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.'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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, for both had broken off leaving only the shank, as they discovered in the morning when they hauled it up. This miracle was authenticated, announced, and celebrated in India with demonstrations of admiration and joy.
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Muslims had similar ways to avoid peril at sea. At the end of our period a Muslim crew were at the entrance to the Gulf, and 'to propitiate the deity or genius loci – setting afloat a little ship rigged and in sailing order, bearing a sample of all merchandise carried for sale in the vessel which sends her forth. Prayers for her safety are uttered on launching her, and if she makes for shore the crew consider them granted.'
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Abbé Carré in 1673 wrote down a whole host of things that Muslims did. They tied little paper flags to the mast, inscribed, so he said, with the sayings of Muhammad, though it was more likely the nautical saint Khwaja Khizr. They took around basins to collect all sorts of food, and then threw it overboard. They all bathed in the sea 'in order to wash away the dirty impurities they commit with their young slaves, of which there were more than 200 in the ship.' They searched all the baggage for bones being taken back for burial in Persia, as these were bad luck. 'In short, we were about twenty days practising these superstitious antics, which, however, were of very little use.'
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Some Hindus certainly travelled by sea, normative prohibitions and much academic writing to the contrary, but they had to avoid contact with polluting food, water and people. This could lead to problems, as Dean Mahomet found out:
A considerable Banyan merchant was on his passage from Bombay to Surat, in an English ship, and having made such provision of water in vessels under his own seal, as might serve for the short voyage, which was commonly completed in two or three days, it happened however that, through retardation by calms and contrary winds, his liquid store was expended, and he reduced to a condition of perishing with thirst, though there was plenty of water on board; but, no entreaties could prevail on him to use it, as his religion forbade it, which to him was more dear than life itself. He felt all the torments occasioned by the fever of thirst, and would have actually sunk under them, had not a favourable breeze springing up, brought him to Gandevi, near Surat, but he was so faint on his arrival, that his soul was almost panting between his lips.
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The final illustration must be a long and comic account by the Jesuit Manuel Godinho. If we ignore his ethnocentrism we can see a strong degree of commonality between the practices of the various religions. The rites and ceremonies were different, but all of them were believed to deliver intercession and a favourable outcome. In 1663 he was on a Muslim ship going from Surat to the Gulf. He had disguised himself as a Muslim. When they got near Muscat the ship was becalmed.
The Muslims failed to perceive that the cessation of winds was incidental to that season [it was February], but thought it was a punishment from God and his false prophet, as there was some unclean person on board. Carried away by this fancy of theirs, the nakhuda ordered everyone, be they Muslims or Hindus or Christians, big and small, men and women, to wash their bodies in the sea, which was calm, and being the first to jump into the sea, he set an example to the rest, who promptly followed it, perforce or willingly.
The nakhuda tried to get Godinho and his European companion to jump in too, which would have given them away. Luckily a shark appeared and he was excused.
The first remedy for restoring the wind having failed, they devised yet another that might have brought us all to ruin. It consisted of hanging from the poop a small wooden horse with a very long tail, to the sound of flutes and small kettle-drums, and, lo and behold, the very moment the horse was hung there broke out a north wind, the direction towards which its head was pointing, so strong and so severe, that we flew within a day and a half to the coast of Arabia Felix....
Indeed the rite had been too successful, for the wind was so strong that the boat was in danger of being wrecked, and Godinho was very worried, but
then the Hindus on board, of the Bangassali brahman caste, approached me saying that I must not be discouraged and should hope to overcome the peril, as they would soon attain the desired calm by performing a ritual to their Rama. And, having said that, one of them drew out from his pannier a metal idol, the image of Rama, a hand-bell and two cymbals of the same metal, and took all that to the prow of the ship, where he was joined by the rest of the Hindus, dressed in clean clothes, and after singing, playing music and dancing before the idol, they covered themselves with some red scented powder called sindhur. Soon thereafter they went in procession around the ship, singing songs to the beat of the cymbals and distributing fragrant ointments, biscuits, sweets, coconuts and sugar to everyone present; at the end of the procession they threw a coconut into the sea, against the wind, and carried on singing and dancing into the night. However, as far as I could see, their prayers and processions served no other purpose than to pass the day cheerfully, because the storm did not abate and the Muslims began to laugh at the Hindus. No idol has ever countered the works of the devil nor has the latter raised a storm that destroyed an idol.
Godinho had a bad time with the Hindus, as they revered all life, and so deloused themselves and threw the lice on his bedding, for they refused to kill them. They also offered to ransom a cow which was due to be slaughtered for food on board, but it died anyway.
