São Gabriel was the flagship of Vasco da Gama's armada on his first voyage to India in 1497–1499. This depiction from about 1558 also shows São Rafael (top) and Bérrio. Da Gama was born in 1460 to a family of nobles in Sines, Portugal.Īlso, what kind of ship did Vasco da Gama use? São Gabriel (ship) São Gabriel is on the bottom right. His discovery was monumental in the history of navigation as well as instrumental in establishing Portugal as a major colonial empire. Vasco da Gama was a highly successful Portuguese sailor and explorer during the Age of Exploration. The following year, Vasco da Gama commanded Portugal's third major voyage to India. Only seven ships and half his men survived the journey, but their cargo of spices was sufficient to break the monopoly on the European spice trade previously held by Arab and Venetian merchants. In all, da Gama's first journey covered nearly 24,000 miles in close to two years, and only 54 of the crew's original 170 members survived.He returned home in the summer of 1501.
The first ship in the fleet didn't reach Portugal until July 10, nearly a full year after they'd left India. By early 1499, several crew members had died of scurvy and in an effort to economize his fleet, da Gama ordered one of his ships to be burned. In August 1498, da Gama and his men took to the seas again, beginning their journey back to Portugal.ĭa Gama's timing could not have been worse his departure coincided with the start of a monsoon. Eventually, da Gama and his crew were forced to barter on the waterfront in order to secure enough goods for the passage home. Not everyone embraced their presence, especially Muslim traders who clearly had no intention of giving up their trading grounds to Christian visitors. Still, the local Hindu ruler welcomed da Gama and his men, at first, and the crew ended up staying in Calicut for three months. The residents of Calicut were actually Hindu, a fact that was lost on da Gama and his crew, as they had not heard of the religion. But da Gama's own ignorance of the region, as well as his presumption that the residents were Christians, led to some confusion. The trip, in turn, sparked a renewed interest in seeking out a trade route to India.īy early April, the fleet reached what is now Kenya, before setting sail on a 23-day run that would take them across the Indian Ocean. This journey was significant it proved, for the first time, that the Atlantic and Indian oceans were connected. 1469-1524) was a Portuguese navigator who, in 1497-9, sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa and arrived at Calicut (now. Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama becomes the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrives at Calicut on the Malabar Coast. In 1487, an important breakthrough was made when Bartolomeu Dias discovered the southern tip of Africa and rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Still, for all his work, the southern portion of Africa - what lay east - remained shrouded in mystery. Henry the Navigator never did locate Prester John, but his impact on Portuguese trade along Africa's east coast during his 40 years of explorative work was undeniable. He also believed that he could find and form an alliance with Prester John, who ruled over a Christian empire somewhere in Africa. He dispatched ships to explore the western coast of Africa to expand Portugal's trade influence. Much of that was due to Henry the Navigator, who, at his base in the southern region of the country, had brought together a team of knowledgeable mapmakers, geographers and navigators.