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Blown Off Course
To be blown off course in the sailing ship era meant be to diverted by unexpected winds, getting lost possibly to shipwreck or to a new destination. In the ancient world, this was especially a great danger before the maturation of the Maritime Silk Road in the Early Middle Ages, finding expression in the writing of Cosmas Indicopleustes. Even in later eras, the ship could attempt to limit its divergence by tacking or heaving to, but it was often difficult to keep track by mere celestial navigation before the invention of the marine chronometer in the late 18th century. A number of "discoveries" during the Age of Discovery were accidentally found in this way, and the serendipity of being blown off course is also a trope in fiction. Accidental discovery may have played a larger role than previously acknowledged in early European colonialism in contrast to the idea of a centrally-planned program as by Prince Henry the Navigator, but it is also thought that the Austronesian expa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sailing Ship
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship, said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast, for instance some schooners. Still others employ a combination of square and fore-and-aft sails, including the barque, barquentine, and brigantine. Early sailing ships were used for river and coastal waters in Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean. The Austronesian peoples developed maritime technologies that included the fore-and-aft crab-claw sail and with catamaran and outrigger hull configurations, which enabled the Austronesian expansion into the islands of the Indo-Pacific. This expansion originated in Taiwan BC and propagated through Island Southeast Asia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suebi
The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own names such as the Marcomanni, Quadi, Hermunduri, Semnones, and Lombards. New groupings formed later, such as the Alamanni and Bavarians, and two kingdoms in the Migration Period were simply referred to as Suebian. Although Tacitus specified that the Suebian group was not an old tribal group itself, the Suebian peoples are associated by Pliny the Elder with the Irminones, a grouping of Germanic peoples who claimed ancestral connections. Tacitus mentions Suebian languages, and a geographical "Suevia". The Suevians were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with the invasion of Gaul by the Germanic king Ariovistus during the Gallic Wars. Unlike Tacitus he described them as a single people, distinct from the Marcomanni, within the larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the open ocean, well to the west of the African coast. His discoveries effectively established the sea route between Europe and Asia. Early life Bartholomeu Dias was born around 1455. His family had a maritime background and one of his ancestors, Dinis Dias, explored the African coast in the 1440s and discovered the Cape Verde Peninsula in 1445. Little is known of his early life, and tracing his biography is complicated by the existence of several contemporary Portuguese seafarers with the same name. He was clearly a seaman of considerable experience and may have been trading for ivory along the Guinea coast as early as 1478. In 1481, Dias accompanied an expedition, led by Diogo de Azambuja, to construct a fortress and trading post called S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristão Vaz Teixeira
Tristão Vaz Teixeira (c. 1395–1480) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who, together with João Gonçalves Zarco and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, was the official discoverer and one of the first settlers of the archipelago of Madeira (1419–1420). Biography He was born Tristão Vaz, adding the name Teixeira after his marriage with Branca Teixeira. Tristão was a nobleman of Prince Henry the Navigator's House, taking part in the conquest of Ceuta. Around 1418, while exploring the coast of Africa, he and João Gonçalves Zarco were taken off course by bad weather, and came upon an island which they called Porto Santo (Holy Harbor). Shortly after, they were ordered by Prince Henry to settle the island, together with Bartolomeu Perestrelo. Following a rabbit outbreak that made it difficult to grow crops, they moved to the nearby island of Madeira. It proved to be hospitable and cultivable, so Prince Henry sent for more settlers to colonize the island. The governance of Madeira w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
João Gonçalves Zarco
João Gonçalves Zarco ( 1390 – 21 November 1471) was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator. Life Zarco was born in Portugal, and became a knight at the service of Prince Henry the Navigator's household. In his service at an early age, Zarco commanded the caravels guarding the coast of the Algarve from Muslim incursions, was at the conquest of Ceuta, and later led the caravels that recognized the island of Porto Santo in 1418 to 1419 and afterward, the island of Madeira 1419 to 1420. He founded the city of Câmara de Lobos. He was granted, as hereditary leader (Capitania), half the island of Madeira (the Capitania of Funchal, being its first Captain-major). Together with his fellow fleet commanders, Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, he initiated the colonization of the islands in 1425. As a knight of the House of Avis, he participated in the si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thorstein Olafsson (Greenland)
Thorstein the Red or Thorstein Olafsson was a viking chieftain who flourished in late ninth-century Scotland. Biography He was born around 850 AD and was the son of Olaf the White, King of Dublin, and Aud the Deep-minded, who was the daughter of Ketil Flatnose.''Eirik the Red's Saga'' § 1 (Jones 126); Laxdaela Saga § 4 (Magnusson 51). After the death of Olaf, Aud and Thorstein went to live in the Hebrides, then under Ketil's rule. Thorstein eventually became a warlord and allied with the Jarl of Orkney, Sigurd Eysteinsson. Together Thorstein and Sigurd waged a series of campaigns in Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Moray, and a number of other regions, eventually receiving tribute from half of Scotland. However, the Scottish chieftains plotted against Thorstein, and he was killed; the exact nature of his death is unknown but it probably took place around 880 or 890. After Thorstein's death Aud left Caithness, sojourning for a while in Orkney before settling with other members of he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni De' Marignolli
