Chapter 30

Christmas 

Now that my red blood cells were back to normal and I was no longer in danger of falling asleep, I loved going out with the Pilar, the powerful motorboat equipped for deep-sea fishing, of which Papa was justly proud.

"Pirate" Papa sometimes called me. Not so much because of that handkerchief that I knotted behind my neck to hold my hair, but referring to the origins of my family.

I had told him that the Ivancichs, before moving to Venice, had been owners and captains of their sailing ships and from the small island of Lussimo, in Dalmatia - then under the Lion of San Marco - they were the first, thanks to Anton Luigi, to venture with merchant ships into the North Seas.

I had also told him about Celestino I. He was sailing peacefully along the coasts of the Grossa Island, unaware of the war that broke out between Austria and Sardinia, an ally of France, when his brig ran into some French ships which forced him to be hijacked. For a few weeks the Aeolus was held in Venice until the order came to transfer him to Toulon. Having replaced six crew members with as many well-armed Frenchmen, the brig set sail for the new destination. A violent storm broke out one night. The opportunity that Celestino was waiting for.

With the sole help of the "scribe" Silvio Ivancich, the...