On June 6, 1665, a new governor arrived on the island of Tortuga - Bertrand d'Ogeron de La Bouëre, a native of Rochefort-sur-Loire (province of Anjou).
Bertrand d'Ogeron
In his youth, he took part in the Catalan War (1646-1649), receiving the rank of nobility and the rank of captain for military services. After the end of the war, d'Ogeron lived peacefully in his homeland, being the owner of the Drowned Cemetery in the city of Angers and nothing seemed to bode well for him adventures in the West Indies. But in 1656, he succumbed to the persuasion of acquaintances and invested almost all the funds he had in the company for the colonization of lands on the South American river Ouatinigo (also known as Ouanatigo, Ovanatigo, Ouanarigo).
The beginning of the Caribbean adventures of Bertrand d'Ogeron
In 1657, having chartered the ship "Pelage", with hired servants, he went to the West Indies. By the time of his arrival in Martinique, it became known that the colonization project on which such hopes were pinned did not take place, and therefore d'Ogeron went to Hispaniola. On this island in the Gulf of Cul-de-Sac, near the harbor of Leogan, his ship was wrecked. According to du Tertre, d'Ogeron and his servants had to
"To lead the life of buccaneers, that is, the most disgusting, most painful, most dangerous, in a word, the most roguish life that the world has ever known."
A few months later, d'Ogeron still managed to return to Martinique, where it turned out that the second ship, chartered by him, and which came out later, had already been sold by a certain Monsieur Vigne, who, as compensation, gave him only goods worth 500 livres. Going to France, d'Ogeron bought a batch of wine and brandy there, with which he returned to Hispaniola, but this commercial venture was not successful, since many other merchants brought alcohol with him, and prices for it fell. It was easy to lose heart from such failures, but the stubborn Angevin, having borrowed money from his sister and received from the king the right to "exclusive trade within the Bahamas and Caicos Islands, also on Tortuga and the Hispaniola coast," returned to the West Indies, based in Leogane.
Bertrand d'Ogeron's activities as governor of Tortuga
In 1664, the French West India Company acquired the rights to Tortuga and Saint-Domengo. On the recommendation of the Governor of Martinique, Robert le Fichot, de Frichet de Claudore d'Ogeron was appointed to Tortuga.
The beginning of his reign was overshadowed by a conflict with the settlers, who were extremely unhappy with the demand of the West India Company (namely, she appointed d'Ogeron as governor) to abandon trade with the Dutch, who offered their goods much cheaper.
Alexander Exquemelin wrote:
“The governor of Tortuga, who was actually respected by the planters, tried to force them to work for the company … and he announced that four times a year special ships would be sent to France under the command of his captains. Thus, forcing them to bring goods from France, he simultaneously prohibited trade with foreigners on the spot."
In May 1670, instigated by Dutch smugglers, the inhabitants of Tortuga and the Coast of Saint-Domengo revolted. D'Ogeron, using the "carrot and stick" method, managed to come to an agreement with them. On the one hand, he spread rumors about the approach of a powerful government squadron to the island, on the other hand, he negotiated, which ended in a compromise decision, according to which French courts were allowed to trade on the coast of the colony of Saint-Domengo, deducting 5% of the price from all items sold or purchased. At the end of April 1671, Tortuga was pacified. Exquemelin reports:
"The governor ordered to hang a couple of the most obvious ringleaders, but he really forgave the rest."
And in October 1671from King Louis XIV, a decree was received on a complete amnesty for the inhabitants of Tortuga and the Coast of Saint-Domengo.
In the future, no friction between d'Ogeron and the inhabitants of Tortuga arose. He had excellent relations with the "coastal brotherhood", he even stopped taking duties from the corsairs for passports and permission to freely leave the harbor of Tortuga. He also issued letters of marque free of charge, while the governor of Jamaica charged 20 pounds sterling (200 ecu) for letters of marque.
