Vasco de Ataíde (or Taide) was a Portuguese sailor whose ship was a part of

Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral (; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; ) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human in history to ever be on four continents, ...

's expedition to India in 1500. His ship went missing early in the voyage and so was not present when the fleet accidentally became the first recorded European presence to visit what is now

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. Little is known about Vasco, even less than about his brother Pêro de Ataíde, although contemporary sources record that he was one of four illegitimate children (three sons and one daughter) of D. Pedro de Ataíde,

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

Penalva do Castelo Penalva do Castelo is a town in Portugal in the district of Viseu, situated in the province of Beira Alta Province, the Centro Region, Centro (Beiras Region) and the Viseu Dão-Lafões subregion, with around 2000 inhabitants. It is the seat of th ...

, himself an illegitimate son of D. Álvaro Gonçalves de Ataíde, the first Count of Atouguia. On Tuesday, 24 March 1500, the ship he captained and its crew of one-hundred-and-fifty disappeared after sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean toward Brazil. The ship had departed the day before from the Portuguese settlement at

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

, off the coast of Western Africa. Pero Vaz de Caminha, chronicler of Cabral's expedition, wrote: "On the night of Monday next, at sunrise, Vasco de Ataíde was lost from the fleet without any strong or contrary winds that could make it happen. The captain did his best to find it, but it appeared no more."

References

1500 deaths 1500s missing person cases 15th-century births Lost explorers 15th-century Portuguese explorers Maritime history of Portugal Missing person cases in Africa People lost at sea Portuguese explorers of South America Portuguese sailors Ataíde family {{Portugal-bio-stub

See also

References