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of Ferdinand and Isabella, the embattled and ambitious monarchs of Aragon and Castille,
to make his case for the westward route to the Indies.
WHY WAS COLUMBUS A REMARKABLE NAVIGATOR?
Columbus was a secretive soul. As he grew older he walked the narrow ridge that often
separates the visionary from the mentally unhinged. In late life he wrote of an angelic choir
that would sing his praises for eternity. A more pragmatic explanation for his vision comes
from his days as a sailor on a Genoese ship making the Atlantic run to Britain, Ireland, and
possibly Iceland. Somewhere off Galway, Ireland, came a report of Asian-appearing men,
dead, in a small oar-driven craft (Indians in a dugout canoe?). Whether Columbus saw the
dead sailors or merely heard about them is not known. But perhaps that, as well as drift-
wood carried eastward on Atlantic currents, provided Columbus with his vision.
By the time he sailed on his historic voyage, Columbus was familiar with the trade
winds: turn southwest at the Canaries to find a westward-moving wind; to return to Europe,
sail northward to the Azores and then back east to reach home. As far as is known, Colum-
bus never mastered any navigational tools more complex than the cross-staff for sighting
the angle of the sun over the horizon. But service on Genoese ships most likely gave him
an understanding of dead reckoning: use cloud drift to estimate wind force; use an hour-
glass to calculate location. The compass, which made its way from China to Europe around
1250, provided overall directions. Sailors' experience provided handy navigational rules
for latitude. (Find the angle of the sun over the horizon or above the ship's mast at noon
each day; ditto the angle of the North Star.) With whatever navigational tools he possessed,
Columbus was a remarkable navigator. On his second voyage to the Caribbean, he arrived
precisely where he wished to be—on the island of Hispaniola.
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