Katherine Hale describes ragged crews of mixed Aztec and Spanish ancestry, driven onto the Pacific from Cape Horn to Sitka to search for deep-sea treasure. There is no glory in their mission — “small ringing of bells and no trumpet blare” — only empty stomachs, useless guns, and prayer. If they fail, branding or slavery in the mines awaits them. The speaker feels both pity and admiration: these men know their ships are fragile, yet they still sing and laugh as they sail. The mood is grim and fatalistic, but also strangely defiant. Their final cry to the Virgin, with “plenty of prayer at the last,” shows that faith is all they have left in a brutal, uncaring world.
Spanish Pilots — Summary
These were the ragged peon crews, Half-bloods of Aztec women, Of Spaniards and adventurers Who were not seeking heaven! But out on the broad seas driven, And from the Horn to Sitka, They searched for deep-sea findings The whole unknown way, With "small ringing of bells And no trumpet blare, Empty stomachs, and empty guns, But plenty of prayer." And if they failed of the findings, Nothing behind but the branding irons, Or slavery in the mines. Yet they sang As they sailed in their rickety death-traps; They laughed as they rode, And they sank as the rip-tide caught them fast With a cry to the Virgin, A prayer to the Virgin-- There was plenty of prayer at the last!