The tale of ‘One Piece’ started off simple enough before it spiralled into the beastly size of a story we know today. It tells of a boy named Monkey D Luffy who wants to be the king of the pirates. To make his dreams come true, he gathers a crew of like-minded people, each with a goal of their own and set off towards the Grand Line. Faced with magnetic fields that make compasses go haywire, impossible weather conditions and dangerous foes, the crew bravely seek out what every pirate dreams of finding—the ‘One Piece’.
Here’s the back-story: Gol D Roger (more popularly known as Gold Roger) was the only man to have sailed across the entire Grand Line. Over there, he hid his greatest treasure that he called the ‘One Piece’. Of course, as a man hailed to be “the king of the pirates” he was soon caught by the fictional world’s law enforcement and was sentenced to death. However, on his execution platform, Roger looked out at the crowd and for his last words proclaimed, “My wealth and treasures? If you want it, I’ll let you have it...search for it! I left all of it at that place.”
Eiichiro Oda, the author of ‘One Piece’, has admitted many times to have using real-life pirates as inspiration for many of his key characters. Though he had not specified the names of all of them, through context alone, hardcore fans had compiled a list of all the ‘One Piece’ pirates that had been based on real historical figures. Gol D Roger was based off a French pirate name Olivier Levasseur, also known as La Buse. Just like Roger, Levasseur had accumulated an impressive amount of treasure of incredible value even today.
So what does this have to do with Goa? Levasseur mostly operated around the Indian Ocean. During this time, a ship called Virgin del Cabo had been transporting the Bishop of Goa and the Viceroy of Portugal from the Se Cathedral Church to Portugal along with all their valuables. On this ship was said to be a variety of treasures including silver and gold bars, exquisite silks, chests full of gold coins, pearls, diamonds and some religious objects from the Se Cathedral church, most important being the Fiery Cross of Goa.
The legend goes like this: The Fiery Cross of Goa was a seven foot tall cross made of pure gold and studded all over with rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds, making it look like it was on fire. The cross was said to have been carried onto Levasseur’s ship by three men. Accounts today say that a cross this heavy, however, would require the strength of thirty men.
Levasseur’s crew did not have to attack Cabo when they came across it. The ship had just been through a severe storm and by the time Levasseur found it, they stole from it with minimal effort. The treasure was divided among the crew with Levasseur taking the cross. In the end, to avoid giving up his loot, Levasseur had settled down quietly in Seychelles but eventually, he was caught and sentenced to death.
They say that as he stood on the scaffold waiting to be hanged, Levasseur took a piece of paper out of the necklace he was wearing and threw it into the crowd saying, “Find my treasure, ye who may understand it!” The parallels between him and Gol D Roger are undeniable. The necklace had contained a cryptogram detailing the exact location of Levasseur’s treasure, most probably including the legendary Fiery Cross of Goa. Levasseur was hanged on July 7, 1730 at 5 pm.
But legends are legends and there are no mentions of this Cross anywhere other than this story. In 1947, Englishman Reginald Cruise Wilkins began to decipher the code. After cracking most of the code, he died in 1977 and his son, John Reginald-Cruise, picked up from where he left off. Perhaps we will soon see if the lost treasure of the Se Cathedral is real or not.
This story is exciting enough as a Goan, but for a Goan ‘One Piece’ fan, perhaps doubly so.
“I started ‘One Piece’ just to pass the time. I like stories with a lot of adventures like it,” says 20-year-old Vaibhav Pilanker from Colvale. “And yes, I knew about the legends surrounding it.”
“I thought about checking out the reason for the hype of the anime and I ended up liking it. The story, character build-up, the way each main character has their special arc, the plots, power system, villains and art style,” adds Tyson D’mello, a 20-year-old from Panjim. He also says that he found out about Gol D Roger being based off Olivier Levasseur recently but did not know that the treasure he had stolen from Goa became the basis of ‘One Piece’.
“It was a year of watching anime and I completed Naruto as my 100th anime and then all other anime starting to get kind of boring and then I was just scrolling through my watch list and I found ‘One Piece’. I love the crew, the character development, the world-building. The show is awesome,” says Arushesh Naik, a 17-year-old fan from Canacona. About the upcoming live action, he says, “As a manga reader, I have no complaints from the trailer. Most of the time Netflix disappoints us but this time and Oda is overseeing the project.”
When asked about Roger’s character inspiration, Arushesh continues, “As a ‘One Piece’ fan, I must know about this. There’s also a kingdom called Goa in ‘One Piece’ that Luffy is from. What if Roger is also from there?”
“Despite having bad rumors I’ll be watching the live action without judging it based on anything. I hope it turns out to be as great as anime. I hope the people who dislike watching anime also get the feel of ‘One Piece’,” Prathamesh Shekhar Narvekar, a 22-year-old from Margao says. After asking if he knew about the story of Levasseur, he adds, “I knew about the pirate because I read about him in an article but I didn’t know about the rest. If it’s true, then we should be even prouder as Goan fans.”
Shalom Fernandes says, “‘One Piece’ used to air on Cartoon Network, so when I was a kid, I used to watch it. When I finished by boards I decided to catch up with where I left off only to realise it was highly censored so I re-watched it. The whole ideology of nakama and “no dream or dreamer is too small” and the whole pirate themed story, sceneries and incorporation of many elements of the world and references real live pirates was up to the mark.” On if he knew about the real-life references, he answers, “Yes, Oda has a lot of references to real life pirates. Edward Teach who used to go by Black Beard in real life was split into two characters: Edward Newgate (whitebeard) and Marshall D Teach (black beard) in ‘One Piece’.”
“The basis of the Fiery Cross of Goa is more of a speculation and theory at this point, because there are many theories behind ‘One Piece’. Though we haven’t got confirmation from Oda, if it’s true, it won’t surprise me,” concludes Shalom.