The navigator and his fleet continued to travel along the African coast, stopping in today’s Mozambique and Kenya for supplies, sicknesses and to ask for directions, even getting the help of an Arab navigator in one of their stops, that travelled with them and showed them the way to cross the Indian Ocean until they finally reached Calicut (now Kozhikode) in 1498. When reaching the Southern part of Africa, in what is now Cape Town, the fleet passed through the Cape of Good Hope, probably the hardest part of the voyage as it had only been crossed one time before! They travelled along the coast of Africa until he reached the South Atlantic, when they decided to adventure into the open sea, as a way to avoid unfavorable currents.
Gama commanded the São Gabriel ship, Paulo da Gama, his brother, commanded the São Rafael, and there was also the caravel Berrio, and a storeship São Maria. The explorer set sail in July with 4 ships from the port of Lisbon. This was to continue the work already started by Bartolomeu Dias, who was the first navigator to have rounded the Cape of Good Hope. This made all of Europe dependent on them since gold, spices and many other Eastern riches were well appreciated in all the continent, and they knew this so they charged high prices to the Europeans and for their ships to pass through their ports.Īs a way to counterbalance this, the Portuguese king, King Manuel I, decided to send a fleet that would search for the maritime route to India and chose Vasco da Gama to lead it. At the time the Muslims, especially the Ottoman Empire, held in their control the trade routes from the East, including India. The Historic Voyage Photo by Bruno Martins on Unsplash His career must have been very remarkable, since almost 20 years later, he would be sent to command one of the most historic voyages in the world. It is supposed that, due to his stature, he had a good education and, since he was living on the coast, he also probably learned about sea navigation.īy 15, he was familiar with the trading ships that were docked in the ports and by 20 he had already managed to become the captain of a ship. His father was a knight in charge of the Sines Fortress, in the Alentejo coast, and his mother was a noblewoman.
He was born in the 1460s, he was the third son in a minor noble family.
Not much is known about Gama’s early life. Besides that, he is an unavoidable figure in History. He is a controversial historical figure, with the explorer being known to have committed several atrocities and being a violent person, besides the consequences of his travels. His first voyage was the longest ocean travel in the world at the time and he was always briefly the Viceroy of India, before dying.
Known for being the first European to reach India by sea and thus connecting, for the first time, Europe and Asia by maritime trade, Vasco da Gama, the 1 st Count of Vidigueira, was a Portuguese explorer.
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