Dominion Over the Taffrail

La Linterna Del Mar, a century-old galleon captained by Sancho Navarro, following the southernmost coast of the Spanish Indies, and being bound by time, sailed northward into a tempest. Heeling in the wind and rocking violently against the waves, the 161 souls on board held fast for their lives. The ocean and wind conspired for the duration of three days and three nights, claiming thirteen souls to the depths of the sea. The Captain, Sancho Navarro, after witnessing his own nephew be swept over the taffrail and lost to the sea, ordered that the crew withdraw from their posts and pray together below deck while he remained at the helm. In the morning after the tempest had lifted and the sun rose from the east, Sancho and some of the crew fell to their knees thanking God for preserving them, while others cursed God, for now, they were afloat on a windless sea.

The Captain, a man of holy renown, who was endowed by the King himself to embark on this voyage, would not bear to hear the thankless words of his crew, lest God unbridle Satan and his servants, who had dominion over the sea and be swept up into another tempest.

Sancho spoke gravely to his crew, saying, “Over hell itself, we sail, and all the creatures within it look eagerly upwards from its deep places, that we might offend God and force his swift fist upon us in the form of another terrible tempest. Your words inspire great evil, and give cause for an atonement to be made.”

The nine crew who had offended God were inflicted each fourteen stripes on their backs. Thirteen for every soul lost that night, and one an offering and plea for safe passage back to Spain. That much was not given to them. Captain Navarro and his crew remained still on the water for as many days as their rations could sustain them, after which, many of the crew fell ill to hunger and disease. And after three days of no food and no water, some of the crew did cease to pray and abandoned God.

One of the crew, who was a rigger, did hear whisperings from the still water, saying “God has no dominion over the sea. Thou and thine crew must venerate its truer master.” And so he said to his fellow sailors, “Perhaps it is Lucifer that we must parley with, and not his rival. For it is Lucifer who has true dominion over the sea.”

Knowing that their Captain and a few of his loyal men be steadfast and faithful, and would be in gross opposition of their dealings, did motion that they be cast away on timbers with the finger bone of Saint Xavier around Captain Navarro’s neck, saying, “If God or Saint Xavier be with them, surely one will save them.”

Soon after they did bind their arms and waists to timbers, in such a way that kept their torsos above water, and they did lower them over the starboard side. Immediately thereafter did the men fall to their knees and begin pleading to Satan, acknowledging his authority over the sea, and did ask that he be kind to them, and allow that the wind fill their sails again.

A great force swiped their bow. The masts swayed like taunting fingers. The men fell to their bellies and began to be afraid when from over the portside taffrail an unclad woman of piercing beauty climbed aboard with a net of a hundred large fishes and eleven barrels of rum slung over her shoulder.

“My merciful master has heard thine pleadings, and has sent me, that I may greet thee, and bring thee gifts from the sea.” The men, excited and hungered, did receive the gifts with pleasure, and they did gaze at the woman with great want and carnality. After the men had their fill of fish and rum, they did promptly seek their fill of the unclad woman. Foreknowing their foul intentions, she did willingly go below deck and become prisoner to the men and did take all manner of abuse from the men, performing every one of their vile fantasies, as she was so instructed by her master. And for many days did they perform their terrible acts, and have their fill of fish and rum, that they did forget their dire situation, being lost at sea.

Captain Navarro, being that the current had little influence, and the wind no strength, did drift all but three hundred feet from the ship, and did witness all the vulgarities of his crew, as did all the men who were with him. Navarro, being strong in body and in mind, did outlast his fellow and faithful crew. And having never faltered in his faith, being parched of water, blistered and branded by the sun, was at last dead, and free from his awful mortality.

The servant of Satan, in a matter of days, did wither and age beyond the crew’s lewd desires. Finding no more satisfaction in their woman gift, they did lacerate her by the neck and launch her over the taffrail. In doing so, and with no thought to the repercussions, the barrels of rum did immediately turn sour, and the heaping supply of large fishes, vanish. Back to their hunger and thirsting conditions, the men deliberated what they might plead for next; another woman bearing fishes and rum, or passage to dry land, to tend and make new lives on, once again. The men fell to their knees, and asked once more, that there be a wind to fill their sails or a strong current to bring them to shore.

Lucifer, seeing that they had begun to discover his ruse, and no more wanted his gifts of pleasure, was desirous to rid them from his domain. Not willing to give his opponent the satisfaction of their just deaths, and not desiring Him to see that their wants had evolved beyond gifts of carnal and fleeting pleasures, did devise that he land them ashore by a tribe of timid Indios, to give in to their prejudice nature and wreak havoc and sickness on the Indios, further despairing the balance of good and evil in God’s domain.

When the men had made sight of shore and had jumped into the sea that they might swim ashore, God did give the Indios an inkling of foresight that they might be prepared to deny the Spanish sailors footing on their land, with whom they had long abhorred and fought from their land. Hidden in the brush, and with their bows at the ready, they did wait and watch the sailors swim to shore. Having almost been upon dry land, but being somewhat still in the water, glad to be leaving Lucifer’s presence, the men exclaimed their rejoicings as the first Indio arrow soared from the trees above, killing the first Spanish sailor. Fortyseven Spanish sailors died by Indio arrow and spear, not one ever having left Lucifer’s domain, frustrating Lucifer’s plan, and giving satisfaction to God, that they met a just punishment, and did not wreak havoc on the Indios.