One of the gunners grabbed the feet of the Spanish navigator, and the other looked at each other with his clothes on his shoulders. Then, while swinging the navigator's body from side to side, the two of them shouted vigorously, "One... Two... Three! Immediately afterward, the navigator was thrown in a parabolic motion into the white waves that rolled up at the stern of the ship at the end of the shouting of the two......

At this time, Isabel Walton, the captain of the "Nemesis", was directing the sailors of the armed merchant ship to sail the ship through the wind and waves, on the course to the eastern part of the Spanish island. At this time, the true face of the sea was finally revealed, and the sea that used to be like a beautiful girl in a blue gauze dress became a different creepy appearance.

It is like an endless battlefield, and the strong sea breeze also blows a sharp "horn sound". Wave after wave, wave after wave, more like a medieval noble knight, leading its "thousands of horses" to launch a fierce attack on the fleet, emitting a rumbling roar.

Standing at the fence in front of the aft lookout, Isabel turned to look at John Hawkins beside her and shouted, "Captain, let everyone be careful, the Sea of Death lies ahead!" ”

As John grabbed the handrail and ran down the stairs, Isabel stopped him again, "Let the flag bearer tell your father that you can't stray from the course of your life!" ”

Known locally as the "Sea of the Dead", it is a narrow strait in the Caribbean Sea (Mona Strait), which is located between the eastern part of the Spanish island (Dominican Republic) and the eastern island of Puerto Rico, and is an important shipping route connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The choppy strait, with a staggering 80 miles (128.7 kilometers) wide, is very treacherous.

The strait is blessed with strong sea breezes and waves over 20 feet (about 6.1 meters) high, ready to overturn and sink ships that are tossed at sea. That was true even as the wheel of history advanced to the early 20th century, when the island of Puerto Rico became a free federation attached to the United States.

Incredibly, by the beginning of the 21st century, this treacherous strait had become a popular route for illegal immigrants trying to reach the United States. Not only Dominicans and Cubans use the strait to smuggle their way in, but Haitians, Indians, Filipinos and ethnic Chinese are increasingly using the strait to enter the United States.

The wind is getting stronger, the waves are getting higher, and the four armed merchant ships are swaying back and forth on the roaring sea like toys in a bathtub. Rows of majestic blue waves, against the white flowers, rushed towards the merchant ship by the wind. A wave hit the open deck, and then another wave with the spirit of a knight charging into battle.

"Everyone stay in their places, don't let the boat be carried away by the sea breeze!" A wave crashed down, and Isabel, drenched in the sea, walked on the open deck without fear of danger, shouting orders to the sailors.

"Captain, get into the cabin, it's too big a wave here!" Captain John Hawkins roared at the top of his lungs, fearing that the noble lady from the North would be pushed into the sea by the waves.

"I see!" Isabel did not walk towards the captain's cabin in the direction of the stern, but hurried to the entrance to the lower deck, and walked into the cabin without looking back.

As Captain, she is expected to do her duty, inspecting and inspecting the deck and inside the cabin. In addition, she was also uneasy about the 18 gun holes on the hull of the gun deck. If the blast hole is not closed in time, there is a high risk that the ship will sink due to seawater pouring into the inside of the cabin from the blast hole.

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One afternoon in early November, a fleet of more than 140 sailors and 300 slaves sailed safely through the Sea of Death to the south of Santo Domingo, east of the island of Spain.

John Hawkins, who was standing beside the helmsman, looked back at the unbridled ocean that was gradually moving away, and said with emotion, "Captain, if it weren't for you, I don't think I would have known that there would be a 'Sea of Death' here." ”

"John, the 'Sea of Death' will always be here, it will not change. If it weren't for me, you'd still be sailing to this beautiful town. Isabel, who had changed into clean clothes, stood on the lookout and talked, looking at the city of Santo Domingo in front of starboard with great ambition.

"Captain, this may be many years away. Still, I am grateful to God for bringing you to the Hawkins family and to me. ”

When Isabel looked back at him, she simply replaced her answer with a smile. John, whose eyes were full of gratitude, suddenly thought of something and asked her curiously, "Captain, this 'Sea of Death' off the Spanish island and how to pass through it was probably told to you by the Spanish navigator?" ”

"Well, without him, we wouldn't know about this ocean of death." Isabel took advantage of the situation and pushed everything she knew onto a dead man.

To this day, she still remembers how the summer life of each school year at the Naval Academy was spent. The experience of the "Sea of Death", that is, the Mona Strait in the Caribbean Sea, came from her second year of summer life: as a naval cadet, she boarded the amphibious command ship "Mount Whitney", the flagship of the 2nd Fleet under the Atlantic Fleet, and participated in various tasks and duties on the ship.

After the flotilla passed through the "Sea of Death", the sailors on duty in the mainmast observatory reported that there appeared to be a piece of land in the sea tens of leagues outside the port side. Because the sea area through which the fleet passed at this time was so wide, the sailors were a little unsure whether they were seeing land.

When the boatswain reported the news to Captain Isabel, she simply nodded, "Brady, there is indeed an island there, called Puerto Rico." It was also an overseas colony of Spain. ”

"What? Or a Spanish colony? Brady blurted out without even thinking about it. There was obviously an indignant emotion in the tone of his voice.

"Brady, the island of Puerto Rico, just across the 'Sea of Death' from Spain, will be discovered by Christopher Columbus one way or another. So, it won't come as a surprise. ”

"Captain, do the Spaniards also have plantations on the island of Puerto Rico?"

Isabel was well aware of the place of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea as a whole, as the island was simply an outpost from which to monitor the Caribbean.