The voyages of Christopher Columbus

(Morison, 1979) This great seafaring genius was born in the seaside port of Genoa in Italy in 1451 with the exact date unknown. His father was a poor wool weaver who owned a tavern where Christopher heard tall tales of the sea. The Portuguese had invented a new type of ship, the caravel, which could (Roselle, 1966) gain ground against the wind. Prince Henry the (Grove, 1997) “Navigator” set up a school for sailors to teach seafaring skills in Sargres, Portugal, improved the compass and made alterations in design of ships which gained multiple masts and studier sails.
(Black, 1999) At this time since the overland trade route to India and Ceylon was blocked by the Ottoman Empire, a new sea route had to be found. Spices were particularly sought after since they hid the taste of rotting food before the days of refrigeration.
(Barzun, 2000) Time was kept by the “gromets,” or ship boys, paid about $4.00 a month recruited to say the Lord’s Prayer and sing religious songs when turning the hourglass of sand each hour in 4-hour shifts. When it was time for a new watch, they were verbally called to duty since bells were not yet used to regulate life at sea.
(Lavery, 2004) A few months later Columbus was on a ship to Ireland where he learned that the winds blew in a westerly direction.
(Durant, 1957) He was now some 42 years old, tall and thin, with long face, ruddy complexion, eagle nose, blue eyes, feckless, bright red hair already turning gray, and soon to be white. So, after six years of requesting and begging for Queen Isabella’s approval of his plan to sail west, he finally got full funding for the trip. Before leaving he prayed in Saint George Church. I visited this church when we were in Palos and it was in immaculate condition as if it was built only yesterday.
(Fuson, 1987) The flotilla was three ships: The Pinta, Niña and Santa Maria. The Santa Maria was a three-masted square rigged ship. She was obviously a run-of-the-mill cargo vessel. She carried a crew of about 40 men with a length of 77 feet and a beam of 20 feet and was Columbus’s flag ship. The Pinta was second in size of the vessels and had three masts, was square rigged and carried about 26 men. The Niña was about the size of the Pinto. She carried some 58-60 tons of cargo. I was impressed by their small size when I was able to tour the replicas of all three boats at the New York World’s Fair (1963-64) and also in Savannah’s Georgia port.
(Camusso, 1991) It was necessary to measure three things: time, distance and speed. Time was measured by turning the sand glass (every half hour – no GSP back then!), direction was given by the compass. Speed was a matter of guesswork and was (Morison, 1979) determined by looking at the flow of water along the hull (instruments like the log line did not yet exist). One hot meal was served every day at noon from a copper kettle on deck when weather allowed. Water and wine, the sailors expected more of the latter, were kept in wooden casks which were frequently inspected to make sure they were intact and not rolled around in the hold. The food supply was primarily of hardtack (a kind of biscuit), salted meat and fish and olive oil, it was also recommended having fish tackle on board which must have been a welcome addition to their diet. There were no sleeping accommodations onboard except for the captain.
(Dyson, 1991) Finally on August 2, 1492, Columbus, who was deeply religious, celebrated mass in St. George Church overlooking the inlet. Then the captain shouted out, “In the name of God, make sail,” and in the predawn light the pale sails rose up the mast.
(Heat-Moon, 2002) The open sea went smoothly until August 6 when the rudder on the Pinta broke loose from its fastenings. The Pinta was temporarily fixed, but after three days, they safely made it into the isles of the Grand Canary Island. Despite the calms, the voyage from Palos had taken just 12 days. It took another three and a half weeks for repairs. None of the crew deserted in the 25 days in the Canary Islands.
(Morison S. E., 1965) On September 6, 1492, Columbus made his departure from the Canaries. As they had been out of sight of land for a full month and had logged over 2,600 miles, the sailors threatened to force Columbus to turn back, fearing that that they could never return home again. Columbus was not going to be done out of his discovery after coming that far. He spoke cheering words, assured there were plenty of provisions, appealed to their desire for gold and to their sense of honor, then set his jaw and remarked, “It is useless to complain, I made this voyage to go to the Indies and shall continue until I find them, with God’s help.”
So, on October 12, (hence Columbus Day) they landed on San Salvador in the Bahamas. Columbus thought that these must be the islands of the Malay archipelago in Asia. They found all the natives naked. He discovered Cuba and Hispaniola where he was shipwrecked. Columbus used its planks to build a fort “Navidad” and left 40 sailors to establish a colony while he returned to Spain on the Niña. When he returned later he found all of the settlers killed by the Indians. He brought back to Spain products only known to the New World: Green-winged macaw (parrot), sweet potatoes and pineapples, tobacco, and hammocks for sleeping beds.
There were three more voyages by Columbus which discovered Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela and the Orinoco River and Panama. By a strange comedy of errors, the “New World” came to be named after a man who never commanded a voyage of discovery, Amerigo Vespucci. Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that “Columbus had done more to direct the course of civilization than any individual since Augusta Caesar.”
(Roselle, 1966) Columbus never knew that he had discovered a “New World.” Had Columbus realized he had discovered a new continent, our country might be “called the United States of Columbus!”
(Melzer, 1992) Columbus not only found the best route across the ocean, but he found the best easterly route back to Europe as well – routes still used hundreds of years later.
Columbus was 53 years old and in failing health. He had suffered from arthritis during the last two voyages and now could scarcely move. On May 20, 1506, he died.