When they got near the entrance to the Gulf they hit another storm, and the ship was in grave danger:
The ship bobbed in and out of the water, like a buoy at the mercy of the winds and the waves which were leading it towards the Persian rocks. The clamour from the women, crying by the children, shouts from the sailors, confusion among the officers, fury of the winds, raging of the waves, flashing of thunderbolts, pitch darkness of the night, crashing of thunder, recurrence of lightning, breaking of the seas, whistling of the rigging, and finally the fear of death in all, were such as anyone who has been through such a misfortune will realise.... I recited the Sub tuum praesidium [We fly to thy patronage, that is of the Virgin] from the time the storm began. On seeing that it still persisted, the French cleric approached me, more dead than alive, and both of us, on our knees, made several vows to the entire heavenly court, as any single saint alone appeared less reassuring in that sort of danger. Then, addressing ourselves to God, we reminded him of the honour of his holy name which was being blasphemed by those infidels, the Muslims saying that it was a punishment meted out by God and his false prophet because the nakhuda had obliged me by not going to Muscat [Godinho had bribed him to sail past Muscat, but most of the Muslim merchants on board wanted to call there], disappointing his own co-religionists. The Hindus attributed the storm to the death of their cow, but also joined the Muslims in reviling the Christians. And, lo and behold, hardly had we completed the said reminder to God, when all of a sudden the wind changed direction from south to north, and from stormy it turned to mild. The waves then propelled the tired ship to this other side of Arabia, and it moved quite fast over the waters because a lot of cargo was being jettisoned. God is so zealous of his holy name that this is not the first time he has refrained from punishing sinners in order not to discredit it amongst infidels....
Then they were trying to get around a cape at the entrance to the Gulf.
Around midday, on that day, a tiny ship, seven spans long and two in width, came alongside the deck. It resembled our ship in every detail, from the shape of its hull down to the sails, rigging, flag and everything else. Soon a sailor sounded the kettle drums and the ship's master blew his whistle and everyone on board, both Hindus and Muslims, got together, each with samples from the goods he carried in the ship, and placing these in the tiny ship, they set it out into the sea with much rejoicing, and
everyone on board watched as the little ship moved away, driven by the wind which filled its tiny sails, until it was out of sight in rounding the cape. On inquiry as to the significance of that observance, I was informed that it was a tribute all ships paid to the Masandam cape, which was otherwise so wicked that those who defaulted it on the way up from India could surely consider themselves lost on their return journey, and that the gift had ensured them a safe passage. If the Cape of Good Hope could be satisfied as easily, we might as well have paid it a similar tribute each year, but I do not think it is as amenable as that of Masandam. When the Portuguese, English and Dutch ships, which invariably carry Hindus and Muslims, pass that way, they too perform the same ceremony, but they load the little ship with the entrails of cows and of the other animal, which the Muslims do not eat, in order to deride their superstitions, which annoys them greatly.
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We have been getting close to actual life on board ships in the Indian Ocean in the early modern period, and we can close this chapter by going on board and looking at actual voyages. It is time for a whiff of ozone. A concluding section inspissated with first-hand accounts may relieve the tedium of the long analytical sections to which I have subjected the reader. Many of the accounts we will quote give vivid portrayals of the hazards of ocean sailing at this time, hence the important role of the rites and superstitions we have just quoted. Here is an account by Father Lobo of a passage back to Europe. The good father had started the voyage badly, suffering terribly from seasickness in a way which must bring back bad memories to anyone who has suffered from this:
the nausea with which my stomach kept churning and vomiting can only be known to those who have experienced it, even vomiting all the various humours, according to the colours by which each one is recognised. Eating, drinking, and all other human functions are entirely impossible during those days. Finally, there is no other human illness that can be compared with this in the effects, vomiting and terrors it causes. The illness fortunately lasts no more than 8 days and the suffering of that week leaves me with complete freedom from this kind of torture for the remainder of the voyage.
Subsequently the ship got into trouble. Here is a vivid account of a storm from Father Lobo:
To the southeast the sky was so heavy, dark and fearsome that it was obviously preparing to break loose against us with great force, which it did so treacherously, however, that, as if it were trying to catch us suddenly and unawares, no matter how forewarned and attentive we were, we were
unable to escape the sudden burst of a furious blast of wind called a typhoon or hurricane which came after a sharper wind than the one which had been blowing for some time, which had only caused us to be watchful. The sails kept taking the wind and swelling to the bursting point despite everyone shouting 'Strike sail! Strike sail!' Knowing that the foe was with us, we could not escape damage now, and in a moment it tore all the sails in pieces without leaving us a useable shred. The impetus was so strong that, if the sails had not been old and had been capable of withstanding the weight of the wind, the masts and yards would certainly have been smashed to pieces, falling on the ship with all the danger involved in such happenings....
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