Nau Negra, The Last Black Ship

NOW AVAILABLE, English version of NAU NEGRA. For details visit CALL ME JET LEG and THE BLACK SHIP FILES.

Season's greetings from Nau Negra.

The word FIM (THE END) has already been written on the last page. Soon we'll have other news from Nau Negra.

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NAU NEGRA playing with received ideas.

NAU NEGRA is a graphic novel with a touch of burlesque, based on real, documented events from the beginning of the 17^th century Japan involving European ships, that plays with received ideas about the time and place, about people, Japanese and European, mostly Portuguese gentry, traders and sailors. Here are some received ideas I had to shake while researching for this type of story.


The authority of the captain was unquestionable, on board? No, as you will see by the troubles of His Excellency.


Japan, by this time, was a closed country and that was what made the fortune of the Portuguese traders from Macau? This is somewhat contradictory and is an idea built up on events of almost one century, during which Macau would grow and make and lose several fortunes, until finally the Shogun closed the doors of Japan to the Portuguese. But, during that period and beyond, there would be plenty of Japanese sailors on regulated or illegal trade all over the seas of the Orient.


The Portuguese ships were old-fashioned carracks? One – just one every year – large black ship, heir in design to the carrack, would make the trip auctioned by the Crown. But with time those naus evolved into slightly more modern shapes, until the last one, the ship of this story, was considered obsolete. The first Portuguese to arrive to Japan probably shipwrecked in a junk, either bought, rented or taken by force. Junks and a mixed type, called lorcha, never stopped being used. English also used junks. Probably the Dutch stuck to the ships of their own Company. The black ship was replaced by small vessels called galeotas, built in India in large quantities.


You may suppose that Japanese converts, when away from Japan, were a meek and self-effaced flock, until they disappeared without a trace, right? Nothing could be more distant from the truth. Contemporary accounts describe how Japanese volunteered for risky missions or were quick at using their swords on their own account. Forbidden to return to Japan they certainly mixed with local populations.


European priests would consider their Japanese converts as equals? Some would put Japanese and Chinese one level over other peoples, but I have no illusions that in the end prejudice, including sometimes the belief in superiority of “blood”, would prevail... however, they would be irritated by Japanese belief in their own superiority, and would resent lessons of good behavior.


European priests were advised to wash more frequently? Yes, they were. Japanese hygienic habits made the presence of the smelly barbarians difficult to bear. Can you imagine the sensation, when a big ship unloaded its human population after months on board?


Except for the Jesuits who, we have been told, were good at astronomy and similar curiosities, European priests would have what we imagine as a “medieval” frame of mind? In reality, in the texts I read, they sound sometimes as if they could be seating across the table speaking about the facts of everyday life and didn't differ much from my neighbors... until they start speaking about relics of saints and martyrdom. There we enter another dimension. This was the great obsession of those times, and it was a very cruel and bloody obsession. As for the astronomy thing, yes, Jesuits would nurture curious, practical minds and some tolerance of costumes in the East, but, although a little advanced for the time, that was not a rule.


Slaves were subject to unimaginable abuse, tortured, had their ears cut, would be killed for nothing? Yes, they were. They could be sacrificed for their masters, and that's exactly what happens in the story. Cutting the ears was an old legal punishment. But, on the other hand, in desperate situations slaves took up arms and saved the day. They fought for Malacca and saved Macau, being freed in consequence. Slaves would carry their masters weapons and were commonly employed in India as bodyguards or swordsmen of choice.


Portuguese ships were, in competition with Dutch and English ships, ridiculously slow? One Portuguese Commander, when persecuting them, even compared his own flagship to a well known landmark and watering spot on the Indian coast. “But they won't escape,” he added in the same letter. The Black Ship surely was slowwwwwwww...

Nau Negra. One Boatman, Two Ships on You Tube.

NAU NEGRA, title page

NAU NEGRA, one boatman, two ships.

O barqueiro, no esboço que deu a partida para a primeira página definitiva (pag 2).

One boatman, two ships, I am working now on the English version of this story, see bellow for the first pages of the original version.

By the end of the year 1608 the crew of two Japanese shuinsen or vermillion seal ships, at dock in the port of Macau, got involved in a fight with the Portuguese.
Most probably not even then one could know for sure who started the fight, but the captain-general of Macau and owner of the annual trip to Japan – made by the large ship known as kurofune or black ship – surrounded and punished severely the Japanese crews.

