Ship Catrineta

The story behind the famous Portuguese Xácara

The story of Ship Catrineta is quite well known, and this poem may even be studied by children at school, depending on the choices the school makes. It belongs to a group of poems called Xácaras, which means the poem is not only a narrative, but also includes dialogue. It was composed to be sung, not recited, as it’s usual in poetry. The Romance and Solau are also sung but are different from the Xácara.

The Xácara

This Xácara is probably from the 16th century, and tells the story of the ship Saint Anthony and her fateful trip between Brazil and Portugal. Numerous versions exist, but I will translate the version Almeida Garrett chose for his collection. Note that when artists sing this poem, they choose a softer version, maybe because in this version the final is a little bit more dramatic.

There it comes the ship Catrineta
She has so much to tell
Listen now, gentlemen,
An astonishing story.

After a year and a day
That they were travelling at sea,
They didn't have nothing to eat,
They didn't have nothing to chew.
They soaked their shoe soles
So they could dine the next day;
But the soles were so hard,
They were unnable to bite them.
So they cast lots
To see who would be killed:
The lot had to fall 
On the Captain general.

- "Up, up, little sailor,
To the royal mast,
Can you see the land of Spain
Beaches of Portugal."
- "I cannot see lands of Spain, 
nor beaches of Portugal;
I see seven naked swords
That are ready to kill you."
- Go up, go up, sailor,
up to the utmost top!
Can you see Hispania,
The sands of Portugal?"
- We are with good luck, captain,
My general captain!
I can already see the land of Spain,
the sand of Portugal.
I can even see three girls
under orange trees:
one is sitting and sewing,
The other one is on the speening wheel, 
The most beautiful is
crying in the middle."
- "All the three are my daughter,
Oh! I wish I could hug them
The most beautiful of them 
I shall give to you in marriage."
- "I do not want your daughter,
who was so difficult to raise."
- "I shall give you so much money
You will be unnable to count it."
- "I do not wish your money,
that was so difficult to earn."
-"I shall give you my white horse,
therre's no other like him."
-"You can keep your horse,
that was so hard to train."
- "I shall give you the ship Catrineta
so you can sail her."
- "I do not want the ship Catrineta,
I don't know how to sail her."
- "So what do you wish, sailor
what alvíssaras* should I give you?
- "Captain, I want your soul
to take away with me."
- "I renounce to you, devil, who was tempting me!
My soul belongs to God;
My body I give to the sea."

An angel took him in his arms,
Not letting him drown.
He blew the devil up,
The wind and sea calmed down;
At night the ship Catrineta
was at land, grounding. 

*alvíssara is a gift given to someone who has brought good news. It is a portuguese word of arab origin

I will also give you an example of an adaptation of this Xácara, so you can understand how this poem is sung. Notice how there are two man singing, each interpreting one of the characters of the story. But it is also possible to be just one person singing, if there is no other singer available.

The true story behind the Xácara

The entire story was told by a survivor who witnessed all the events. He never revealed his identity, so until today we do not know which of the passengers or crew members he was, but the veracity of the story is unquestionable. In his account the importance given to the Catholic faith and to prayer is enormous: remember that the Portuguese ethnic group is Catholic.

This is the story of the Portuguese colonial administrator, Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho, who went to Brazil with his brother at the order of Queen D. Catarina. He had inherited the Captaincy of Pernanbuco from his father, and now that territory was in danger since the Portuguese villages and towns were under siege by the Indigenous populations¹.

In the year of 1560, Jorge de Albuquerque, arrived at Pernambuco and went to one of the most important towns at the time in that Captaincy - Olinda. It was there that he and his bother, Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho, were born, and it was in there that Jorge was now nominated General of War by the most honorable men of that town. He started to fight the Indigenous in the same year, and for five years he fought, together with his men, who were dressed, fed and armed with his money. They fought night and day, every day, and sometimes with very few to eat, mostly crabs and fruits. After five years, the Indigenous population made truces with the Portuguese, and so Jorge could return home - to do so he embarked into a ship called Santo António (Saint Anthony), and the shipwreck he suffered was the inspiration for the Xácara Nau Catrineta².

The ship left on a Wednesday, March 16 of the year 1565, piloted by Álvaro Marinho and the master was André Rodrigues. Unfortunatelly, everything started to go wrong since the begining³:

“They were not yet outside the bar when the wind calmed down, and it became so contrary, that, because it was strong, and because the tide started to go down, it took them in such a way that the ship became stuck in a mouth of the bar, where she stayed for four tides, very close to be lost, if the seas were stronger. And because many boats responded quickly everyone was saved like most of the cargo.

The ship was taken back to the port, and this incident was seen by many as a bad omen - such a beggining could not lead to a good ending. And even though the advice to delay the journey was given to Jorge de Albuquerque, he dismissed it⁴:

“(he) trusted in the mercy of our Lord, and not fearing the judgments of the people, vain and without basis, he boarded the ship once more, with the entire crew, and left the town of Olinda on a Friday, June 29, St. Paul and St. Peter’s day, of the same year of 1565.”

Five days after leaving the port, their bad luck returned with a sudden change of wind: the winds were now contrary to the expected and very strong, forcing the company to throw away some of the cargo, but in the evening the wheather got even worse, and water started to enter inside the ship from a very big hole in the hull, so the men had to start pumping water out day and night⁵.

