried square sails on the main and fore-masts and triangular ones on the mizzen-mast and the bowsprit. This vessel was purchased of Ayres Correa, a shipowner of Lisbon.
The S. Gabriel and S. Raphael were specially built for this voyage. Bartholomeu Dias, who superintended their construction, discarded the caravel in which he himself had achieved his great success, in favour of square-rigged vessels of greater burthen, which, although slower sailers and less able to ply to windward, offered greater safety and more comfort to their crews. He took care, at the same time, that the draught of these vessels should enable them to navigate shallow waters, such as it was expected would be met with in the course of the voyage. The timber for these two vessels had been cut during the last year of the reign of King John, in the Crown woods of Leiria and Alcacer. The vessels having been completed, the King ordered them to be equipped by Fernão Lourenço, the factor of the house of Mines, and one of the most “magnificent” men of his time.[396]
No contemporary description or picture of these vessels has reached us, but there can hardly be a doubt that their type[397] is fairly represented on a painting made by order of D. Jorge Cabral, who was Governor of India from 1549 to 1550. This painting subsequently became the property of D. João de Castro. A copy of it was first published by the Visconde de Juromenha, who took it from a MS. dated 1558.[398] The fine woodcut in W. S. Lindsay’s History of Merchant Shipping (II, p. 5), from an ancient picture which also belonged to D. João de Castro, seems to be derived from the same source, but as the vessel carries the flag of the Order of Christ at the main, and not the Royal Standard, it cannot represent the flag-ship. At all events, it is not more authentic than either of the ships delineated in the drawing first published by Juromenha.
The supposed Armada of Vasco da Gama.
(From a Painting made by order of Jorge Cabral (1549-50.))
Authorities differ very widely as to the tonnage of these two vessels. Sernigi (see p. [123]) says they were of 90 tons each, thus partly bearing out Correa, who states that the three ships (including the Berrio) were built of the same size and pattern.[399] D. Pacheco Pereira[400] states that the largest of them did not exceed 100 tons; J. de Barros gives them a burthen of between 100 and 120 tons; whilst Castanheda allocates 120 tons to the flag-ship and 100 to the S. Raphael.
But whilst the authorities quoted dwell upon the small size of the vessels which for the first time reached India from a European port, and even give reasons for this limitation of burthen,[401] there is some ground for believing that the tonnage of Vasco da Gama’s ships, expressed according to modern terminology, was in reality much greater than is usually supposed. Pedro Barretto de Rezende (p. 151) may therefore have some justification when he states that these vessels ranged from 100 to 320 tons. Mr. Lindsay (loc. cit.) would go even further. The S. Gabriel, according to him, was constructed to carry 400 pipes, equivalent to 400 tons measurement, or about 250 to 300 tons register. He adds that Sr. E. Pinto Bastos agrees with him.[402]
In considering this question of tonnage, it must be borne in mind that “ton”, at the close of the fifteenth century, was a different measure from what it is at present. We learn from E. A. D’Albertis[403] that the tonelada of Seville was supposed to afford accommodation for two pipes of 27½ arrobas (98 gallons) each, and measured 1.405 cubic metres, or about 50 cubic feet. The tonel of Biscay was 20 per cent. larger. According to Capt. H. Lopez de Mendonça, the tonel at Lisbon measured 6 palmos de goa in length (talha), and 4 such palmos in breadth and height (parea), that is, about 85 cubic feet.[404] This, however, seems excessive, for my wine merchant tells me that two butts of sherry of 108 gallons each would occupy only 75 cubic feet. At any rate, these data show that the ton of the fifteenth century was considerably larger than the ton measurement of the nineteenth.
Two attempts have been made recently by distinguished officers of the Portuguese Navy, Captains Joào Braz d’Oliveira[405] and A. A. Baldaque da Silva,[406] to reconstruct Vasco da Gama’s flagship, or rather to design a ship of a type existing at the close of the fifteenth century, and answering as nearly as possible to the scanty indications to be found within the pages of the historians of this memorable voyage. In this reconstruction good use has been made of an early manuscript on shipbuilding by Fernando Oliveira (O livro da fabrica das Nãos), which Captain Lopez de Mendonça proposes to publish.
The designs produced by the two naval officers differ widely in several respects, and more especially as regards the relation between the total length of the ship and the breadth of beam. In Captain B. da Silva’s ship the beam is equal to one-third of the length, whilst the proportion in Captain J. Braz d’Oliveira’s ship is as one to five. The former of these ships is broad-beamed, as befits the period, whilst the latter is almost as slim as a modern clipper. It must be remembered that, until comparatively recent times, it was held that the length of a sailing ship should not exceed four times the breadth of beam; and this maxim was undoubtedly acted upon by the shipbuilders of the fifteenth century.