Jean-Baptiste du Tertre claims that d'Ogeron
"Did not take more than ten percent (of the value of the prize) and, out of pure generosity, left half to the captain to be divided at his discretion among the soldiers who did the job better than others, thereby increasing the authority of the captain, keeping the soldiers in obedience and maintaining their courage." …
In Jamaica, the corsairs had to give a tenth of the booty to the king, and one fifteenth to the Lord Admiral (a total of 17%).
In addition, d'Ogeron tried to supply "his" filibusters with letters of marque from those states that were at that time in a state of war with Spain. All this contributed to both increasing the prestige of the new governor of Tortuga and the prosperity of the island entrusted to him. The fact that the economy of Tortuga is now completely dependent on the luck of the Caribbean corsairs and the number of filibuster ships entering the island's harbors, the French authorities tried to ignore. Marshal of France Sebastian Le Pretre de Vauban said on this occasion:
“It is necessary to decide on the use of corsairs, as the easiest and cheapest means, the least dangerous and burdensome for the state, especially since the king, who risks nothing, will not incur any expenses; it will enrich the kingdom, supply the king with many good officers and soon force his enemies to peace."
This flexible policy of d'Ogeron led to the fact that some filibusters of Jamaica chose to leave there, taking advantage of the "hospitality" of the Governor of Tortuga. Among these was John Bennett, who at the end of 1670 went with Henry Morgan to Panama: when peace was concluded between England and Spain, he went to Tortuga, replenishing the crew there with French corsairs and receiving a letter of marque from d'Ogeron allowing to attack the Spanish and Dutch ships.
Another member of Henry Morgan's Panama Expedition, Humphrey Furston, refused the amnesty that was offered on behalf of the king to all the corsairs of Jamaica and also moved to Tortuga. His consort ("partner") was the Dutch filibuster Peter Janszoon, better known in Jamaica as Peter Johnson.
Other "defectors" were John Neville, John Edmunds, James Brown and John Springer.
In 1672, Captains Thomas Rogers and William Wright left Port Royal for Tortuga. Three years later, in March 1675, while sailing as a French privateer, Rogers found on the east coast of the island of Vash his old acquaintance, Henry Morgan, who was shipwrecked on his way to Jamaica from London as a knight and lieutenant governor of this island - and kindly took him to the place of his new service. And already in April of the same year, Sir Henry Morgan sent all his Jamaican associates an official invitation to bring the captured prizes to the "good old Port Royal". Much to d'Ogeron's regret, many of Morgan's friends then, indeed, screwed up to Jamaica.
Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica Sir Henry Morgan
D'Ogeron also welcomed the corsairs of other nationalities, the most famous of which was the Danish Bartel Brandt, a native of Zealand. In April 1667 he brought to Basseterre a very serious ship - a 34-gun frigate with a crew of 150 people. Having received a letter of marque, Brandt seized 9 English merchant ships (the value of the prizes is approximately 150,000 pesos) and 7 ships of his “colleagues” - British filibusters, the largest of which was the former Spanish frigate Nuestra Senora del Carmen with 22 guns. The number of boarding ships was so great that Brandt was forced to burn 7 of them, 2 he generously gave to the British prisoners, 2 of the best he sold later in Europe.
Francois Olone - the most famous and terrible filibuster of the island of Tortuga
During the reign of Bertrand d'Ogeron on Tortuga, François No, better known as François Olone (he received this nickname from the port city of Sables d'Olonne in Lower Poitou, a native of which he was), became famous among filibusters François Naud, one of the most cruel corsairs in West -India.
It was called the "Scourge of Spain", no one knew the reason for the hatred that Olone had for the Spaniards throughout his life. Of the captured Spaniards, he usually left only one alive - so that he could tell about his next "feat". Others were executed, often Olone himself. Exquemelin claims that while doing so, he could lick the blood of victims from his saber.
Here we see a boarding saber in Olone's hands, which fully corresponds to historical realities.
And this painted pewter statuette depicts Olone with a sword - a weak weapon of little use for real combat, which pirates have never used.
