Preparations for the Voyage
In nautical skill, the scientific feature of seafaring, Columbus
according to the most competent opinion was, however, little
advanced. He claimed that on his Guinea trips he had verified
Alfraganus's calculation of the length of a degree on the equator as
56% Italian miles. But, aside from the fact that at the period of
these trips (1482-84) he could hardly have known of Alfraganus or
his calculation, for he then presumably knew nothing of the Imago
Mundi, of Pierre d'Ailly — a book possibly not then even published
—there remains the further fact that verification was a process
quite too complex for any means at his disposal. His claim,
therefore, tends only to prove him guilty of what a stanch admirer
does not hesitate to characterize as "insufferable braggadocío."
But, daunted as little by the obstacle of ignorance as by other
obstacles, the would-be discoverer held unflinchingly to his role,
and, when all was over and the triumph won, could bring himself to
say: "I had from [our Lord] a spirit of intelligence. In regard to
navigation He made me very intelligent; of Astrology He gave me what
was sufficient; and also of Geometry and Arithmetic. He gave me an
ingenious mind and hands apt in designing this sphere, and upon it
the cities, mountains and the rivers, the islands and harbors, all
in their proper place. In this time I saw and studied diligently all
the books of Cosmography, History & of Philosophy, & of other
sciences." Yet for all this confidence, if the voyage of 1492 had
depended on the technical knowledge of Columbus, its history would
be brief. Indeed, had it not been for Martín
Alonso Pinzón, it would never have been made in that year.
Pinzón, we may recall, was in 1492 the chief citizen of Palos. After
the Spanish sovereigns had decided to sanction and subvention the
Columbian undertaking, they gave decree that of the three caravels
required two should be furnished by the town of Palos in discharge
of a feudal liability to the Crown, and Columbus on the 12th of May
set out from Granada to make sure of the vessels. The pending
expedition was unpopular in itself and still more unpopular in that
its admiral was a foreigner. But at length Columbus obtained the
three caravels — the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria
(capitana). So far well, or fairly well, and then a balk. The seamen
of Palos unanimously and persistently refused to embark. To them the
project was "perilous, chimerical, and vain, " a subject of
derision. Columbus had papers for the impressment of criminals, but
to escape this necessity he went to Pinzón, who supplied the sailors
on being assured of some share in the enterprise.
In respect to size, rig, and equipment, the three Columbian caravels
were nearly the same. The Santa Maria, which was slightly the
largest, measured about eighty feet in length, twenty-five feet in
breadth, and fifteen feet in depth, and had a capacity of over two
hundred tons. All were fully decked, had three masts, and, except
upon the mizzen, were square rigged. The Santa Maria and Pinta had
each a high poop-deck and forecastle; but the Nina, reputed the
smallest of the three, had neither. All were good sailers, making as
a flotilla an average speed of fifteen Italian miles an hour, and
each had something of an armament.
The personnel of the expedition comprised some ninety seamen and
thirty royal officials, servants, domestics, and cabin boys; but no
friar or ecclesiastic was listed. In supreme command of the
expedition was Columbus himself, on the Santa Maria; and in command
of the Santa Maria was her owner, the cosmographer Juan de la Cosa.
This vessel carried also two pilots, a grand constable, a physician,
an archivist, and an interpreter versed in several tongues. The
Pinta was commanded by Martín Alonso Pinzón; and one of its two
pilots was Martín's brother Francisco; while as commander of the
Nina sailed Vicente Yañes Pinzón, youngest brother of Martín Alonso,
and one of the two future discoverers of subequatorial South
America. The pilot was the owner, Pero Alonso Niño.
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