The Similarities And Differences Between Christopher Columbus And Celestial Navigation

Christopher Columbus is a name that has been spoken in every history class across the nation. He is known as one of the most important sailors in history. Columbus primarily sailed by using a type of navigation known as “Dead Reckoning”. Dead Reckoning is a type of navigation in which a sailor marks his or her position by recording the distance sailed and by starting at a known point (Pickering, Keith A. “Columbus and Dead Reckoning (DR) Navigation” The Columbus Navigation Homepage). Though he used dead reckoning most of the time, he did occasionally use celestial navigation. Celestial Navigation is when a sailor uses celestial bodies such as the stars and the planets to navigate and measure his latitude, because Columbus had visited several other lands where new navigation techniques were being discovered he was a little more familiar with them than other sailors in his era were. (Pickering, Keith A. “Columbus and Celestial Navigation” The Columbus Navigation Homepage) Columbus used a variety of different tools to try and navigate with celestial navigation. Two of the tools he used were the quadrant and the astrolabe. After several attempts with both of the devices, however, he was still unsuccessful with all of his attempts. (Pickering, Keith A. “Columbus and Celestial Navigation” The Columbus Navigation Homepage)
Christopher Columbus’s first voyage

was in the year of 1942. He was in command of the three famous ships the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. This voyage took longer than Columbus had originally anticipated. Many men on his crew wanted to return home, but Columbus pressed on promising that they would return if no land was found soon. Finally, they found land and boarded an island he called “San Salvador”. During the course of the voyage they at stopped at three other islands in the Bahamas before making the final stop at the Ragged Islands which he called “Islas de Arena”. He also sailed to Cuba by following the directions of a native guide. (Pickering, Keith A. “The First Voyage of Columbus” The Columbus Navigation Homepage) Columbus’s second voyage was approved with little hesitation because of the ultimate success of his first. The second voyage was a much larger ordeal then the first, as the first was exploratory and the second was an attempt colonize the land that Columbus had found. This voyage lasted from 1943-1946. During this voyage, Columbus tried hard to find mainland amidst all of the islands, they settled on the conclusion that since Cuba was so large it would be declared the mainland. Columbus then sailed back to Hispaniola, which was where they first landed at the beginning of the voyage. Hispaniola was also where Columbus founded the town La Isabela. Columbus endured many hardships while trying to colonize La Isabela. He took advantage of his role, Viceroy (titular king), and ruled with a tone of arrogance which angered some of the colonists. The relationship between the colonists and the Indians was not good; this resulted in a war in which the Spanish untimely won because of their more advanced technology. After supplies from Spain started to slowly diminish, Columbus sailed home to try to obtain more supplies to attempt to keep colonizing La Isabela. (Pickering, Keith A. ‘The Second Voyage of Columbus” The Columbus Navigation Homepage)
During the third voyage of Columbus three ships were sent to Hispaniola with supplies for the colonists, but three others, which were commanded by Columbus, were on an exploration mission to find new lands south of the islands in the Indies. On this voyage, Columbus discovered an island that had three distinct hills. He named this island Trinidad after the Holy Trinity. He discovered this island as he was sailing toward Dominicawhich he discovered in his second voyage. After stopping for water on the coast of Trinidad, they spotted South America. (Pickering, Keith A. “The Third Voyage of Columbus, 1948-1500” The Columbus Navigation Homepage) The fourth voyage that Columbus took was anything but easy. The purpose of the expedition was to find the strait that linked the Indies to the Indian Ocean. During this voyage Columbus was denied shelter from an upcoming storm by the governor, Nicolas de Ovando, of Santa Domingo, but all of his ships survived after he found shelter in a nearby estuary. A few months later after he sailed down the coast of Honduras he landed on what is now Panama. Here he learned from the natives that there was another ocean to the south. This made Columbus feel that he was close enough to the strait to prove his point. He also discovered that this region has several items made of gold that the Spaniards traded for, making it very valuable. After sailing east to all the areas with gold, he tried to return to the area which he named Veragua. Vergua was the area in Panama where he landed first. After a backset of storms and strong winds he made headquarters for exploration in west Panama. When the Natives there attacked his fort, he sailed out on his three remaining ships (one had to be left in the river at the fort). One of the ships had to be abandoned because it was no longer seaworthy. Soon after that Columbus and his crew were stranded in Jamaica because the rest of his ships did not survive the next storm they encountered.. They were finally rescued by Diego Mendez, who had had been detained by the governor of Hispaniola when he sailed to get help. He was finally freed and was able to obtain a boat and rescued Columbus and his men from Jamaica; they then sailed back to Spain. (Pickering, Keith A. “The Fourth Voyage of Columbus” The Columbus Navigation Homepage) Even though the four voyages of Columbus were very different, they all had the same goal. Columbus was an explorer; he wanted to discover all that he could. He definitely achieved his goals; Columbus could be considered one of the greatest explorers in history. His discoveries molded the world into what it is today.
Though Christopher Columbus is credited with the discovery of America, it was actually the Vikings who found it first.

However, for an unknown reason, they never settled there. Several people have come up with theories as to why; one of the most popular is that they were fearful of the Native Americans who were already there. (“Viking Discovery of America-Conclusion” Viking Source) The discovery of America by Columbus could be more accurately be titled a “rediscovery”. Even though he did not technically discover it first, his was the first recorded discovery, which most people would argue makes his the most

important.