The main bad guy in my book is a bitter revengeful Persian naval captain who escaped prison during an attack by the Ottomans. (Lopo is not the bad guy) The attack it historical, my bad guy is fiction. But he is still revengeful. Once my bad guy escaped, he needed a ship so he could chase my characters across the world.
It had to be a really good war ship. So, I went hunting for a historically great ship to recruit into my story The Blade of Safavid. Of the many great ships I studied, one line in the historical accounts of Portuguese naval operations of the Battle of Matapan recorded “The fate of Nossa Senhora da Conceição after 1724 remains unknown, but its role in Lopo’s triumphs endures in naval history.”
Well of course that is my ship. The Nossa Senhora da “Co Say Sio”. Well I know what happened to it. Just read The Blade of Safavid and you’ll know. But the captain is a real guy and in respect to his great honor I left out his full name and only called him captain “Count da Rio Grande” That was nice of me, because in the book, my Count de Rio Grande was a bit nieve and Lopo certainly was not. But here’s the real captain and I think we was pretty sharp.
Lopo Furtado de Mendonça (1661–1730), the real Count da Rio Grande, was a distinguished Portuguese nobleman and naval officer who rose to prominence in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. As an admiral, he commanded the Portuguese warship Nossa Senhora da Conceição during significant naval campaigns, showcasing Portugal’s maritime prowess.
Born in 1661 to Jorge Furtado de Mendonça, a naval admiral. Lopo inherited a legacy of military service. He began his career young, fighting in Mazagan and commanding a smaller warship. By 1702, he was appointed admiral, and in 1704, he earned the rank of field marshal during conflicts with Spain, demonstrating his versatility on land and sea. His titles included commander of Borba in the Order of Avis, captain of the Royal Guard, and grande of Portugal.
In 1716 and 1717, Lopo commanded the Nossa Senhora da Conceição, an 80-gun ship of the line launched in Lisbon in 1701. He commanded expeditions to the Mediterranean to counter Ottoman forces during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718). With a complement of 700 men, the ship was a formidable vessel, measuring 220 feet in length roughly 3/4ths of a football field, It’s a big ship. In 1717, Nossa Senhora da Conceição served as his flagship at the Battle of Matapan, a pivotal engagement against the Turks.
At Matapan, Lopo led a Portuguese squadron, including two other massive war ships I won’t try to pronounce. Despite the Portuguese fleet’s superiority, Pope Clement XI assigned command of the coalition to the French Admiral Bellefontaine. When a French delegate demanded Lopo to give control to Bellefontaine, citing the popes written command, Lopo famously crumpled the document, loaded it into a cannon, and fired it toward the Turks, declaring his defiance. Within an hour, his fleet routed the Turkish forces, securing a decisive victory. So much for the Pope commanding the fleet.
Lopo Furtado de Mendonça’s bold leadership at Matapan cemented his reputation as a fearless commander. The Nossa Senhora da Conceição, under his command, symbolized Portuguese naval strength. Lopo died in 1730, leaving a legacy as a naval hero and a staunch defender of Portuguese honor. And as I said the fate of Nossa Senhora da Conceição after 1724 remains unknown to anyone who hasn’t read “The Blade of Safavid.”
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