NEUOFFENBARUNG[MEr.01_004,001] Now look at the screen. Here is another picture. There is nothing to see but wave upon wave, each surge driving the next. I need only tell you that this picture is a small part of the Atlantic Ocean. In this fourth hour we shall spend a little time on this great expanse of water and watch what goes on here and there aboard these floating houses.
[MEr.01_004,002] Look here. At the western edge of the screen a large vessel of the kind called a ship of the line is just coming into view. See how many smaller craft of various kinds are alongside it.
[MEr.01_004,003] Let us follow this ship for a little while. Look here, far to the south on this side, where a fairly large island is coming into view. See, the ship is heading straight for it. What do you think this ship is up to?
[MEr.01_004,004] Take a guess. Look into its storerooms. See, it has provisions for at least six years. Look into the captain's gilded cabin. Look at the tables, and you will find maps of lands and all kinds of measuring instruments.
[MEr.01_004,005] You can probably almost guess by now what this ship is up to. But wait a little longer. Look at the face of the lookout high on the mast. With a telescope he peers in every direction and scans the boundless water from wave to wave. Still he sees no land.
[MEr.01_004,006] See the people running to and fro on deck in despair. On this long voyage they have used up their fresh water.
[MEr.01_004,007] Now watch the scene for a moment. See, they throw lots into a pot and now they draw them. A poor Black man has drawn the lot. See, they strip him, blindfold him and bind both arms tightly at the shoulders. The executioner approaches and opens his veins. The blood that flows from them is immediately mixed with a little rum and drunk to quench their thirst. The man, drained of blood, is then thrown overboard. Since the drink did not suffice for all of them, they do the same to several others and make a drink from their blood.
[MEr.01_004,008] This is an exceedingly rare scene, and people resort to it only when desperately short of water. That makes it no more excusable. It would be a different matter if, in such distress, one person or another were moved by an abundance of love for their neighbour to give their brothers their blood to drink and so save them from death. Such an act would indeed be a great testimony to that person's love for their neighbour. Done in this way, however, it is an abomination. It would be better for thousands to sacrifice themselves willingly for one person than for such a cruel deed to be inflicted on anyone.
[MEr.01_004,009] But look now, the lookout cries ‘Land!’ from the crow's nest. At once everyone aboard is cheerful. See how they set all the sails to make for the island. The ship flies like an arrow over waves as high as towers. See, they have just reached a bay. They cast anchor, and the entire crew except for the necessary guards rushes into the smaller craft and makes for the shore.
[MEr.01_004,010] See how they discover a fresh spring as soon as they reach the shore, and what a wild scramble there is to get the water. In a few hours the ship has a fresh supply, and everything is made ready to sail again.
[MEr.01_004,011] The vessels now move slowly along the coast to see whether anyone lives in this land. They have just discovered a settlement of simple round huts and at once draw near.
[MEr.01_004,012] They land and go ashore. The inhabitants, startled by the thunder of the cannon, flee. Their huts are immediately searched from top to bottom, and whatever is found is taken, whatever it may be and whatever name it may bear. See, a poor little people has already been robbed of all it owns. But there is more to this scene.
[MEr.01_004,013] These poor people are pursued as they flee and are often almost entirely wiped out. If things go well for them, they are at least taken prisoner and, when the opportunity arises, sold in America as valuable merchandise.
[MEr.01_004,014] You will know by now what kind of ship this was and what it was up to. See, it was a ship that sets out on voyages of discovery.
[MEr.01_004,015] But let us leave this ship to continue on its infamous course. See, here is another. I show you this ship only in spirit, for it was discovered in the Mediterranean as long ago as 1835 by another seafarer, a Frenchman, and was destroyed at once.
[MEr.01_004,016] I now show it to you as it went about its mischief in the Atlantic before that time. Bear in mind that it is by no means the only one. Some twenty ships of this kind are still plying the Atlantic waters, spreading misery.
[MEr.01_004,017] The owners of these ships are mostly Spanish and Portuguese, and only four among them are Muslim. See, this ship is just leaving the coast of Africa, packed with enslaved people, whom it intends to sell in America to another slave trader there. But look here. It is scarcely two hundred nautical miles from the coast when an English ship discovers it, pursues it and captures it.
[MEr.01_004,018] The sailors put up a desperate resistance, but to no avail. The English ship is far more powerful than this raiding vessel, which is forced to surrender. The English sailors board it at once, free the enslaved people and take them onto their own ship, where they receive somewhat better care.
[MEr.01_004,019] But what happens to the raiding vessel? Look closely and you will see in a moment. The English sailors, acting on their commander's orders, busily strip the entire crew and throw their clothes into the sea. With long, pointed nails they nail the men to the deck in the same arrangement in which the enslaved people had lain. They hang the captain by his hands on the mast, his face turned outwards, and bind his feet with a rope at the foot of the mast. When they have finished, they go into the cabins and take whatever they can use. Then they set the sails, leave for their own ship and give the vessel up to the wind amid piercing cries of anguish from the deck.
[MEr.01_004,020] Look and consider what must come of one cruelty answering another on a cruel whim! Consider how such scenes must appear in the sight of Him who, even as He died on the cross, asked the Father to forgive His enemies.
[MEr.01_004,021] Are there no other means of suppressing the evil of the slave trade than those which, one way or another, always bear the mark of cruelty scarcely imaginable?
[MEr.01_004,022] But you will ask what those who freed the enslaved people did with them. Do you think they took them back to their own country? Oh no, they did no such thing.
[MEr.01_004,023] They did not sell them either. They kept them in their own service, for they themselves had possessions in America. That naturally cost them much less than buying them would have done.
[MEr.01_004,024] So, as you see, England now keeps a close watch to put a stop to this trade. When a ship packed with enslaved people is discovered, it is immediately seized by force and made to suffer punishment. The enslaved people are set free and are then either put to work as free people or often sold by private sale. This practice amounts to what the old Roman saying describes: Scyllam prateris, Charybdim invadis (‘You pass Scylla and run into Charybdis’).
[MEr.01_004,025] See, I showed you this only so that you might form a true idea of the so-called abolition of the slave trade. The base merchant remains a merchant and has no qualms about setting up his shameful money-changing booths and shops in My sanctuary.
[MEr.01_004,026] Indeed, offer such a money-grubber a million pieces of gold and he will sell you his own daughter's bleeding heart. You need not even offer him as much again for him to put his firstborn son's head up for sale as well.
[MEr.01_004,027] But you will say, are things so wretched aboard every ship? Does no one in these swaying houses ever think of God?
[MEr.01_004,028] I tell you that every ship carries a priest, often several. They are put aboard as ballast for the sake of ceremony, just as a band is put aboard for the sake of the sailors. And the word ‘ballast’ carries the most weight, for everything else is empty form. The national flag is held far more sacred aboard than all the clergy and their swaying worship. Among the better sort I am called upon only when the thunder of the waves rouses them briefly from their frenzy for profit.
[MEr.01_004,029] Besides, tyranny is so commonplace on every ship that it could be set beside that of a ruler of Egypt without putting him to shame. The cold, dry callousness of the senior seamen is then called discipline at sea in the moral world.
[MEr.01_004,030] But in closing this fourth hour I say, much good may such mighty endeavours do them. Truly, their reward one day will be no small one!