Captain Baldaque da Silva’s design of the S. Gabriel has been embodied in a model, and from a photograph of this model Mr. Herbert Johnson has produced the illustration placed in front of this Appendix.
The dimensions of the ship designed by Captain Baldaque da Silvia are as follows:—[407]
Length over all 84.1 feet. Water-line (when laden) 64.0 fi”et Keel 56.7 fi”et Breadth of beam 27.9 fi”et Depth 17.1 fi”et Draught, abaft 7.5 fi”et Dra”ught forward 5.6 fi”et Metocentric height above the water-line (laden) 7.4 fi”et Displacement 178 tons. Tonnage 4,130 cubic feet, or 103 ti”ns
| Length over all | 84.1 feet. |
| Water-line (when laden) | 64.0 fi”et |
| Keel | 56.7 fi”et |
| Breadth of beam | 27.9 fi”et |
| Depth | 17.1 fi”et |
| Draught, abaft | 7.5 fi”et |
| Dra”ught forward | 5.6 fi”et |
| Metocentric height above the water-line (laden) | 7.4 fi”et |
| Displacement | 178 tons. |
| Tonnage | 4,130 cubic feet, or 103 ti”ns |
This, as I learn from a private letter of Captain B. da Silva, is supposed to be the gross under-deck tonnage, but on calculating the tonnage according to the Builders’ Old Measurement Rule, I find it to amount to 230 tons of 40 cubic feet each, whilst the “expeditive” method practised at Venice[408] during the fifteenth century yields 896 botte of 28 gallons, or about 250 toneladas.
The ship was flat-bottomed, with a square stern and bluff bow, the latter ornamented with a figure of her patron saint. Wales were placed along the sides to reduce her rolling when going before the wind. Formidable “castles” rose fore and aft, having a deep waist between them. These “castles,” however, had not then grown to the portentous height attained at a subsequent period, when they rendered it difficult to govern the ship in a gale, and it often became necessary to cut down the foremast and dismantle the forecastle to enable them to keep her head to the wind.
These “castles” were in reality citadels, and enabled the crew to make a last stand after the vessel had been boarded. A notable instance of this occurred in the course of the fight with the Meri in 1502.[409]
The captain was lodged in the castle rising upon the quarter-deck, the officers were accommodated in the room below his and in the forecastle, whilst the men had their quarters beneath the gang boards which ran along the top-sides from castle to castle. The men were each allowed a locker, to contain such goods as they might obtain by barter with the natives. Ladders led from the main deck up to the fighting decks (chapitéo de ré and de vante) of the two castles, and these were defended against boarders by nettings. The tiller of the rudder entered the battery abaft the captain’s apartments, where also stood the binnacle. The armament consisted of twenty guns. The lower battery of the “castle” rising on the quarter-deck was armed with eight breech-loaders made of wrought-iron staves, held together by hoops and mounted on forked props. The upper battery held six bombards, and the forecastle the same number.[410] We may at once state that the men carried no firearms. Their arms included cross-bows, spears, axes, swords, javelins, and boarding-pikes. Some of the officers were clad in steel armour, whilst the men had to be content with leather jerkins and breast-plates.
Amidships stood the batel, or long boat, in addition to which there was available a yawl rowed with four or six oars.
There were three masts and a bowsprit. The main-mast rose to a height of 110 ft. above the keel and flew the Royal Standard at its head, whilst the captain’s scarlet flag floated from the crow’s-nest, nearly 70 ft. above deck. A similar crow’s-nest was attached to the foremast. In the case of an engagement these points of vantage were occupied by fighting men, who hurled thence javelins, grenades, and powder-pots upon the enemy. The sails were square, with the exception of that of the mizzen, which was triangular. When spread they presented 4,000 square feet of canvas to the wind; this was exclusive of the “bonnets” which were occasionally laced to the leeches of the mainsail, and served to some extent the same purpose as a modern studding-sail.[411] The Cross of the Order of Christ was painted on each sail.
The anchors, two in number, were of iron, with a wooden stock and a ring for bending the cable.
The hold was divided into three compartments. Amidships were the water barrels, with coils of cable on the top of them—a very inconvenient arrangement; abaft was the powder-magazine, and most arms and munitions, including iron and stone balls, were kept there; the forward compartment was used for the storage of requisites, including spare sails and a spare anchor.
