"According to Oviedo's history, a Portuguese ship bound for home port from San Domingo was driven onto the Bermudan reefs in 1542 or early 1543. Fortunately for the thirty seamen on the vessel, the ship--like the Sea Venture almost seven decades later--was held in the grip of the coral, kept afloat long enough for the crew to salvage provisions, tools, spars, sails, and shrouds. Over the next four months, they constructed a new vessel they used to sail to San Domingo. It may have been one of the sailors from this Portuguese vessel who climbed to a cliff seventy feet above the sea on Bermuda's south shore where he carved a cross, the date--"1543"--and what appear to be the letters TF or RP. No one knows for sure just what this carving represents. If the letters are TF, they might be some marooned or shipwrecked mariner's initials, carved as a memorial to himself as he stared out to sea, searching for the sight of a friendly sail. If RP, they may stand for Rex Portugaline, representing an early Portuguese claim to the islands."