Two days out from Anjiro on a galley bound for Osaka, Blackthorne warns of an approaching storm. Rodrigues, pressed for time by Toranaga’s order to deliver Yabu swiftly, chooses open water over the coast. The pilots trade wary respect and rivalry over rutters, and Blackthorne rests while Rodrigues keeps his rutter in plain sight but untouched.

Before dawn Blackthorne mans the watch as Rodrigues dozes in his chair. When weather darkens, Rodrigues orders a turn toward the nearest haven. Below, he secures a sealed Jesuit packet from Father Sebastio—intended for Father Alvito—and broods over clerical power, the war with English/Dutch, and a gut fear that Blackthorne could endanger them all.

The gale strikes hard. Oars tangle, a rower is lost, and the galley wallows. Blackthorne fights forward, ships half the oars, and restores order while Rodrigues plans to “stab” for a bay once past a headland. Rodrigues places Blackthorne on the helm for the critical turn. A massive comber smashes them; the Japanese captain is swept away, then Rodrigues’s lifeline snaps and he is washed overboard. Blackthorne, judging the ship’s peril, commits to the harbor rather than attempt a rescue.

Driving the exhausted rowers with beat and voice, Blackthorne edges the galley off the rocks and into the lee, then drops both anchors to secure her. He elevates the battered mate to captain and orders food and rest. Determined to seek Rodrigues’s body, Blackthorne moves to go ashore.

Hiro-matsu initially forbids the risk but, realizing the coastwise passage to Osaka now depends on Blackthorne, relents after Yabu proposes a guarded shore party. Hiro-matsu assigns Takatashi with six men and dispatches scouts to learn whose fief they are in. Yabu volunteers to lead the landing. Blackthorne, outwardly compliant, inwardly recalls Yabu’s cruelties and anticipates a reckoning.