Captain Ferriera

Captain Ferriera is a Portuguese military commander whose confrontation with Blackthorne turns a threatened execution into a contest over who can enforce authority on the jetty. He invokes his offices and the security of Portugal’s interests to justify the danger Blackthorne faces, but Dell’Aqua’s religious authority checks his armed party; Ferriera later tells Blackthorne that the Erasmus has been destroyed.

Position and Purpose

At the jetty, Ferriera comes down from the poop with pistols in his belt and a rapier at his side. When Dell’Aqua points to the stake and asks whether it is Ferriera’s idea, he answers that it is. His terse reply makes plain that the threat is not merely an action by armed subordinates: Ferriera claims responsibility for it.

Ferriera presents the confrontation as a military decision. He identifies himself as Captain-General, Governor of Macao, and Chief Officer of Portugal in Asia, and describes Blackthorne as a threat to the State, the Church, the Black Ship, and Macao. His argument joins military command, Portuguese authority, and religious interest in a single claim: Blackthorne’s presence is dangerous enough to warrant force.

The Standoff with Blackthorne

When Dell’Aqua orders him to go aboard his ship, Ferriera refuses. He calls for Pesaro, and the bosun and bayoneted shore party advance toward Blackthorne. Ferriera draws his pistol and addresses Blackthorne as an enemy with whom he is meeting again. Blackthorne draws his sword, though he holds it awkwardly because its haft is broken. The exchange turns Ferriera’s threat into an immediate armed confrontation rather than a dispute over procedure alone.

Dell’Aqua counters Ferriera not with military force but with the threat of excommunication. He warns that Ferriera and his crew will be excommunicated if Blackthorne is harmed, then orders the musketeers away. The shore party backs down, but Pesaro remains in place with his pistol, waiting for Ferriera’s order. The moment exposes the limit of Ferriera’s command: he can mobilize armed men, yet Dell’Aqua’s ecclesiastical authority can make most of them hesitate.

The Erasmus and the Continuing Threat

Later, Ferriera tells Blackthorne that he has no ship: the Erasmus is dead. He adds that, had it survived, he would never have let Blackthorne go, whatever Dell’Aqua had threatened. The news changes the terms of Ferriera’s hostility. He still describes Blackthorne as a heretic, an enemy, and a threat to the Faith, but the ship’s destruction has removed the maritime power that made him especially dangerous in Ferriera’s eyes.

Ferriera attributes the loss to an accident and invokes the Hand of God, while Blackthorne initially refuses to believe the ship has burned. Rodrigues confirms the news, his expression conveying pity. Ferriera’s account is therefore both a revelation about Blackthorne’s loss and a final assertion of his own position: the ship is gone, but Ferriera’s view of Blackthorne as an enemy remains.