Re: Age of Discovery

[Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>]

Poster: Robert J Welenc <rjwelenc@erols.com>

At 22:37 5/6/97 -0400, Dan Mackison wrote:
>
>Poster: Dan Mackison <DanM@skantech.com>
>
>Lance Harrop wrote:
>> 
>> Poster: Lance Harrop <lharrop@mrj.com>
>> 
>> Alfredo suggests:
>> 
>> > I would suppose that Master Thomas would say that Columbus ushered
>> > in the Age of Discovery, and that wasn't a middle age.
>> 
Leifr:
>> No, not Columbus, John the Navigator of Portugal ushered in the Age of
>> Discovery.  Columbus is just whom we think of first.
>
Dan Mackison/Hilda Jarvis (What are your SCA names, folks?)
>While I'm thinking about it, is there anybody out there that is unaware
>that in 1492 EVERYBODY knew the world was round? 
>
>Somebody out there correct my math, I'm going from memory here...
>
>Columbus' big worry was not falling off the edge but running short of
>food because he said the distance from Europe west to China was only
>3,000 miles and the scholars said it was 21,000 miles - and no ship at
>that time could hold enough food for an uninterupted 21,000 mile trip.
>Columbus was an idiot, but a lucky idiot.

And not really much of a navigator.

As I heard it, he kept two logbooks, a private one in which he recorded how
far he really thought they'd traveled, and one for the crew in which he
'fudged' the figures to reassure them that they weren't really getting that
far from home.

The latter was actually more accurate.

Alanna
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