Later, the wind broke the bowsprit of the sail called in portuguese cevadeira. They sailed for nineteen days, determined to get to Cape Verde to make repairs, and when they were almost arriving there they started to be followed by a French boat, that intented to plunder them. A storm came which forced the French to depart.

In the last day of July, Jorge de Albuquerque and his companions tried to get to Cape Verde, but the wind was so strong that getting there was impossible, so they were forced to continue their trip without making repairs. During all this time, the water inside had to be pumped out day and night.

On September 3rd a ship of French Corsairs, very well armed, approached them. The pilot and the master of the ship wanted to surrender, since the Portuguese ship was practically weaponless, but Jorge de Albuquerque said:

“May God never will nor allow that a ship were I am in surrenders without a fight. With the help of our Lord, the few weapons we have will be enough for our deffense.”

Most of the men were weak of heart, so he only convinced seven men to join him, and for three days they were able to stop the French. The Portuguese ship became even more damaged. This damage made the pilot and master of the ship lower the sails, signaling surrender, even though the action had not been authorised by Jorge de Albuquerque. The attackers boarded Santo António, and even though the ship was commisioned by the French government, the corsairs were not only french, but had a few men from other nations: some English, Scottish and even some Portuguese. They had to be few in number, since the witness always refers to the corsairs as “French” and enphasizes the fact that they were Protestant, and only the French had English were Protestant.

The French stole not only the cargo, but also took away the men’s clothes, the astrolabe, without which they could not guide themselves, and as they were luterans, they also destroyed all the prayer books they could find.

The helm was destroyed (all he had left was a bar) and they had to guide themselves by the sunrise and sunset.

The continuous storms further damaged the ship, so Jorge de Albuquerque asked a very experienced diver, Domingos da Guarda, to dive into the Ocean to fix the hole in the hull of the ship, promissing him that he would pay him very well. Miracously, that day the Ocean was very calm, and he did his job very well. They still had to pump water, but now less water entered, so a shipwreck was less likelly.

Until the end of their ordeal they survived by dividing three coconuts by forty men⁶.

“And in this way we continued our journey to wherever the sea and wind wanted to take us, spending our time praying and pumping water. Jorge de Albuquerque, helped us like a brother, in all these works, but more important than this was how he consoled and encoraged his companions, who lacked physical and spiritual strength; and he had nothing else to console them but to remember them of the Sacred Death and Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and how much he suffered for us”

One day, while the sailors were fixing the sails, the strong wind broke the only bar of the helm, and broke the ropes, leaving them without masts, sailes and helm. They felt so desperate and hopeless. Jorge de Albuquerque grabbed to paintings he had hidden from the french of Jesus Crucified and our Lady, and nailed them on the broken mast, saying that Jesus would take them to Lisbon, not anywhere else.

On September 26, they started to throw into the Ocean those who died of starvation. It was then that some of the sailors approached Jorge de Albuquerque to ask him permission to eat the dead, so that they could live. Even though Albuquerque understood their pain and felt a great compassion, he said that could not be so, that while he was alive he would not allow such a thing⁷:

“The soul of Jorge de Albuquerque became full of sadness and compassion, and his eyes filled themselves with tears when he heard this strange request, because he saw how desperate they had to be to ask such a thing; and he answered, full of pain, that what they were asking was something unreasonable, and it would be a mistake and utter blindness to consent in such a brute desire, but he could well see, how they were being carried away by despair, taking advice from such an horrible adviser like hunger is, but that they should think well about what they wanted to do, that while he was living he would not allow such a thing, but after his death they could do as they please and even eat him first.”

They suffered more tragedies, some sailors even tried to sink the ship, so that they could attain a quicker death, but all this was stopped by Albuquerque who was adamant that God would take them to Lisbon and nowhere else.

Finally, to everyone’s surprise the boat approached Sintra, a small town near lisbon, they could even see the chapel of our Lady of Pena, so the sailors wanted to make small rafts to reach the shore, but Jorge de Albuquerque admonished them:

“You should be ashamed of yourselves! You have such little faith, and trust so little in our Lord’s Mercy, that you believe that He having saved us from every danger would take us near the shore so that He could let us die here! Do not believe such a thing: that the One Who brought you near the house of such a One, like our Lady’s, will allow us to lose ourselves. He will make sure that we all can be saved(…)”

On October 3, they were saved by Rodrigo Álvares da Atouguia and his men. They landed on Belém and Cascais, both are located in Lisbon.

The witness who reported this story tells us that they were so disfigured that Jorge de Albuquerque’s cousin could not recognise him, even though he had seen him recently and had grown up with him.

Jorge de Albuquerque fought in Alcácer Quibir, by the side of D.Sebastião, was made captive until he finally returned to Portugal. He never recovered from the wounds he suffered there, and even though he is known by his tragic life he is also a model of courage and patriotism.

1. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 12

2. GARRETT, Almeida, Romanceiro II, Publicações Europa-América, LDA, pág. 87

3. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 14

4. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 15

5. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 15

6. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 37

7. BRITO, Bernardo Gomes de (compilação), História Trágico-Marítima, Vol. IV, Companhia Editora do Minho Barcelos, Porto, 1943, pág. 43