Names of Portuguese Ships from the Age of Exploration
The crew of a ship is a natural notion for a household in the SCA. Many members of the SCA have personae with nautical links, especially those with late period Spanish and Portuguese personae. As I have one such persona, Pedro de Alcazar, I have a number of books about the Age of Exploration. One of them is T. Bentley Duncan's Atlantic Islands, published in Chicago, by the University of Chicago Press, in 1972. It is about the seventeenth century economic history of the islands settled by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century-the Azores, the Cape Verdes, Madeira, and Porto Santo.
Ships can, when properly maintained, last for decades. John Keegan notes in The Price of Admiralty that men of war that were built for the French and Indian Wars were still part of the Royal Navy during Britain's battles with Napoleon's navy, a little more than half a century later. The USS Constitution was first blooded in America's first fight with Muslim terrorists-the wars against the Barbary Pirates-but was still on active duty until the eve of the War Between the States, when she became a training ship for the USNA. Thus, it's more than possible that a ship plying the seas in 1650 was built many years before.
A few patterns can be discerned from the names here. In the first place, the vast majority of the ships were named after saints. Mary is perhaps the most commonly invoked patroness, hardly a surprise considering that Ave Stella Maris (Hail, Star of the Sea) is among the earliest Marian hymns, with versions found as early as the ninth century. The most popular epithets for Mary seem to be da Boa Viagem, "of the good voyage", and do Rosario, "of the rosary", a devotional item that would've been affordable to anybody. After her, the next most popular patrons are Saint Anthony, perhaps because Saint Anthony of Padua was actually born in Lisbon, and John the Baptist, perhaps because he was the patron of the Knights Hospitaller, who had a formidable navy in the Mediterranean Sea.
The ships are listed by the year in which they appeared in the islands, and then by alphabetical order. NS stands for Nossa Senhora, which means "Our Lady" in Portuguese. A number in parentheses indicates how many ships went by that name.
1601 - NS da Boa Viagem
1609 - Santo Antonio (2), Sao Bartolomeu, Sao Bras, Sao
Diogo (2), Espirito Santo, Santa Helena, Sao Joao Baptista (4),
Sao Miguel (2), NS da Boa Viagem (3)
1610 - Santa Ana, Santo Antonio (3), Sao Diogo, NS da
Conceicao, NS do Rosario, Vera Cruz
1611 - Madre Teresa de Jesus, Sao Tiago
1612 - Santo Antonio, Madalena
1613 - Sao Francisco, Sao Pedro
1616 - NS da Guia
1640 - Santo Antonio, NS da Ajuda, NS do Rosario (2), NS do
Rosario e Santo Antonio (The skipper was clearly not taking any
chances with this one!-Pedro)
1647 - Santo Andre, Atalaia, Sao Joao Baptista, Sacramento
I hope that this serves to guide people who want nautical households towards names that are fitting for them. If you have any questions, feel free to email me!