Below, the Portuguese sail training schooners Creoula (left) and Polar. At bottom, the sloop Vega slips along leaving an utterly clean wake.
helps to fonn character, humility and a sense of equality, traits which we come to appreciate later. In the Cape Verde Islands we were instructed in rowing and sailing, and were left with great memories , above all when we sustained damage under sail trying to beach a lifeboat in a heavy breeze , and in seas in which sharks were a constant threat. Infantry drills, with marches into the desert in the interior of the island of Saint Vincent under a scorching sun, also helped us recognize our limitations. Every Sunday we celebrated mass , followed by a concert by the ship's chorus. Proceeding south, we crossed the Equator-a first-time experience for cadets, who were subject to the harsh judgement of the veteran sai lors in a mock trial. Everyone's weaknesses and peculiarities were quickly discovered by the experienced hands and exploited almost to the point of cruelty. The next day it was as though nothing had ever happened . But the "accusations" remained as evidence for correcting bad behavior. ... In Brazil we landed near where Cabral had stopped in 1500 and afterwards stayed in the city of Salvador of the Bahia. We were warmly received in typical Brazilian fashion and there were many receptions , tours, balls and amorous adventures. After three months we returned to Portugal. It 's funny to think how thi s voyage in 1940 affected the group of cadets I sailed with. One is now president of the National Commission for Discoveries , another the director of the Naval Academy and the head of a project to build a replica of a caravel to commemorate the quincentenary of Dias' s voyage. Five years later, in 1945 , I sailed as an officer in the Sagres on a voyage which gave me my first memories of the United States. We left the River Tagus in May , again with the appropriate ceremony after mass at the church of Jeronimos. After calling in SetubaJ , FunchaJ and Saint Vincent , we arrived in Boston where we were greeted by enthusiastic crowds of ships and people. Aboard the Sagres it was customary to publish a small weekly paper , and in a few issues there were brief synopses of American history . There was a custom of rotating supervision of the trainees in the galley on a monthly basis , and when it was my tum I decided the menu should be written in English. I had great difficulty in translating "grao de bico" (chick peas), which traditionally accompany the Portuguese dish of cured codfish. In Boston there was a parade and some SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1987
of our men carried our flag alongside members of the American anned forces, the American Legion, the PortugueseAmerican Veterans of World War II, and other representatives of the PortugueseAmerican community . In Provincetown we took on board the Portuguese Amhassador to Washington, Pedro Teotonio Pereira, who loved sailing. When he was subsequently appointed Ambassador to Great Britain, he sailed to England in his yacht together with the Count of Barcelona-pretender to the Spanish throne and the father of the King of Spain-who was a great friend and a fellow sailing enthusiast. En route to Provincetown , an American ship manned by PortugueseAmericans offered us their fresh catch of codfish which they had just netted in Cape Cod Bay . It was the first time that many of us had ever eaten fresh unsalted cod! We also visited New Bedford, where there is a large community of Portuguese mostly from the Azores , a number of whom could recall the golden age of whaling out of that port. The great seaman and author Alan Villiers sailed as an officer in the Sagres. He came aboard directly after spending several months aboard the Argus , with the Great White fleet-the last Portuguese sai l-powered cod fishing schooners to fish off Newfoundland and Greenland. I re19