Paulus Spillbergen

Paulus Spillbergen is the Captain-General of the Erasmus, but the passages in which he appears show command reduced to bodily vulnerability. Gravely ill during the voyage and still sick after the survivors reach the village, he depends on others for water and care; when the crew faces a dangerous choice, he asks how they are to choose someone, and Blackthorne answers that they must fight instead.

Identity and Condition

Spillbergen is described aboard ship as short and florid, formerly very fat but now so thin that the skin of his abdomen hangs in slack folds. Half-conscious in his bunk in the great cabin—which also serves as the Captain-General’s quarters and the ship’s magazine—he needs Blackthorne to take water from a secret drawer and help him drink. His immediate concern is whether land is near. Blackthorne tells him it is ahead, though he no longer believes it, then leaves Spillbergen with the water put away and the cabin door closed against the crew’s cries.

Among the Survivors

After the landing, Spillbergen remains very sick in another room of the house assigned to Blackthorne and his men. Eleven of the crew are alive; the dead have been taken away, and fresh vegetables are helping most survivors recover from scurvy. Two men, suffering from blood in their bowels and severe flux, are expected to die by nightfall. The account gives no comparable recovery for Spillbergen: his continuing illness makes him part of the surviving company, but still apart from its immediate activity.

His position is also visible in the cramped space below the trapdoor, where there is not enough room for everyone to lie down or even sit comfortably. Spillbergen lies full length beneath the opening, where the air is best, with his head propped on a bundled cloak. When Maetsukker angrily tries to wake him and demands room, Vinck pulls Maetsukker away and tells him to leave the sick Captain-General alone. The episode makes Spillbergen’s authority legible through the crew’s deference, even as his illness leaves him unable to intervene.

Authority in Crisis

When Spillbergen asks how they are to choose someone, Blackthorne rejects the premise: they will not choose; they will fight. The exchange marks a limit to what the evidence shows of Spillbergen as a commander. He voices uncertainty at a moment of danger, while the response and decision come from Blackthorne. Spillbergen’s appearances thus contrast the title he holds with the physical dependence that defines his presence: he remains Captain-General, but the crisis around him is increasingly carried by others.