A Brief History
On October 10, 1492, the famous first voyage of Christopher Columbus and his small fleet of three ships almost came to an end right at the point of “discovering” the New World.
Digging Deeper
Columbus had set sail on August 3, 1492, expecting to sail to the Far East. He estimated the voyage to be about 2,700 miles and to take two months. By the time his voyage had passed the two month mark, his crew became restless and desperate to return home. Columbus faced down a mutiny on his flagship, the Santa Maria, that would probably have left him murdered and unsuccessful.
Luckily for Columbus, he spotted land the next day, on October 11th, averting a mutinous catastrophe. Or at least he claimed he was the first to spot land, claiming the reward for the first man to spot land, cheating his own lookout out of the prize of ten thousand maravedis per year and a silk jacket.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Columbus, Christopher and Joaquin Miller. The Journal Of Columbus’ First Voyage : “Columbus.” CreateSpace, 2012.
Wadsworth, James. Columbus and His First Voyage: A History in Documents. Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a painting by Emanuel Leutze (1816–1868) of Christopher Columbus on Santa Maria in 1492, is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.
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