Enslaved or freed individuals with seafaring skills may be named and described as part of efforts to recognize the contribution of common men to the task of building empires; historians frequently mention only captains, soldiers and governmental authorities. One such individual was Antonio Franco Gervense, a 'captive black man' who was very young when he made his first maritime crossing. Born in Mozambique, Gervense became enslaved as a child and was sent to work on deep-sea vessels when he was as young as 9 . By the time he set sail on the galley known as São Pedro in 1768, at the age of 15 , he was already an experienced seaman, having had over six years of experience employed as a servant on ships under the orders of his master, captain Bernardo Franco. In late 1772, while still enslaved by the same master, Gervense found himself working on a ship named Santa Ana e São Francisco Xavier, travelling from Lisbon to Belém in Grão Pará in the south of Brazil. It is not known whether his career working on ships was a long one, but information left on Gervense allows us to confirm that he was a cosmopolitan man who had travelled to West Africa, Portugal, Cabo Verde, Bissau, São Luís and Belém and was fluent in at least two languages, his native tongue and Portuguese, although he was unable to speak the latter and as a crew member he signed his name with a cross.