The Santa Maria
There is a ledge round the windows of my study with bookshelves underneath. On the wide ledge are various mementoes of fifty years of ministry and travels. There is some scrimshaw, a carved whale’s tooth depicting a whale being harpooned from a sailing vessel in 1840, given to me when I had an evangelistic mission near the old whaling station in Esperance in Western Australia. There is a decorated aboriginal flint knife and other artifacts given to me by indigenous people following ministry among them. A marble statue of a horse and rider given after ministry in Mexico, a small bronze head of Poseidon from Athens after making a film on St Paul, along with a vase from Corinth; a signed photograph with a message from Billy Graham, and another from Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and a dozen or more other mementoes.
But scattered among them are twelve ancient sailing boats in full rigging. What they represent doesn’t matter here, except for the central one, a very old model of the Santa Maria. I like old ships in full sail and rigging. One Saturday afternoon a month, I am free from committee meetings, from travelling to country churches and communities, from other appointments which take up so much time when I have been in Sydney for Parliament all week, and on that afternoon, I spend a couple of hours building a model ship. I have what I have done to date, together with glue, tools, strips of thin wood that will become planking and decking, all on a big tray that I set up before the television to watch the football and continue the model. This one will not be finished before Christmas. That does not matter; it is the joy of creation not the finished product that matters. It is the journey not the destination that counts.
This year I am crafting a 72:1 scale model of the schooner Albatros (correct spelling). She was constructed in the Baltimore Shipyards in 1840. She was built to defend the American coast. She had a single gun deck. Her slim hull and continuous deck were copied from the French frigates that visited US ports during the War of Independence when the thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard proclaimed themselves “states,” and issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. That ended Britain using these colonies as a dumping ground for her convicts. This in turn was one of the reasons why Great Britain sent Captain Arthur Phillip with a fleet of ships in 1787 to found a convict colony in The Great South Land that Cook and Banks had described in 1770.
The Albatros took part in subsequent skirmishes with British and French ships on both the east and the west coasts of America. She had a smooth, narrow hull made for good sailing. She was used mainly for commercial traffic and deep-sea fishing. This model I am constructing in full rig is 70 cms long, 18 cms wide and 50 cms high. Because she was built as a war ship her hull timbers were significant and she was structurally strong, a challenge for the model maker working off copies of the original plans.
The Albatros was purchased by Norwegian businessman Arnt Leonard Thesen, who became a successful businessman in South Africa in 1870; his company is still active today. The British Vice-Consul in Stavanger issued a letter allowing the Thesens to settle in a British colony so he purchased the schooner Albatros, which was loaded with timber for sale upon arrival. In July 1869 the Albatros departed Stavanger with 13 members of the Thesen family and seven others. The expedition planned to sail for New Zealand. Two and a half months later the Albatros reached Cape Town, and after a week’s stay for repair and to load provisions, the ship and its crew continued on its way to New Zealand. Stormy weather at the Cape of Good Hope forced the ship to return to Cape Town for repairs. At this point, the Austro-Prussian War caused a shipping shortage noticed as far away as South Africa.
The original plan of sailing to New Zealand was set aside, as the economic prospects in coastal trade in South Africa were very good. Starting with timber shipping, the Thesens advanced into sawmills and subsequently forested land properties, and within a few years they had oyster farming, hardware stores, supermarkets, whaling ventures, gold mining, railway construction and truck transportation. Thesens & Co grew into one of the leading companies in South Africa in just a few decades, and is still a major enterprise in South Africa. In years to come I will remember these details from my research whenever I look upon the model.
As I do with the old Santa Maria. Thirty-five years or so ago, I was visiting a member of my church who was in a cancer ward in a public hospital. As I finished speaking and praying with him, the Charge Nurse came and asked would I mind visiting an Italian man who was close to death and who wanted to see a priest.
I introduced myself and explained I wasn’t a Roman Catholic priest but I would be pleased to pray with him and read some scripture. In halting English he gripped my hand and told me he knew me from watching my television program on Sundays. That seemed to make my presence with him even more significant than that of a priest.
I asked his name. It was Colombo; like the fictional TV detective? He protested, saying he was born in Genoa, and then adding a great deal that I didn’t understand. He painfully repeated it and I got it! He was named after that city’s most famous son, Christopher Columbus.
He knew that he would live only a matter of hours, or a day or so, and was fearful of death. I told him of the great promises Jesus gave us of life after death, and how through faith, we could pass through death into the life beyond.
As I shared with him my belief in life after death, he said in broken English, “I wish I could believe it. If only I could believe that there is life on the other side, I would have no fear now.”
I told him that this life is not the end, that there is more beyond, that death is a door that opens up to new life, and that Jesus has removed our fear of death. I suddenly had an inspiration for my friend Colombo.
“Do you remember that in the days of Christopher Columbus people thought that the world was flat? If a sailor went too far he would come to the edge and drop off?” He remembered. I continued, “The people then believed the heavens were held up by two great pillars at the entry to the Mediterranean Sea, called the Pillars of Hercules. You could sail through them, but they had to be kept in sight in order to be safe.”
Colombo nodded. He knew. I continued, “In the reign of Philip and Isabella, Spain had coins that pictured the Pillars of Hercules and the words in Latin, “Ne plus ultra” – no more beyond. Then, in 1492, your Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean and found land and people on the other side. From the West Indies he brought back people of a different colour. He gave the monarchs wonderful gifts. He said, “There is land beyond. There is more beyond.” Spain took its coins and crossed off the word “Ne” and left the words “plus ultra.”
Colombo nodded. He understood, and smiled at me with absolute joy. I continued, “There is more beyond! When Jesus Christ came back from the dead, He said, “There is more beyond. You need not fear. . I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:1-3 We need not fear that death is the end. There is more beyond.”
He gripped my hand with all of his strength, his eyes full of tears, but with a heart that was at peace. A few days later I returned. But Colombo had died. Several weeks later a large parcel arrived. It was from a member of Colombo’s family. Colombo had told him to send me one of his possessions when he died and to get a brass plate made.
It was a very old and beautifully constructed model ship about 40 centimetres long in full rigging. On the mainsail was a cross. It was a model of the Santa Maria, the ship in which Christopher Columbus had sailed. On the stand was a small brass plate with the words, “More Beyond”. Today it stands in my study reminding me of what I have just told you, and encouraging me to look to the life beyond.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