His first high-profile feat was the capture of a 10-gun ship on the island of Cuba, on which there were 90 soldiers - despite the fact that Olone himself had only 20 people in his command, and the Spanish ship was sent by the governor of Havana to hunt for this pirate (1665 BC).). In 1666, Olone led the extremely successful campaign of the corsairs of Tortuga and Hispaniola against Maracaibo (d'Ogeron carefully supplied him with a Portuguese letter of marque).
Good luck from the very beginning accompanied Olone: from Hispaniola he intercepted a Spanish merchant ship with a cargo of cocoa and jewelry, which was sent to Tortuga (the total value of the "prize" was about 200,000 pesos). And off the island of Saona, a ship with arms and salary for the Spanish garrison of Santo Domingo was captured (12,000 pesos). Having disembarked the crew of this ship ashore, the corsairs added the ship to their squadron. After the corsairs captured the El Fuerte de la Barra fort covering Maracaibo, panic began among the townspeople: rumors spread that the French population exceeded 2,000 (in fact, about 400). As a result, the inhabitants of Maracaibo fled:
“The shipowners loaded their goods onto ships and sailed to Gibraltar. Those who did not have ships went inland on donkeys and horses"
(Exquemelin.)
Bay (lake) Maracaibo on the map of Venezuela
Gibraltar, which was on the opposite side of the bay (sometimes called the lake) of Maracaibo, was also captured by the corsairs. His defenders resisted the pirates, but Olone told his men:
"I want to warn you that the one who gets cold feet, I will immediately hack to death with my own hand."
The outcome of the battle was decided by the false retreat of the French, who were rashly pursued by the Spaniards. According to Spanish data, about a hundred soldiers died in that battle, and the same number were captured.
Filibuster and a captive Spaniard. Engraving from the book by A. O. Exquemelin "Pirates of America" (Amsterdam, 1678)
The losses among the people of Olone amounted to one hundred people.
Having received a ransom for Maracaibo and Gibraltar (30 thousand pesos and 10 thousand, respectively), the corsairs went to the island of Gonav off the west coast of Hispaniola, where they divided the seized money, valuables and slaves, then returned to Tortuga.
Exquemelin estimates the production of the trip to Maracaibo at 260,000 pesos, Charlevoix at 400,000 crowns. Olone's popularity among the pirate community after this expedition was so great that the Governor of Jamaica, Thomas Modiford, entered into a correspondence with him, urging him to "come to Port Royal, where he promised him the same privileges as the natural English enjoyed." Apparently, the "prizes" from Morgan and other "own" filibusters were not enough for him; However, François Olone on Tortuga was happy with everything, and he did not leave for Jamaica.
In 1667, Olone assembled a new flotilla - this time he decided to plunder a Spanish settlement near Lake Nicaragua in Central America. 5 ships from Tortuga and one from the island of Hispaniola set off on the campaign. The largest of these was Olone's own ship, a 26-gun flute captured at Maracaibo. However, the pirate squadron fell into a calm, and the current carried the ships towards the Gulf of Honduras. Experiencing great food problems, pirates began to plunder coastal Indian villages. Finally, they reached the city of Puerto Cavallo (now Puerto Cortez, Honduras), where they captured a Spanish 24-gun ship and plundered warehouses, and then headed inland to the city of San Pedro (San Pedro Sula). Despite three ambushes organized by the Spaniards, the corsairs managed to reach the city and capture it. On the way back, the pirates captured another large Spanish ship in the Gulf of Guatemala. In general, the production turned out to be less than expected, so at the general meeting the corsairs did not want to continue the joint expedition and split up. The ship of Moses Vauclain sank, hitting the reefs, the corsairs were rescued by the ship of a certain Chevalier du Plessis, who came from France with a letter of marque from the Duke of Beaufort. The unlucky Chevalier soon died in battle, and Vauquelin, who replaced him, seized a flute with a load of cocoa, with which he returned to Tortuga. Pierre Piccard plundered the city of Veragua in Costa Rica. Olone went east and not far from the coast of Nicaragua, his ship flew into a reef off one of the small islands. It was not possible to save the ship, and therefore Olone's men took it apart to build a barcalone (long barge). Olone had to spend several months on this island, his people even sowed a small field with beans, wheat and vegetables, and got a harvest. Having finally built a new ship, the corsairs divided again: some of them went on the barcalone to the mouth of the San Juan River, some remained on the island, others, led by Olone, went to the coast of Nicaragua to pass along the coast of Costa Rica and Panama to Cartagena, hoping to capture some ship and return on it to their companions.
