Sean Kernan
Writer at seanjkernan.substack.comSun

What are some brilliant examples of quick thinking?
June 25, 1503

Two large ships hobbled around the bend of St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. One
had a broken sail.

The other lurched to its side. Both were infested with termites and
summer storms in the Caribbean had ravaged their hulls. The men aboard
were bruised and battered, and eager to escape the wooden coffins. Most
cursed themselves for having taken this mission.

The ships limped to shore and beached in the sand, doomed to never set
sail again.

Their fleet captain, Christopher Columbus, stepped onto the chalky white
sand and surveyed the damage — and their predicament.

He knew they’d be stranded for some time and his men knew too. Their
faces said as much.

He ordered them to make camp. They dismantled parts of the ships and
used them to build shelters.

Within two weeks, they were approached by the local Arawak tribe who
were drawn in by their fires. The sailors had limited supplies and
quickly made friends with the tribe. They dined together and exchanged
goods — and were friends, for a time.

Two months later, it was clear that no ships were coming to rescue them.
They bought a canoe from the Arawaks. Columbus’s co-captain, Diego,
departed to find help. Their maps showed an island 108 miles away.

He took a crew of ten natives with him to help row day and night to get
there — but it still felt like a suicide mission.

These sailors were in an extremely dangerous situation. Getting marooned
was one of the most common occupational death sentences in their profession.

As weeks stretched into months, the outlook grew bleak. Diego was
nowhere to be seen. Supplies were running thin. Near daily storms hit
their camps and there was no sign of escape. Even worse, they were
running out of goods to trade with the Arawak tribe.

Morale declined and mutiny loomed as several sailors acted out and began
fighting. They’d grown to distrust Columbus, thinking he was incompetent
and only securing an escape boat for himself.

They began drinking, arguing, and fighting every night. Within weeks,
discord spilled over into their relationship with the locals.

The sailors attempted a mutiny on January 4th, 1504. Columbus was sick
with gout and unable to address it. His brother, Bartholemew, was able
to step up and stop the uprising. However, twenty of his crew left. They
took a dozen small boats and canoes. During the upheaval and fighting,
several local natives were killed.

Arawak leadership lost all faith in Columbus. Between the captain’s
inability to control his soldiers, and the deaths of their tribesmen,
Arawak's generosity had run out. They refused to trade food with the
stranded crew any longer.

Within months, Columbus and his sailors were starving. Nothing he did
seemed to win the Arawak over. He offered them apologies and favors but
there was no undoing it.

This was an extremely common storyline in history.

Columbus retreated to his cabin, knowing that this was possibly his last
dance. He reviewed his textbooks and literature. He brainstormed ideas
and ways of getting his crew out of this situation. Columbus was surely
a flawed man with a checkered legacy. But he’d always been a survivor.

He came up with his boldest idea yet. After reviewing an almanac by
famed astronomer, Johannes Müller von Königsberg, he realized that a
lunar eclipse was coming in several days.

He walked to local Arawak leaders and told them his god was angry at
their refusal to give them food. He said that, if they didn’t, his god
would display his anger in three days by blocking out the moon. He
insisted the moon would then turn red, becoming “enflamed with wrath”.

The Arawak still refused, calling him desperate.

Three days later, on June 29th, 1504, the moon began disappearing. The
panicked shouts of the Arawak could be heard throughout the jungle.

(A recreation of the types of ships Columbus used.)

One could imagine, given their deeply entrenched beliefs in symbolism—
just how terrifying the event was. They came running to Columbus,
begging to bring the moon back.

Columbus said he would confer with his god and went into his cabin. He
set his hourglass over, using his almanac to time the eclipse. Just
before the total eclipse was at its peak, he emerged and told the
natives his god would grant mercy. Shortly thereafter, the moon began to
reveal itself.

The following day, the Arawak showed up at Columbus’s shelter with loads
of rations. Prior to this, they’d treated him with no respect. Now, they
were in complete awe, thinking he was a spiritual entity.

It certainly wasn’t the captain’s goal to be worshipped. But it helped
him gain supplies for a starving crew, who were succumbing to
famine-induced diseases.

They continued to get help through the remainder of the summer. In
November of that year, two ships arrived to rescue Columbus and his crew.

This was the final trip Christopher Columbus took to the New World. He
returned to find that his sponsor, Queen Isabella, had died. Having
failed to come up with adequate riches he’d promised to investors, he
was unable to find additional funding.

Though Columbus’s fourth voyage was an unmitigated disaster, this was
his greatest display of savvy thinking.

Without having invoked that eclipse, they would have surely starved. It
was probably for the best that there wasn’t a fifth trip. There are only
so many times a man can cheat death.

Even with the aid of science and a newly invented god.

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