FAMOUS SEAFARERS AND EXPLORERS
Cristoforo Colombo
Nationality: He was Italian, born in the port of Genoa but he lived most of his life in Portugal and the king of Spain gave him the money for his voyages.
Years of exploration: Four voyages in 1492 to 1493, 1493 to 1496, 1498 to 1500, and 1502 to 1504
"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
Countries discovered: All four voyages were from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies and other Caribbean Islands, South and Central America - the New World. He discovered the present day countries of: San Salvador Island, Cuba, Haiti, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad, Honduras, Nicaragua and the mainland of South America.
Names of ships: He set off on his first voyage from Palos 3 Aug 1492 with three small ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and his flagship the Santa Maria.
Portrait of Columbus:
Any other information: He lived between 1451 and 1506. Christopher Columbus was the English version of his name but the Spanish called him Cristóbal Colón.
He was trying to find the East Indies and mainland Asia by sailing westwards and proving that the world is round. At first he thought he had found the East Indies but he didn't know that America and the Pacific Ocean existed so he actually found the West Indies and later South and Central America.
Columbus is famous for "discovering America" but you could argue if this is really true. Firstly his first and second voyages didn't land him on main land America. By the time his third voyage took him to South America, Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) had already sailed from Bristol and found North America! Then there was Amerigo Vespucci, who gave America its name. He claims to have found mainland America in 1497.
But none of this really matters because, in any case, the first European people to find America were the Vikings. Lief Ericson, the son of Eric the Red, set up a colony in about AD 1000 in "Vinland", which is modern Newfoundland. This has been proved by carbon-dating the remains of their houses that Europeans had lived in North America before Columbus. But it is true that Columbus discovered "The New World" and the Americans still think that Columbus discovered their country because they celebrate Columbus Day as a bank holiday on October 12th.
This picture shows Columbus and his first landing on San Salvador Island.