Exquemelin reports:
“Later it turned out that God no longer wants to help these people, and he decided to punish Olone with the most terrible death for all the cruelties he had perpetrated on many unfortunate people. So, when the pirates arrived in Darien Bay, Olone and his men fell directly into the hands of the savages whom the Spaniards call "indios brave." The Indians were reputed to be cannibals and, unfortunately for the French, they were just about to eat. They tore Olone to shreds and roasted his remains. This was told by one of his accomplices, who managed to avoid a similar fate, because he fled”.
Exquemelin dates these events to September 1668.
West Indies echoes of European wars
The colonists of Tortuga also took part in the "official" wars waged by France, according to the good old tradition, while not forgetting about their benefits.
In 1666, during the short war between France and Britain, Captain Champagne, on the frigate La Fortson off the coast of Cuba, fought a "colleague" from Port Royal. The fighters were well acquainted with each other, and for Champagne, who did not know about the war, the attack was a surprise - he even decided at first that he was attacked by the Spaniards, who had captured the ship of the "English friend". In fact, there were two Jamaican ships, but the second ship did not participate in the battle because of the unfavorable (head) wind for it. The English ship that attacked the Champagne frigate was commanded by John Morris, a captain known for his bravery, one of Henry Morgan's associates, who in 1665 sailed with him to the shores of Mexico and Central America. The battle between the French and English corsairs was so fierce that Champagne's ship barely made it to Tortuga, and Morris's ship became completely unusable and had to be burned.
"But the good Monsieur d'Ogeron, in order to thank him (Champagne) for such a glorious deed, forked out and gave him eight hundred piastres, equal to eight hundred crowns, to spend on a frigate that belonged to him, and sent him back to cruise."
(Exquemelin.)
In 1667, during the war between the Metropolis and Spain, a detachment from Cion landed on the northern coast of Hispaniola and captured the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.
The war against Holland, which began in April 1672, was extremely unsuccessful for d'Ogeron. His own ship, Ekyuel, with 400 buccaneers, was caught in a storm and hit a reef near Puerto Rico. The French who went ashore were captured by the Spaniards.
Exquemelin and Charlevoix report that d'Ogeron and some of his comrades were able to escape in a captured boat:
“The ends of the boards replaced oars, hats and shirts served as sails, the sea was beautiful, and they covered the path from Puerto Rico to Saint-Domengue quite easily. And verily, when the four travelers arrived in Samana, they were rather dead than alive (Charlevoix).
To D'Ozheron's credit, he immediately attempted to organize an expedition to Puerto Rico to free his subordinates. On October 7, 1673, he again went to sea, but due to bad weather, the landing attempt failed.
"Golden Age" of Tortuga
Bertrand d'Ogeron ruled Tortuga and the Coast of Saint-Domengue until 1675, and it must be admitted that this period became the "golden" time of the island, it is about this segment of its history that is told in "pirate" novels and films. Bertrand d'Ogeron himself became the hero of the books by Gustave Aimard ("Sea Gypsies", "Golden Castile", "Iron Head Bear" - the action takes place in the 60s of the 17th century) and Raphael Sabatini (here the author was mistaken, since the action of the novels about Captain Blade develops in the 80s of the same century).
