Posted on 08/02/2020 6:22:07 PM PDT by Perseverando
On the third of his four voyages, Columbus sailed south along the west coast of Africa before heading west across the Atlantic Ocean .
There he was caught in the "doldrums," a dangerous condition near the equator, called the "horse latitudes," where there is intense heat and no wind.
The origin of the term "horse latitudes" came later, when ships sailing to the New World were stranded in the "doldrums" for weeks.
As they baked in the sun, they ran out of fresh drinking water.
Sailors reportedly pushed overboard the horses they were transporting as the ocean salt water they were surrounded by was undrinkable.
In 1498, after Columbus drifted aimlessly for eight days in the doldrums, and running out of drinking water, he prayed and vowed that if the winds returned, he would name the first land he saw after the Holy Trinity.
The winds returned and on JULY 31, 1498, Columbus sighted an island off the coast of Venezuela which coincidentally had three peaks rising from the bay.
He obtained fresh water for his sailors and in the process was the first European to see South America.
Columbus named the island Trinidad in honor of the Holy Trinity.
The doldrums were described by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his lyrical poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," 1798.
A ship was lost in the ice of Antarctica, but was providentially led out of it by a larger sea-bird, an albatross.
Disregarding its help, the captain shot the albatross, and brought a curse upon them:
"With my cross-bow, I shot the albatross."
Though they escaped the ice, the ship was later stranded in the doldrums near the equator as punishment for the captain killing the albatross:
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Another good one. Bookmark.
Loved the excerpt.
Agreed. Another Great American History moment
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