Giovanni de' Marignolli ( la, Johannes Marignola;. ), variously anglicized as John of Marignolli or John of Florence, was a notable 14th-century Catholic European traveller to medieval China and India. Life Early life Giovanni was born, probably before 1290, to the noble Florentine family of the Marignolli. The family is long extinct, but the Via de' Cerretani, a street near the cathedral, formerly bore their name. Giovanni received his habit at the Franciscan basilica of Santa Croce at a young age. His work claims he later held the chair of theology at the University of Bologna. Departure In 1338 he arrived at Avignon, where Pope Benedict XII held his court, an embassy from the great khan of Cathay (the Mongol emperor of the Chinese Yuan dynasty), bearing letters to the pontiff from the khan himself, and from certain Christian Alan nobles in his service. These latter represented that they had been eight years (since Monte Corvino's death) without a spiritual guide, and e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lancelotto Malocello
Lancelotto Malocello () (Latin: ''Lanzarotus Marocelus''; french: Lancelot Maloisel; fl. 1312) was a Genoese navigator, who gave his name to the island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. ''Lancelotto'' is the Italian form of the proper name Lancelot. History Lancelotto Malocello was born in Varazze (Republic of Genoa), now Province of Savona, in 1270. The navigator is credited with the rediscovery of the Canary Islands in 1312; the island first appeared on a European map of Angelino Dulcert (the Dulcert Atlas) in 1339 under the name "Ínsula de Lançarote Mallucellus" (island of Lancelotto Malocello), later shortened to "Lanzarote". The island's native name was ''Tyterogaka''. Malocello may have voyaged in search of the brothers Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi, who had sailed to the Canary Islands in 1291 on their way to India, and whose fate was unknown. Malocello arrived on the island in 1312, and remained there for almost two decades until he was expelled by a Guanches, Guan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leif Erikson
Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According to the sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, which is usually interpreted as being coastal North America. There is ongoing speculation that the settlement made by Leif and his crew corresponds to the remains of a Norse settlement found in Newfoundland, Canada, called L'Anse aux Meadows, which was occupied 1,000 years ago (carbon dating estimates 990–1050 CE). Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland, and Thjodhild (Þjóðhildur) of Iceland. His place of birth is not known, but he is assumed to have been born in Iceland, which had recently been colonized by Norsemen mainly from No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bjarni Herjólfsson
Bjarni Herjólfsson ( 10th century) was a Norse- Icelandic explorer who is believed to be the first known European discoverer of the mainland of the Americas, which he sighted in 986. Life Bjarni was born to Herjólfr, son of Bárdi Herjólfsson ( non, Bárði), and Thorgerdr ( non, link=no, Þorgerðr) in Iceland. In adulthood, Bjarni became a merchant captain, based in Norway, but visiting his father every summer in Iceland.Sullivan, Steve & Stephen Krensky. (1991) ''Who Really Discovered America?'', Hastingshouse/Daytrips Publ. p. 36. . Discovery of America Bjarni is believed to have been the first European to see North America. The ''Grœnlendinga saga'' (''Greenlanders Saga'') tells that one year he sailed to Iceland to visit his parents as usual, only to find that his father had gone with Erik the Red to Greenland. So he took his crew and set off to find him. But in that summer of 986, Bjarni, who had no map or compass, was blown off course by a storm. He saw a piece of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faxian
Faxian (法顯 ; 337 CE – c. 422 CE), also referred to as Fa-Hien, Fa-hsien and Sehi, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled by foot from China to India to acquire Buddhist texts. Starting his arduous journey about age 60, he visited sacred Buddhist sites in Central, South and Southeast Asia between 399 and 412 CE, of which 10 years were spent in India. He described his journey in his travelogue, ''A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms'' (''Foguo Ji'' 佛國記). His memoirs are notable independent record of early Buddhism in India. He took with him a large number of Sanskrit texts, whose translations influenced East Asian Buddhism and which provide a ''terminus ante quem'' for many historical names, events, texts, and ideas therein.Faxian ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'', 2019. Biography ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhapta
Rhapta ( grc, Ῥάπτα and Ῥαπτά) was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. The ancient ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' described Rhapta as "the last emporion of Azania", two days' travel south of the Menouthias islands (Chapter 16). The ''Periplus'' also states that the city and port were ruled by South Arabian vassals of the Himyarite kingdom, particularly a certain “ Mapharitic chieftain.” According to Claudius Ptolemy, Diogenes, a merchant in the Indian trade, was blown off course from his usual route from India, and after travelling 25 days south along the coast of Africa arrived at Rhapta, located where the river of the same name enters the Indian Ocean opposite the island of Menouthias. Diogenes further describes this river as having its source near the Mountains of the Moon, near the swamp whence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