Illustration for the novel by R. Sabatini "The Odyssey of Captain Blood"
Illustration for the novel by Gustave Aimard "Iron Head Bear": this captain's ship. The hero of the novel ended up in the Caribbean as a "temporary recruited" (like Alexander Exquemelin, Raveno de Lussan and Henry Morgan)
D'Ogeron made arrangements to relocate to Tortuga about 1,000 buccaneers who still lived in the remote areas of Hispaniola. The population of Tortuga grew rapidly, mainly in the eastern part of the island. The famous French scientist and diplomat Francois Blondel, who visited Tortuga in 1667, compiled a list of the settlements of Tortuga - there were 25 of them. In addition to Buster, which became the fiefdom of visiting filibusters, there were such settlements as Cayon (the richest colonists lived in it), La Montagne (here was the residence of the governor), Le Milplantage, Le Ringot, La Poin-aux Mason.
In the second half of the 17th century, the composition of the population of Tortuga was approximately the following: about three thousand buccaneers (who hunted, including Hispaniola), three to four thousand "inhabitants" (colonists engaged in agriculture) and "recruited" (about them described in the article Filibusters and Buccaneers), up to three thousand privateers and filibusters, which, however, could hardly be called permanent residents.
The fun life of Tortuga island
Over time, even a bank appeared on Tortuga, and then - Catholic churches and Protestant chapels, in which the "toilers of the sea" could ask their beloved saint for intercession and help. Naturally, the "service sector" also began to develop: the owners of taverns, gambling houses and brothels gladly provided pirates with the opportunity to leave all their "earnings" in their establishments.
By the way, the first brothel of Tortuga (which also became the first brothel of the whole of America), by order of d'Ogeron, was opened in 1667 - and this immediately increased the number of pirate ships arriving to unload booty in the harbors of Buster and Cion, and, therefore, increased income islands. In Port Royal, competing with Tortuga, this initiative was appreciated, and very soon in the "Pirate Babylon" of Jamaica there were their own brothels.
In 1669, two ships brought 400 countrymen d'Ozherona (from Anjou) to Tortuga, among whom there were about 100 women. Some authors report that they were "depraved young girls" who were sent to Tortuga as punishment, after having publicly punished them with a whip. It seems that they have replenished the brothels of the "merry" island. All in all, during the reign of D'Ozheron, about 1200 prostitutes were brought to Tortuga.
However, it was D'Ozheron who came up with the idea to bring to Tortuga and San Domingo from Europe also respectable ladies who are ready to become the wives of the colonists. These women were "sold" to those wishing to start a family, and for a lot of money.
The martial traditions of filibusters
How profitable were the corsair raids?
Pirate of Tortuga Island, pewter figurine, circa 1660
Before the campaign, the filibusters made an agreement, which they called la chasse-partie - "hunting salary." In it, the shares of the team members and the captain were stipulated in advance. The only crew member who received a salary, even in the event of an unsuccessful raid, was the ship's doctor. Part of the money was paid immediately - for the purchase of medicines.
After the battle, the filibusters put all the booty on the deck near the mainmast, while everyone (including the captain) had to swear on the Bible that he had not hidden anything from his comrades. Violators, at best, were deprived of their share in the division of the loot. But they could be “condemned to disembark”: left on an uninhabited island with a gun, a small supply of gunpowder, lead and water.
The income of an ordinary filibuster after a successful campaign could be from 50 to 200 pesos (1 peso was equal to 25 grams of silver). The captain received at least 4 shares of an ordinary pirate, but sometimes even 5 or 6, the assistant and quartermaster - two shares each, the cabin boy - only half of the share of the private. Separate remuneration was given to the ship's carpenter and the ship's doctor, who were so valuable specialists that they usually did not take part in hostilities. The ship's doctor, as a rule, received a "salary" not less (and often more) than the mate. Moreover, the reward was paid to the doctor of an enemy ship, if he, being captured, provided assistance to the wounded corsairs. Bonuses for "military merit" were also paid - usually in the amount of 50 pesos. If a ship operated as part of a squadron, and before the voyage, an agreement was reached on a "fair" division of the booty between the crews of all ships, then, in the event of the capture of an enemy ship, his team was paid a bonus of 1000 pesos. In addition, "insurance" payments were supposed - for injury or mutilation. The loss of the right hand was usually estimated at 600 pesos or six slaves, the loss of a left arm or right leg, or a serious injury at 500, the loss of a left leg - 400 piastres, loss of an eye or finger - 100. Some of the booty was handed over to the relatives (or matlot) of the victims.
