History - Columbus

At the age of 14 he went to sea for the first time and in 1470 became shipwrecked following a battle off the coast of Portugal where he joins his brother Bartholomew a cartographer in Lisbon and marries a local girl Fillipa Moriz.

During his time in Portugal he continued to make merchant voyages as far as Iceland in the north and Sierra Leone in the south. In 1484 he devised ‘The Enterprise of the Indies’ a plan to sail to India west rather than the traditional eastern route, all he needed to fulfil his dream was a patron.

After many rejections from possible patrons in France, England and Portugal including King John, Columbus moved to Spain in 1485 and finally received backing from Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile, his trip to the New World is now a possibility.

On Friday 3rd August 1492 Christopher Columbus set sail with 120 men in three ships the Santa Maria and two smaller vessels the Pinta and the Nina. The voyage was long and arduous on the sailors but despite near mutiny land was finally sighted on the 12th October 1492. The land is now believed to be one of the Bahamas Islands, Columbus had reached what would become known as the New World.

He continued his voyage of discovery, landing at Cuba and Hispaniola (now known as Haiti) where he started a small colony La Navidad. The Santa Maria sank off the coast of Hispaniola and Columbus had to return home in the Nina.
The two ships are separated by fierce storms on the way but eventually on the 4th March 1493 he reaches Lisbon.

His second voyage to the New World began on 25th September 1493 and Columbus following the success of his first trip now heads a fleet of 17 ships. On the 3rd November Dominica in the West Indies is sighted and shortly after Guadeloupe, it wasn’t a happy voyage for Columbus, numerous quarrels broke out with the crew and on the way home Columbus himself was laid low by a long illness on Hispaniola. He returned to Spain dejected in 1496.

A third voyage took place in 1498 and with 6 ships he reached Trinidad and mainland South America. In 1502 Columbus embarked on his last expedition to the New World when he sailed with 4 ships finding the Mosquito Coast of what is now Nicaragua. On the return journey on 25th June 1503 the ships became beached on Jamaica and he and his crews had to be rescued. He finally returned to Spain on 7th November 1504 and didn’t go to sea again.

He died in 1506 in Vallodolid, Spain where he was buried in a monastery. In 1536 his remains were taken to Santa Maria in Hispaniola but were brought back to Spain in 1899 and interned in Seville Cathedral in 1902.