The Farang

PROLOGUE

The crashing of the waves against the hull is making the heavy oak beams, the width of a church columns, twist and turn like young willow twigs in the wind. The lucky ones that managed to grab a hold of something that's nailed down are gripping down hard trying to stay alive with the last ounce of strength in their bodies. The unlucky ones are flying through the air from one side of the hull to the other, hitting the thick planks and bouncing off breaking their bones and twisting their necks. Large strong men now look like the rag dolls of small child. The Esperanza now looks like a restless little girl that is jumping around and throwing her dolls in the air to see how far she can do it. The screaming of the poor men is silenced only by the thundering rumble of the crashing waves. What they are experiencing now is the mother of all storms.

He is hugging the post near the entrance to the ship's hold as tight as he can. When they first saw that the storm is coming fast most of his shipmates didn't think it would be serious and they were making jokes how this ship, the biggest ever built in the history of Spain, could endure even through the wrath of God and that she is even stronger than Noah's arch. They just went down to the sleeping quarters to continue their drinking. Now he is looking how his comrades are being pummeled by the ship that was their home for the past two months. These men had become his friends, together they had travelled farther than anyone they knew had ever travelled before. He closes his eyes, no longer wanting to be a witness to his friends' terrible fate, and to try to regain a sense of balance because the ship is swinging so drastically from side to side that he almost comes to a vertical, the swell of the sea is so great that it's threatening to crush them all to pieces.

A piece of a chain link hits his face, and he opens his eyes to the sight of the large bronze cannon flying across the hold and crashing through the plank skin taking two men along, and leaving only a large black gaping hole. 'This is it. We're doomed. Dear God, we're going down.'

All the cannons have come undone from their heavy iron chains that held them in place and found their way out of the ship, each taking a piece of her skin with it. Just as his consciousness is escaping him, water rushes inside and she is gone, The Esperanza has come to the end of her journey.

..... 'I'm in the water? How? Where? Where are the others?'.....

..... The sky is clear again. 'Thank god it's over. Don't let go of the plank..... Must hold on, I have to.... '

He had come out of consciousness and gone back under who knows how many times by now. In all the deliriousness somehow he had managed to keep hold of the plank. Without a sense of time or distance passed, bruised and battered, he washes up on a beach. The hot sun is burning his corneas and all he can see is the outline of a small head with white hair standing over him. The old man pours a few gulps of fresh water in his mouth. "Where are the others?" his voice barely a whisper through his cracked lips, and he falls out of consciousness again.

******

The Esperanza sailed out of the San Sebastian port on the 17th of May in the year of Our Lord 1545. She is a mighty ship. Paid for by the King and it is the grandest ship in his navy. Her mission is of great importance for Carlos I, the Portuguese had already landed on the distant shores of Asia and that is why he spared no expense on the Esperanza. A fine crew was assembled and prepared for this crucial mission, because it couldn't be allowed that his enemies take full control of the lucrative trade routes to the Far East.

King Carlos I had been disappointed by his colonies in the new world. The riches that were promised by that Italian adventurer Columbus proved too difficult to bring back. The Italian had promised Ferdinand and Isabella that he would find the route to Asia and he had failed. But now it would be him that will make that dream come true. The name Carlos will be honored forever like the king who made Spain the richest empire that the world will ever know.