The following year, the Daimyo owner of the vermillion ships complained to the Shogun and demanded that the black ship be seized on arrival at Nagasaki. The captain-general refused to be judged by the Shogun and fortified himself on the ship. On the first days of 1610 a samurai force of the Daimyo gave the assault.

Unable to leave the harbor from lack of wind, the ship became a fortress under siege. The Japanese population of Nagasaki and the foreign community, mainly Portuguese merchants with their families and priests who didn’t want to embark, gathered on the shore and watched the long and systematic night assaults led by one junk and a flotilla of small boats, repealed wave after wave by the extensive use of gunshot and firepots.
In meanwhile, the loaded ship was slowly and painfully being towed towards the exit of the harbor by her shallops, while the days were mostly spent in useless negotiations.

After three nights of fierce fight, when the ship had almost reach her goal, the explosion of the gunpowder magazine finally sank her and all the valuable cargo, killing most of the crew and part of the attacking samurai.

The increasing presence of Dutch and English ships in the area would soon lead to the demise of the Portuguese black ships, in favor of a sail and most probably oar ship known as galeota, of cheaper and quicker construction, smaller, faster and easier to maneuver.
In less than ten years another kurofune would be the last to make the trip between Nagasaki and Macau.

This time it was not a dramatic and heroic trip but an agonizing one. During the entire month of January and part of February of 1618, the big ship, loaded with riches, sailed close to shore hesitating whether to put to sea or to return to the safety of the port, under the threat of an invisible Dutch corsair.

The destiny of these two large and obsolete ships, looking like huge whales extravagantly adorned with sails and colorful banners, is not only linked by the commerce of silk and silver between Macau and Nagasaki, by the similarities and differences among several cultures present on board and by the shadow of corsairs and typhoons, but also by the scars in the body and in the memory of the boatman.

Nau Negra, primeiro capítulo

Eis as primeiras doze páginas. É tudo a que terão direito até a história estar acabada, o que está previsto ser antes do final do ano, caso tudo corra bem na recolha de apoios, pois o que se conseguiu só dá para começar. O autor também aceita críticas, sobretudo para ter oportunidade de as rebater. Uma delas diz respeito ao tipo de letra utilizado, que não é do agrado de algumas pessoas, mas lá iremos em futuros posts.

NAU NEGRA

Nos finais de 1608, a equipagem de dois Navios do Selo Vermelho japoneses, atracados no porto de Macau, envolveram-se numa rixa com portugueses. O Capitão-mor e dono da viagem anual ao Japão – feita pela grande nau conhecida como Kurofune ou Navio Negro – interveio e castigou duramente as tripulações japonesas.

O Daimio dono dos navios queixou-se ao Xogun e exigiu o apresamento do Navio Negro, quando este chegou a Nagasaki, no ano seguinte.

O Capitão-mor recusou-se a ser julgado pelo Xogun e barricou-se na nau. Aos primeiros dias de 1610 os homens do Daimio deram o assalto. A falta de vento e o facto da nau ter encalhado quando era empurrada pela corrente, transformou-a numa fortaleza sitiada. Foram três dias e três noites de luta furiosa, que culminaram com a explosão do paiol de pólvora e o afundamento da nau, com toda a sua valiosa carga, a maioria da tripulação e alguns dos atacantes.

A ameaça dos navios holandeses e ingleses acabaria por levar ao abandono gradual deste tipo de grande nau em favor de galeotas, mais baratas, mais pequenas e mais manobráveis. Uma década depois da explosão daquela nau, o último desses navios faria a viagem entre Nagasaki e Macau. Foi esta viagem tão triste e angustiada quanto aquela tinha sido dramática e heróica. Durante todo o mês de Janeiro e parte do de Fevereiro de 1618, a grande nau da prata e da seda andou às voltas à vista das terras do Daimio de Omura, sob a ameaça permanente dum invisível navio corsário holandês.

O destino destes dois navios negros, grandes, bojudos e obsoletos, extravagantes como uma enorme baleia espetada de bandeirilhas, está não só ligado pela rota entre Macau e Nagasaki, pelo comércio da seda e da prata, pelos encontros e desencontros de culturas diferentes, pela sombra dos corsários e dos tufões, como também pelas cicatrizes do corpo e da memória do Barqueiro.