There were other items of expenditure: for a letter of marque they paid 10% of the booty, the corsairs, who did not have it, “gave” the same amount to the governor of “their” island - so that he would not find fault with him and ask unnecessary questions.
Spanish peso (piaster), coin of the 17th century
For 10 pesos in Europe you could buy a horse, for 100 pesos you could buy a nice house. And on Tortuga the price of one bottle of rum sometimes reached 2 pesos. In addition, ordinary pirates rarely saw gold or silver: captains more often paid with them with goods from ships taken for boarding. These could be rolls of fabric, clothing, various tools, bags of cocoa beans. The dealers in Tortuga took goods at a huge discount, and it was considered a great success to sell the production for half the price.
"What is bank robbery versus founding a bank?" - Asked a rhetorical question in the "Threepenny Opera" B. Brecht. The filibusters who were not afraid of either God or the devil look just petty punks compared to these "sharks" who robbed and literally "undressed" the "gentlemen of fortune", risking only getting hemorrhoids from long sitting at their desks. At the same time, nothing is known about the attempts of drunken filibusters to rob these bloodsuckers: perhaps they had strong security teams, and, perhaps, it was believed that attacking merchants and owners of entertainment establishments of "their" island was "not by definition."
Pirates at Tavern in Charleston, South Carolina, lithograph, 1700. Tortuga Island probably had about the same tavern at that time
In general, the profits of all kinds of "businessmen" and owners of "hot spots" in Tortuga were simply prohibitive. Therefore, few of the filibusters who returned here managed to “walk beautifully” on the shore for more than a week. Here is what Exquemelin writes about the "spree" on Tortuga of the Olone corsairs after the famous and very successful trip to Maracaibo, as a result of which each ordinary pirate received an amount equal to the buccaneer's four-year income:
“In three days, perhaps a day less or a day more, they let down all their possessions and lost all their money … a grandiose drinking party began. But it did not last long - after all, a bottle of vodka (vodka? This is the Russian translation) cost four piastres. Well, then some pirates were engaged in trade on Tortuga, while others went fishing. The governor bought the cocoa ship for one-twentieth of its value. Part of the pirate money was received by innkeepers, part - whores."
But to get drunk at sea, risking drunk to meet a storm or a warship, only suicides could. And the prospect of missing the prey because of an inopportunely asleep lookout or the bast of a non-knitting helmsman did not inspire anyone.
In the famous film, we constantly see this hero with a bottle in his hands. It is not surprising that every now and then the "Black Pearl" is "hijacked" from him.
But this captain at sea prefers apples, and therefore he is in complete order on the ship.
On sea voyages, rum was added only in small quantities to tainted water. The discipline aboard the pirate ships was very strict, and it was not customary to discuss the orders of the captain during the voyage. Instead of an extraordinary outfit for the galley, an overly talkative "gentleman of fortune" could immediately go to sea to the sharks, or - with a bottle of rum to that notorious "dead man's chest": a deserted island in the middle of the ocean (if a human skeleton was found on one of these uninhabited islands, no one had any questions about how and why he ended up here). The following case of punishment for disobedience and violation of discipline is also described: in 1697, two French filibusters continued to rob the inhabitants of Cartagena after receiving an order to end the riots, while raping several townspeople. For this they were immediately shot.
