“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(Brotzanin II had been one of the ships with which Seth had been connected in his Denmark life. The II, he told us now, meant that this was the second ship by that name. It had been a Danish frigate—a warship before coming into Seth’s hands as a merchantman. Seth owned it in 1631-32, and used it in the spice trade.

(Bill Gallagher doubted that warships were used by merchantmen but Seth told us this was common in those days; all ships had to be armed anyhow as a protection against piracy. The Brotzanin II had not been in very good shape when Seth acquired her. The conversation led to some of the voyages the ship made. Seth quite emphatically reminded us that most of the time he “kept his feet on dry land,” but he did talk about a few voyages he made. He stressed that he was a merchant rather than a sailor.

(Seth told us the Brotzanin II had followed a warm current and that her voyage took 22 days to “our first port, where we added some supplies.... We were then 42 days out before another port. You will have to bear with me here.... 62 days then to our destination. Nutmeg from one shore, cloves from another.”

(Bill and I tried to pin down the route of the Brotzanin II, and seemed to get a course that included the Azores as first stop, then around the bottom of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, up the east coast to Madagascar and Zanzibar. Zanzibar is the source of cloves, I recall from my own reading; Jane said she did not know this. However Seth said the ship did not stop at Zanzibar on all trips.