Portion - universityofafricanart.org

their own great sea port in Portugal. Two months earlier, they had left Lagos in Portugal
for the Guinea coast, to test the design of this new frigate designed by Antonio de Campo,
following a model made about a hundred years earlier by an anonymous monk.
The mission was successful because the frigate had traveled almost fully
submerged throughout the journey, and had only re-emerged from the sea when they
reached the natural port of the new Lagos. The ferocious natives of this region did not
suspect a thing. In the dark, a canoe had drifted within yards of them near the shore of
Lagos, and the native fishermen in the canoe did not suspect a thing. De Campo noted
this incident in his diary. He had successfully built an underwater ship. Captain Alberto
Fellini, the experienced Dutch sailor who was captain of the ship, came up to join de
Campo on the dark deck. The captain carried a bottle of liquor and two drinking glasses.
He sat next to de Campo on a stool, and set the drink and glasses on the floor. De Campo
did not move, but continued to stare into the darkness.
Slowly, Fellini filled the two glasses. His hands were shaking like he had been
dinking. “We made it,” Fellini said. “We just anchored.”
“It is historic,” de Campo replied, taking the drink that Fellini extended to him. “To
us,” he said, and drained his glass. Fellini knocked back his own drink and topped off de
Campo’s cup, before refilling his own.
“I think I now know why we were having trouble with the wind last week, out in
the open sea,” de Campo said, stroking his silver hair. He was a distinguished-looking
man with a short stature and a round belly. He spoke quickly. “I just need to shave a little
meat off both sides of this girl. And she will be nice and ready to go, wind or no wind.”
“The winds were not too much trouble,” Fellini replied. “We went through pretty
elegantly. A toss here and there, but what do you expect in that kinda storm?”