The Map of His Voyage
The sailing ship Santa Maria and the two caravels Nina and Pinta left Gomera, a western Canary Island for their first journey of discovery at dawn on Friday, September 6, 1492, and arrived at S. Salvador on Friday, October 12th. The point of departure was on the 28th degree parallel, that of arrival at a latitude of 23 degree 56.
Columbus was the first to cross the whole of the Sargasso Sea. He discovered western magnetic declination. The length of the journey and the constant northeast winds frightened the sailors who were afraid there would be no wind on their return journey. There was discontent and complaints. However, it is a legend that there were mutinies.
Prior to Columbus's exploit, there had been the intrepid and courageous expeditions of the Vikings in the north. But the resulting discoveries were lost. Were there any others in addition to those of the Vikings? The Christians, the Irish, Genoese, Catalans, Portuguese? Phoenicians? Egyptians? There is much talk: by experts, explorers, and unfortunately, above all, by amateurs. Each season brings some new hypothesis, or an old one updated. For what purpose? Everything which is not passed on to others is lost to history, and man is the leading actor in history only insofar as he remembers the past and uses it to hand down what he has learned to others who come after him. Hence, Columbus's crossing is the final, unique fact that leads to the greatest discovery of human history.
The dotted lines indicate the northern limits of the northeast trade winds in Columbus's time. The dashed lines indicate the routes discovered by Columbus and followed by sailing ships for centuries: from Europe to the West Indies sailing with the trade-winds; on the return from Venezuela to the Azores, going out quickly from the trade-winds region.
|