''Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai'' was a higher-castled

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

carrack with 140 cannons, launched down in 1520 (800 t, length 38 m, width 13 m, draft 4–4.5 m). Built in

Kochi, India Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part ...

around 1512 it had two

square rig Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called '' yards'' ...

masts and is depicted on a painting attributed to

Joachim Patinir Joachim Patinir, also called Patenier (c. 1480 – 5 October 1524), was a Flemish Renaissance painter of history and landscape subjects. He was Flemish, from the area of modern Wallonia, but worked in Antwerp, then the centre of the art market ...

. In 1524, it was the flagship of Vasco da Gama, on his third voyage to India. The ship disappeared somewhere along the route on the return journey to Portugal, which set out from India in April 1525. Its exact fate is uncertain. According to one rumor, D. Luis de Menezes, the dismissed captain of the India naval patrol and brother of the disgraced governor D.

Duarte de Menezes Dom Duarte de Menezes (before 1488 – after 1539), was a 16th-century Portuguese nobleman and colonial officer, governor of Tangier from 1508 to 1521 and 1536 to 1539, and governor of Portuguese India from 1522 to 1524. Background D. Duart ...

(who was returning on another ship on that same fleet), engineered a mutiny and seized control of the ship, setting off with it for a career of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Another rumor relates that it was seized by French corsairs somewhere on the final Atlantic stretch between the Cape of Good Hope and Continental Portugal.

Reports of the loss

The report of French seizure — which, if true, would be only the second time a Portuguese India ship was captured by enemy action (the first was in 1509) — was given by the 16th-century chronicler

Gaspar Correia Gaspar Correia (1492 – c. 1563 in Goa) was a Portuguese historian considered a Portuguese Polybius. He authored ''Lendas da Índia'' (Legends of India), one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia.Francisco de Andrada. Both Correia and Andrada state that Luís de Menezes went on the ''Santa Catarina de Monte Sinai'', and his brother, the ex-governor

, on a different ship, the ''São Jorge''. The chroniclers report that Duarte was under close watch, for fear he might order the ship to make a dart for Castile or France and avoid the justice awaiting him in Portugal. Reaching Mozambique Island, they heard news from outgoing ships of the next India armada that Duarte's affairs back in Portugal were not as dire as he feared. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Duarte ordered his ship to stop and replenish water stores at

Table Bay Table Bay (Afrikaans: ''Tafelbaai'') is a natural bay on the Atlantic Ocean overlooked by Cape Town (founded 1652 by Van Riebeeck) and is at the northern end of the Cape Peninsula, which stretches south to the Cape of Good Hope. It was named b ...

(''aguada de Saldanha''), instructing his brother Luís to go on ahead, that he would catch up with him at Saint Helena. As it turns out, a violent tempest hit the South African coast around this time. When Duarte reached Saint Helena, there was no sign of his brother, and he assumed that Luís de Menezes's ship had perished in that tempest. In 1527, John III dispatched a Portuguese ship under

Diogo Botelho Pereira Diogo Botelho Pereira was a 16th-century Portuguese nobleman, colonial official, navigator and cartographer. He famously undertook a daring voyage by sea from India back to Portugal aboard a fusta. Born in Portuguese India, Botelho was the son of ...

to scour the South African coast, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Correntes, in search for the remains of the ship of Luís de Menezes. Returning Portuguese ships had reported that they had seen from the distance cross-shaped fires along that stretch of coast, which they presumed were erected by shipwrecked Portuguese sailors. It was immediately assumed they were the remnant of Luís de Menezes's crew. However, after months of searching, Diogo Botelho found no trace of them. The chroniclers Correia and Andrade report that in 1536, the Portuguese patrol captain Diogo de Silveira captured a French corsair off Portugal, who confessed that his brother (also a pirate) had seized Luís de Menezes's ship in the Atlantic a decade earlier. He reported that as the ship was struggling with leaks, Luís surrendered promptly to the French pirate, who after transferring its cargo, ordered the Portuguese ship burned at sea, with its crew (including Luís) still on board going down to their deaths. This, according to Correia and Andrada, was the fate of the ''Santa Catarina de Monte Sinai''. Although it seems unlikely such a well-armed ship would fall so easily, it is worthwhile remembering she was also heavily laden with India goods and battered by the tempest and reportedly springing leaks, making her dangerously unseaworthy and vulnerable at the moment of the French attack. This may explain why Luís surrendered her without a fight. (cf. the capture of other large Portuguese India ships, like the ''São Filipe'' by Sir Francis Drake in 1587, and the gigantic '' Madre de Deus'' by Sir John Burroughs in 1592.) However, it is also possible that an error was made in the chronicles and the positions were reversed, that the outgoing governor Duarte went on the larger ''Santa Catarina'', his brother Luís on the ''S. Jorge''. In this case, it was the ''S. Jorge'' that was captured by the French, and the ''Santa Catarina'' sailed on. Correia reports that the first port of call of Duarte's ship was at Faro (in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ; from ) is the southernmost NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities ( ''concelhos'' or ''municípios'' in Portuguese). The region has it ...

). While docked there, Duarte got wind of the king's sour mood and the fate that awaited him in Lisbon, so he smuggled the greater part of his private treasure off the ship into the care of a female cousin in Faro. Duarte subsequently seized control of the ship and, over the protests of the officers, forced them to drop him (and the remainder of his baggage) in

Sesimbra Sesimbra () is a municipality of Portugal, in the Setúbal District, lying at the foothills of the ''Serra da Arrábida'', a mountain range between Setúbal and Sesimbra. Due to its particular position at the Setúbal Bay, near the mouth of the S ...

(Duarte's seigneural estate). That evening, while the ship was anchored off Sesimbra, a gale arose and the ship was thrown and smashed on the shore (Correia says that as the gale was brewing, someone, on Duarte's orders, surreptitiously cut the anchor cables to deliberately set it adrift). All the treasure it was carrying was lost. Correia says Duarte's intention was "so that people would think all his wealth was lost...and he could show equal loss before the king and all mankind, with the loss of his brother and of so many of his people, with the king's loss"Correia, p.856 This could be another possible fate of the ''Santa Catarina''. In the aftermath, Duarte de Menezes was called before the royal court at

Almeirim Almeirim () is a city and a municipality in Santarém District, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 23,376, in an area of 222.12 km². The city proper had a population of 10,520 in 2001. History There are vestiges of mid-Paleolithic to Meso ...

, and after a brief interview with the king John III of Portugal, was promptly placed under arrest. He was imprisoned in

Torres Vedras Torres Vedras () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon in the Oeste region, in the Centro of Portugal. The population was 83,075, in an area of . History In 1148, Afonso I took ...

, saved from execution by John III in the hope that Duarte could yet be made to confess where he had hidden his private treasure. Reportedly, teams of treasure-hunters, official and unofficial, scoured the beaches around Faro in the hope of finding where he had buried it.

Notes

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References

* Quintella, Ignaco da Costa (1839) ''Annaes da Marinha Portugueza'', 2 vols, Lisbon: Academia Real das Sciencias, v.1. * Subrahmanyam, S. (1997) ''The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Carracks Naval ships of Portugal Maritime history of Portugal 16th-century ships

Reports of the loss

See also

Notes

References