Columbus the Seaman?

• Published in: Journal of Navigation
• Main Author: Taylor, E. G. R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1957
• Subjects: Ocean Engineering; Oceanography; Weaver; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0373463300017124; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0373463300017124

Commander waters's review of Professor Morison's recent book on Columbus ( Journal 10, 216) should be read in the light of the following facts, published in 1932 by the City of Genoa. They were supported by facsimiles of the documents from which they derive. The Great Discoverer was born in 1451, the son of a wool-weaver of Genoa. The family moved for a time to Savona, and were living there in 1472 when Christopher, in signing a deed, described himself as ‘a wool-worker of Genoa’. He went to Lisbon not before 1476, and while there visited Madeira to buy sugar for two Genoese merchants. He made a brief business visit to Genoa in 1479, when he said he must soon return to Lisbon. In all this there is no hint of a person who has knocked about the sea from the age often. There is no evidence that on the voyage to Guinea Columbus travelled as a sailor, while as regards the voyage to Iceland, he said it was made in February 1477, that the south of the island lay in lat. 73°N., not 63°N., and that he sailed 100 leagues (400 miles) beyond it and found that the sea was not frozen. The authenticity of this voyage may be left to the judgment of the reader.