On the other hand, his discovery of the sea route to India made possible successful, future Portuguese trade.Ī map of Africa from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia, published in Basel, Switzerland in 1559. His gifts to its ruler were not impressive enough. Born in Northern Portugal around 1480, Magellan belonged to a romantic era of the sea during which Bartholomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Vasco da Gama. ĭa Gama’s attempt to trade in Calicut wasn’t very successful. He sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. The Latin text in the bottom left-hand corner of the map tells the tale of Vasco da Gama. Dias' discovery paved the way for Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India. Ptolemy had been wrong to think that the Indian Ocean was land-locked. His voyage showed that the Atlantic and Indian Oceans flowed into each other. The navigators were Pero de Alenquer, Pedro Escobar, João de Coimbra, and Afonso Gonçalves, the most experienced in Portugal. The distance travelled to India and back around Africa was greater than around the equator. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the southern tip of Africa (the Cape of Good Hope). Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon on 8 July 1497. It was here that they had their first encounter with the Khoikhoi. Close to, or near the mouth of the Berg River, the explorers set in to make repairs, look for water, and check their position. This undated photo made available by Blue Water Recoveries company on Tuesday, Mashows a rare silver coin called an Indio discovered from the debris of the explorer Vasco da Gama's ship, Esmeralda which sank in a storm in May 1503 off the coast of Al Hallaniyah island in Oman's Dhofar region.Münster’s map on the right reflects the discoveries of Portuguese explorers, Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. Vasco da Gama named the bay Bahai da Santa Elena (St Helena Bay), after the Religious Mother of Constantine the Great. In this undated photo made available by Blue Water Recoveries company on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, the expedition ship is seen at the Ghubbat ar Rahib bay, the excavation area of wreck site of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's ship, Esmeralda which sank in a storm in May 1503 off the coast of Al Hallaniyah island in Oman's Dhofar region. "Oman is now looking at outside archives to read about the relationships and trade between Oman and the outside" world, al-Busaidi said. He said it inspired officials to continue to explore the waters around the sultanate for other finds. The ship of Vasco Da Gama came further north to the port of Malindi. A little further on, Vasco da Gama’s ships reached Mombasa, Vasco da Gama’s ships crossed the region between 7 and 18 April 1498. The trade area adjacent to the port was inhabited by Arab Muslims. (Blue Water Recoveries company via AP)Īyoub al-Busaidi, the supervisor of marine archaeology at the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture, said this marked the first underwater excavation carried out by his country. He arrived in Mozambique on March 2, 1498. In this undated photo made available by Blue Water Recoveries company on Tuesday, March 15, 2016, a diver searches at the wreck site of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's ship, Esmeralda which sank in a storm in May 1503 off the coast of Al Hallaniyah island in Oman's Dhofar region. The archaeologists announced their findings in an article published Tuesday by The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. "It was like a thing you read about in a Hollywood story." "That was an amazing discovery," Mearns said. The coins were forged in 1499 after da Gama's first voyage to India, which helps date the wreckage, he said. Vasco da Gama was the first European to sail through the Indian Ocean to Asia. His success in doing so proved to be one of. Mearns, the director of Blue Water Recoveries. Follow six bold navigators as they open the globe to exploration and claim. In 1497, explorer Vasco da Gama was commissioned by the Portuguese king to find a maritime route to the East. They later determined the debris found there came from the long-missing ship, one of two lost in the storm from da Gama's second voyage to India.Īmong the stone shot, ceramics, a bell and other debris, divers discovered an incredibly rare silver coin called an Indio, of which only one other is known to exist today, said David L. The Esmeralda sank during a violent storm near al-Hallaniyah Island in the Indian Ocean in May 1503, killing commander Vicente Sodre and all those aboard.īeginning in 2013, a team from the British company Blue Water Recoveries and the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture explored a site in the island's Ghubbat ar Rahib Bay. Arrival of Vasco da Gama Huge number of sailors and merchants from the west tried to discover a sea route to India.