“Another problem also plagued Columbus’s navigation efforts: he favored a smaller Earth than we now know is reality.”
True, but if he hadn’t believe this erroneous idea, he probably wouldn’t have attempted his voyage, because he would have known it would take 3 times longer to reach the Indies.
Before 1492, 1490`s? An unsubstantiated story existed that Pinzon, Columbus` financier and captain of the Pinta , supposedly found information in Vatican archives about
“lands to the west.” Dor-Ner p. 73
1490`s? Columbus had set his goal to sail exactly 2,400 miles west from Palos, Spain, which is where the
Bahamas are. How did Columbus know that? P116
1492 Juan de La Cosa is the owner of the Gallega, renamed by Columbus as the Santa Maria; de La Cosa was Columbus` pilot on the Santa Maria P126
1492 Columbus knew the westward trade winds from the Canary Islands- P108
1492 August 3 Columbus sails from Palos, Spain in his 3 ships P128
1490`s Christopher Columbus` original Atlantic logbook, “Diario de a bordo”, and subsequent copies thereof, are lost; parts are in Bartolome` de Las Casas` “History of the Indies”.P122
source:
Dor-Ner, Zvi, “Columbus and the Age of Discovery”, NY : William Morrow & Co. 199167=73