Christopher Columbus Mariner by Samuel Eliot Morison

Christopher Columbus, Mariner by S. Morison. Samuel Morison turned a personal life interest into a passion as he studied the life and journeys of Christopher Columbus. Morison believed that given the expedition which Columbus undertook, and the misinformation on which he based his journey that Columbus qualifies as one of the greatest explorers and sailors of all time (Morison, p. 4).

While the modern view of Columbus has been rewritten and disfigured by multi-culturalists into that of a greedy, slave mongering tyrannical despot, I agree that Christopher Columbus' journey, and his exploits arose from his deep convictions, and these actions qualify him as one of the greatest explorers of all time. His discovery of a new continent opened the doors to an entirely new world from which the entire globe still benefits over five centuries later.

The records of Genoa indicate that Christopher Columbus was the son of Domenico Colombo and Suzanna Fontanarossa. Columbus was born as Cristoforo Columbo in Genoa somewhere between August and October of 1451. His parents had a modest livelihood, and Christopher was raised in the cultural center of seafaring men. His contemporaries were those who dreamed of great seafaring adventures, which likely gave birth to the same in a young Columbus. Columbus also had a strong Christian faith.

While he dreamed of the sea, after he encountered evidence of possible western lands in the Atlantic, Columbus felt a divine conviction as well as a personal interest in discovering a western route to the Far East. This probably is what made him consider a voyage of investigation. Columbus's curiosities of a westward route to Asia led him to propose a voyage in the Atlantic, which would be a shorter way of reaching the orient then circumnavigation of Africa.

He asked for aid and was rejected more than once by many sovereigns. The Portuguese declined the young adventurers offer because they were used to having explorations done for them without an attached fees (p. 12) although he has married into one of the governing families of Portugal during his residency in Lisbon, the monarch's declines to support an expedition to the east. Other factors which could have played against the young Columbus were his miscalculation of the distance for the journey.

Explorers such as Marco Polo, Ptolemy and Marinus of Tyre have published their guesses as to the distance of the journey, and their theories of the size of the earth. Since most of the measurements had been conducted on land, the common thoughts of the day were that the globe was mostly land. It was thought that the world could be circumnavigated in 180 degrees, rather than 360, and that each of the degrees was 45 nautical miles.

His calculation ended with the mistake hypothesis that from the western Canary Islands to the coast of Japan would be 2400 miles, or just 68 degrees. (p. 18) the actual distance of this journey is 10,900 airline miles. His lack of actual empirical knowledge of the length of the journey, and not knowing about the continent which lay between Columbus and the Far East is one more of the factors which make his journey such a triumph of spirit and dedication to his chosen task.

After long negotiations, Columbus was financed for his voyage by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and in the fall of 1492, three ships were prepared in the harbor Palos (p. 35). On August 3, 1492, the fleet left Palos heading westward, parallel of Gomera. The weather was good; "like April in Andalusia," as Columbus wrote in his diary. Columbus had decided that he missed Antilia by mid-Atlantic so Cipango became his next destination. They came ashore on October 12 at the Bahama island of Guanahani (renamed San Salvador by Columbus).

Arawak natives greeted the Spaniards as they landed. Since he thought he was in the East Indies, Columbus labeled them as "Indians," a name that was ultimately applied to all New World aborigines. Next, they came to Colba (Cuba) where they found little gold. Turing eastward, he headed for Quisqueya (Hispaniola). On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria ran aground near Cap-Haiten. No lives were lost and most of the equipment was salvaged.

Columbus' strong faith again appeared in his diary, and he attempted to discern what the loss of his 3rd ship could mean from a divine perspective. He decided that the loss of a ship was a sigh that he should build a colony in the new world, and his sailors and crew virtually tripped over each other volunteering to stay in the new world to help establish a colony, rather than reboard the ships to return to Spain.

The colony was named Navidad (or Christmas town) in honor of the day the Santa Maria ran aground. (p. 64). Columbus wanted to return to Spain, and he promised to return in a few months to Navidad. On Jan 4th, 1493, the two remaining ships set sail to return to Spain. Columbus traveled the Atlantic on a more northerly route and reached Europe safely. He prepared for his second voyage. Columbus set sail from Cadiz with 17 ships and 1200 men in September of 1493. He discovered the West Indies.

When he reached the Navidad settlement on Hispaniola, he found it destroyed. The Spaniards had made themselves hated and Chief Caonabo had them exterminated. Another settlement, Isabela, was also destroyed. From there, Columbus sent home most of his ships while retaining most of the men. He dispatched expeditions into the center of the island in search of gold. He soon made himself governor of Hispaniola, in hopes that it would be a trading post for commerce with rich Oriental empires he expected to discover.

The remaining escapades of Columbus and his crews were a uncomfortable mixture of conquering the new lands, looking for the rich oriental empires which he expected to find, failed attempts to 'convert' the indigenous people to Christianity, and mining the lands.