But when the ship was not conducting hostilities, the captain's power was limited, all issues were resolved at a general meeting of the crew. Moreover, at this time the powers of the captain were often less than those of the quartermaster, who was elected by the crew. The quartermaster was in charge of supplying the ship with ammunition and food supplies, kept order on board, single-handedly made decisions on punishments for minor offenses and acted as a judge in case of serious violations (the captain acted as "prosecutor", crew members - "jury"), supervised the flogging of guilty sailors. He was also often the head of the boarding team (that is, the commander of the most dashing corsairs - "marines"). In the event of conflict situations, the pirates had to turn to the quartermaster, who could either resolve the dispute on their own, or attend their duel (which was held only on the shore) in order to make sure that each of the opponents had the opportunity to load a gun and was not attacked from behind …
Now do you understand why John Silver remembered so proudly that he was quartermaster on John Flint's ship? And why he, not afraid to seem like a funny bouncer, said:
“Some were afraid of Pew, others of Billy Bons. And Flint himself was afraid of me"
Robert Newton as John Silver, Former Quartermaster of Flint's Ship, 1950
Since we have remembered about the "dead man's chest" and Stevenson's "literary" corsairs, we will also talk about some of the "heroes" of the notorious "multi-series" Pirates of the Caribbean.
Sea Devil Davey Jones
So, meet - Davy Jones, the sea devil, the hero of sailor tales and some "pirate" novels. The first such book was The Adventures of Peregrine Peaks, written by Tobias Smollett in 1751. Here Davy Jones is a monster with round eyes, three rows of teeth, horns, a tail, and a nose that emits blue smoke. And "Davy Jones' chest (or hiding place)" into which Jack Sparrow fell is the seabed, where, according to legends, the restless souls of drowned sailors live.
Not quite correct Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean. Dead Man's Chest . However, the real one, after all, no one has seen
Kraken: the monster of other seas
But the Kraken came to the Caribbean due to a misunderstanding: this legendary sea monster, in fact, "lived" off the coast of Norway and Iceland. The first mention of this monster belongs to the Danish bishop Eric Pontopnidan, in 1752 he described it as a giant crab fish that drags ships to the bottom:
“The kraken, which is also called the crab fish, has a head and many tails, and is no longer than Yoland Island (16 kilometers). When the kraken rises to the surface, all ships should immediately sail from there, for it rises with a huge splash, emits water from its terrible nostrils, and waves diverge from it in circles a whole mile high.
The Kraken got its name from the epithet "kraks", which is applied to abnormal mutant animals.
Kraken, medieval engraving
Another medieval depiction of the Kraken
Fishermen believed that when the Kraken is resting, huge schools of fish gather around it, which feed on its excrement. Norwegian and Icelandic sailors used a saying about the big catch: "You must have fished on the Kraken." And in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The kraken is already described as an octopus, to which the squid's lifestyle is attributed: octopuses live on the seabed, and squids in the water column. In German, the word "kraken" has come to mean cuttlefish or octopus. Karl Linnaeus, misled by numerous stories of "eyewitnesses", included the Kraken in the classification of real living organisms as a cephalopod mollusk, giving him the Latin name Microcosmus marinus (book "The System of Nature", 1735). But later he removed all references to him from his writings. Real squids sometimes really reach a large size - specimens up to 9 meters long are described, with tentacles making up about half the body length. The weight of such record large individuals reaches several centners. In theory, they can pose a danger to divers and divers, but they do not pose any threat to ships.
The Flying Dutchman and his real captain
Well, a few words about the "Flying Dutchman": oddly enough, the legend of the ghost ship appeared not in the Netherlands, but in Portugal. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached the southern tip of Africa - the Cape of Good Hope, which he originally called the Cape of Tempests. It was in those places that he disappeared along with his ship during one of his subsequent voyages - in 1500. Then, among the Portuguese sailors, a belief was born that Dias always wanders the seas on a ghost ship. In the next century, hegemony in the seas passed to the Netherlands, and the captain of the ship of the dead changed his nationality - apparently because the Dutch did not like competitors very much, and therefore meeting their ship on the high seas did not promise anything good to the British, French, Portuguese, Spaniards. The name of the captain of the ship of the dead was even known, and his name was by no means Davy Jones, but Van Straaten or Van der Decken.
The Flying Dutchman, German medieval engraving
