In fourteen hundred and ninety-two,
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He took three ships with him, too,
And called aboard his faithful crew.
Mighty, strong and brave was he
As he sailed across the open sea.
Some people still thought the world was flat!
Can you even imagine that?
I BEING A SELF PROCLAIMED PANSIE... FIND IT very hard to imagine what it would be like to venture out into the open oceans in a sailing ship such as the Pinta, Nina or the Santa Maria!!
The Pinta and the Nina each only held 18 men. The Santa Maria held 52!!
What would that trip be like? Nothing like a Carnival Cruise-to be sure!!!
Here's a glimpse at it was like for our Famous, Brave, Daring, Christopher Columbus:
He sailed from Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492 (he sailed the ocean blue)He stopped at the Canary Islands on Sept 6, 1492, for supplies before heading out into uncharted territories.
Columbus used something called 'dead reckoning' for his form of navigation across the seas. With a compass pointing the way, he checked his speeds by dropping a *flotsam in the water and timing how long it took to passed between two marks on the ships railings. Once an hour, they'd drop flotsam and calculated miles per hour. (wouldnt you love to see the look on his face while describing to him how a GPS works??!!)
Everything they drank came in wooden casks. All they had to drink was water and wine. Red wine,old water. There was excellent preservative qualities to red wine. No filtered, purified water in individual sized, convenient plastic bottles for them.
The pantry list for Columbus's first voyage included- Gomera goat cheese, vinegar, olive oil, molasses, honey, raisins, rice, garlic, almonds, sea biscuits (hardtack), dry legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans), salted and barreled sardines, anchovies, dry salt cod, pickled or salted meats (beef or pork), and salted flour. What!!!!....wheres the pizza!?!?
These tasty morsel were mostly boiled and served in a large, wooden communal bowl. That right, I said communal. Sailors picked at the meat with fingers (nasty, dirty fingers no doubt) as they had no forks and spoons.
There was a contraption called a fogon, that was an open firebox. The box had a back to screen it from the wind. Sand was spread on the bottom of the box, and a fire was built on top. This was their stove. In rough seas you can well imagine that water would usually douse the dinner fire in no time at all. (you should hear me complain when the microwave wont work!!)
IM HAPPY AND GRATEFUL TO REMEMBER CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ON THIS DAY!!
Another powerful depiction of life on a sailing ship which is most recently on my mind is also seen in the marvelous new mini series by HBO, about the life of John Adams.
*Floating refuse or debris. Discarded odds and ends.
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