The lower deck was divided by bulkheads into three compartments, two of which were set apart for provisions, presents, and articles of barter. The “provisions”, according to Castanheda, were calculated to suffice for three years, and the daily rations were on a liberal scale, consisting of 1½ pounds of biscuit, 1 pound of beef or half a pound of pork, 2½ pints of water, 1¼ pints of wine, one-third of a gill of vinegar, and half that quantity of oil. On fast days, half a pound of rice, of codfish, or cheese was substituted for the meat. There were, in addition, flour, lentils, sardines, plums, almonds, onions, garlic, mustard, salt, sugar and honey. These ships’ stores were supplemented by fish, caught whenever an opportunity offered, and by fresh provisions obtained when in port, among which were oranges, which proved most acceptable to the many men suffering from scurvy.
The merchandise was not only insufficient in quantity, but proved altogether unsuited to the Indian market. It seems to have included lambel (striped cotton stuff), sugar, olive-oil, honey, and coral beads. Among the objects intended for presents, there were wash-hand basins, scarlet hoods, silk jackets, pantaloons, hats, Moorish caps; besides such trifles as glass beads, little round bells, tin rings and bracelets, which were well enough suited for barter on the Guinea coast, but were not appreciated by the wealthy merchants of Calecut. Of ready money there seems to have been little to spare. All this is made evident by the letters of D. Manuel and Signor Sernigi.
The scientific outfit of the expedition, it may safely be presumed, was the best to be procured at the time. The learned D. Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas[412] furnished Da Gama with maps and books, including, almost as a matter of course, a copy of Ptolemy, and copies of the information on the East collected at Lisbon for years past. Among these reports, that sent home by Pero de Covilhão found, no doubt, a place,[413] as also the information furnished by Lucas Marcos,[414] an Abyssinian priest who visited Lisbon about 1490.
The astronomical instruments were provided by Zacut, the astronomer, and it is even stated that Vasco enjoyed the advantage of being trained as a practical observer by that learned Hebrew. These instruments included a large wooden astrolabe, smaller astrolabes of metal, and, in all probability, also quadrants; and they were accompanied by a copy of Zacut’s Almanach perpetuum Celestium motuum cujus radix est 1473, a translation of which, by José Vizinho, had been printed at Leiria in 1496.[415] These tables enabled the navigator to calculate his latitudes by observing the altitude of the sun.
There was, of course, a sufficient supply of compasses, of sounding leads and hour-glasses, and possibly also a catena a poppa, that is, a rope towed at the stern to determine the ship’s leeway, and a toleta de marteloia, a graphical substitute for our modern traverse tables, both of them contrivances long since in use among the Italians. It is also possible that Vasco was already provided with an equinoctial compass for determining the time of high water at the ports he visited, and with a variation compass. This instrument consisted of a combination of a sun-dial with a magnetic needle. It had been invented by Peurbach, c. 1460, was improved by Felipe Guillen, 1528, and by Pedro Nunes, 1537, and used for the first time on an extensive scale by João de Castro, during a voyage to India and the Red Sea, in 1538-41.[416] We are inclined to think that Vasco had such a variation compass, for the Cabo das Agulhas, or “Needle Cape”, thus named because the needle there pointed, or was supposed to point, due north, has already found a place on Cantino’s Chart, and can have been named only as the result of an actual observation, however inaccurate.
Cão’s Padrão at Cape Cross. Lastly, there remain to be noticed the Padrãos, or pillars of stone which were on board the vessels, and three of which, by the king’s express desire, were dedicated to S. Raphael, S. Gabriel, and S. Maria (see p. [80]). Barros and Castanheda tell us that these pillars resembled those set up by Cão and Dias in the time of D. João II; and in a series of pictures which D. Manuel desired to have painted in celebration of the discovery of India, the Padrão to be shown at the Cape of Good Hope, or “Prasum promontorium”, was to have been surmounted by a cross, and to bear the Royal Arms and a Pelican, with an inscription giving the date.[417]
Correa, on the other hand, affirms in his Lendas that the pillar set up at the Rio da Misericordia (the Rio dos Bons Signaes of the Roteiro) was of marble, with two escutcheons, one of the arms of Portugal, and the other (at the back) of a sphere, and that the inscription was “Do senhorio de Portugal reino de Christãos”. The pillar at Melinde had the same escutcheons, but the inscription was limited to the words “Rey Manoel”.[418] As Correa had an opportunity of seeing these pillars, his description of them may be correct, though he is an arrant fabulator.