by Andrew Rowen | | Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, Sea of Darkness
After three perilous days, the violent storm began to abate on February 15. But the sea remained rough and, now alone, the Niña struggled for two days to make landfall on the southernmost island of the Azores, Santa María. After sunset on the 17th, Columbus anchored...
by Andrew Rowen | | Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, Sea of Darkness
On February 19, Columbus dispatched half his crew ashore at Santa María, Azores, to fulfill a vow made during the storm for a pilgrimage—barefoot and without pants—to the first church they found dedicated to the Virgin Mary. But the locals, subjects of Portugal’s King...
by Andrew Rowen | | Atlantic Ocean, Castile, Portugal, Sea of Darkness, Spain
The Niña’s crew had lost sight of the Pinta during the storms off the Azores on the night of February 13 and surmised it had sunk. But the Pinta had survived, and its captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, brought it to harbor at Bayona on Castile’s western coast, north of...
by Andrew Rowen | | Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, Sea of Darkness
Columbus, crew, and the ten Taínos aboard the Niña departed the Azores for Spain on February 24 and suffered more rough weather. Another violent storm enveloped them after sunset on March 3 and, within sight of the Portuguese coast, they almost perished again. The...
by Andrew Rowen | | Portugal
At dawn on March 4, Columbus recognized the Rock of Sintra offshore Lisbon, Portugal, and sailed the battered Niña to take refuge in Lisbon’s outer harbor. He knew Portugal’s King John II, having spent a few years trying to convince John to sponsor the voyage (in the...
by Andrew Rowen | | Portugal
Portugal’s King John II summoned Columbus to meet northeast of Lisbon, and Columbus brought along at least two of the Taínos. The route to meet John wove through Lisbon, shown below c.1598 (a century later) in Civitates Orbis Terrarum: As dramatized in Encounters...
