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Henry The Navigator

As word spread throughout Europe of the Portuguese expeditions, sailors, astronomers, cartographers, and geographers began to arrive at Sagres to offer their services to Prince Henry. There were Christians, Jews, and Arabs - Prince Henry had discovered the Arabs' superior navigational skills while at Ceuta years before - and what emerged at Sagres was not so much a school of navigation as much as it was a community of scholars, under the direction of Prince Henry, who joined together to conquer the unknown.

When Prince Henry's ships returned from their first exploration, their captains reported that they were unable to round Cape Bojador as planned. Shortly after losing sight of Cape St. Vincent, they were caught in a violent gale and lost all sense of direction. They drifted for days when the winds abruptly died. By sheer luck the crew sighted land, and the intrepid explorers made their way toward shore and a sheltering cove and they named this island Porto Santo ("blessed port"). As best as they could determine, Porto Santo was roughly five hundred miles to the southwest of Cape St. Vincent. The "discovery" of Porto Santo was significant because it was then used as a launching point for future voyages. It should be noted, however, that there is some reason to question whether or not Porto Santo was discovered by Prince Henry's ships, for the island's location coincides with one marked on a Genoese map made in approximately 1351. Nevertheless, the Portuguese believed that they had found a previously uncharted land mass, and armed with the information that there was land yet to be discovered, another expedition set out before the end of 1419. On this voyage, they encountered the island Madeira (Portuguese word for "wood") in the early months of 1420.

Prince Henry displayed remarkable perseverance and sent expedition after expedition into the "Sea of Darkness", as they called unknown water, in a fifteen-year attempt to round Cape Bojador. Even though he exhorted his captains with promises of increased reward and glory, it was not until 1434 that Gil Eanes (sometimes spelt "Eannes") managed to round the Cape. The physical distance travelled was not what was significant about this voyage. Rather, what was important was that Gil Eanes traveled beyond Cape Bojador and returned to Portugal, eliminating in one broad stroke many of the myths and legends about the "Sea of Darkness".

A number of explanations have been offered as to why it took Portuguese sailors so long to accomplish this task. The two most significant problems were that those ships which navigated along the shores of the African coast risked running aground and those who attempted to steer into the open water and strayed too far could be blown out to sea. Eanes succeeded because he did not attempt to sail in sight of land. Rather, Eanes charted a wide course into the Atlantic before altering his course and turning back towards Africa. When Eanes encountered land again, Cape Bojador was behind him.