Vasco da Gama

BEST KNOWN FOR:

Becoming the first European to sail from Europe to India by going AROUND Africa, which was a huge deal at the time. Nobody had traveled from Europe to Asia by sea before him.

ONE POSSIBLE WAY TO REMEMBER THIS FEAT BEING TIED TO HIM:

For years expeditions had been trying to sail east around the southern point of Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope. Getting to Asia by ship would be much faster than over land, and boats could carry more goods than land as well. He arrived at Good Hope first.

In a game, you hope your team wins. You HOPE, like the Cape of Good Hope, that your team wins the game, like da Gama.

*Hope ---- da game-uh = HOPE --> da Gama

Why was this a big deal?

There was already a land route to India, but it was time consuming, dangerous, and very difficult to bring back large quantities of goods over land. As Europeans started to explore the west coast of Africa, many thought sailing around the southern part of Africa was possible. A belief spread that getting to India by sea was possible. However, actually doing it would be harder than anybody could imagine.
Over the next decades, getting around Africa became a race. Thousands of lives and dozens of ships were lost in this pursuit, either from shipwrecks or attacks. Anyone attempting this knew they were risking possible death.
Because da Gama was the first to do this for Portugal, he brought back not only rare spices, but power and wealth to the empire. The first spices brought back on his ships were pepper and cinnamon, and for decades after, Portugal held a monopoly over these (and a few other) resources in Europe. To put it another way, this journey was like Portugal trading in a bicycle for a Harley, while everybody else still had bicycles. And all thanks to da Gama.
In fact, it was not until nearly a century later that other Euro powers began to challenge Portugal's monopoly and naval power.

EARLY YEARS

Born in Sines, Portugal, a seaside town in southwestern Portugal, in either 1460 or 1469.

His father was a knight of the Order or Santiago, as well as an explorer.
Adventure was in Vasco's blood from a very young age.

Not much is known about his youth, but it is believed he studied to learn mathematics and navigation growing up.

Bartolomeu Dias had discovered the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa. However, his crew wanted to turn around so he had not sailed around it.
In 1497, Da Gama was given 170 men and 4 ships by the King and tasked with sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. Two were carracks style ships, one was a caravel, and one was a supply ship.
His crew spent 3 months in the open sea in the Atlantic Ocean, covering more than 6000 consecutive miles on water. This was by far the longest journey without seeing land by any crew in human history up to that point.
In December of 1497, da Gama saild around the Cape of Good Hope and into waters no European had ever seen before. With Christmas only days away, he named the coast Natal, which means "birth of Christ" in Portuguese.
By March of 1498, da Gama landed in East Africa. He was afraid the Muslim population would harm Christian visitors, so he pretended to be a Muslim and met the Sultan of Mozambique.
However, he didn't have much to trade, and the people began to distrust him. He was soon forced to flee, but as he left Mozambique, da Gama fired a cannon into the city. He continued north up the East African coast.
Da Gama reached Mombasa in April 1498, and was not welcomed, probably due to the looting his crew had done to Arab merchant ships in the area. His crew was the first European crew to reach the port of Mombasa.
Soon after he reached the port of Malindi. Here da Gama saw evidence of Indian goods, and knew he was close. He found and hired a pilot who guided the expedition the rest of the way across the Indian Ocean. To this day, nobody knows if this pilot was Muslim, Christian, or who he was at all.

ARRIVAL IN CALICUT, INDIA

Da Gama arrived in Calicut, India, on May 20, 1498. He knew what he'd done was epic. No European had been this far. However, things didn't go as well as he'd hoped.
The King of Calicut (Zamorin) had been in another city, but when he heard the news of foreign visitors, he quickly sailed to Calicut to meet them. The meeting is shown in the steel engraving to the right.
Da Gama was first welcomed with a parade, but the meeting with Zamorin didn't go well. When da Gama was asked why he had arrived, he answer he'd come in search of "Christians and spices."
However, the presents offered by da Gama didn't impress. Zamorin was expecting gold or silver Instead, da Gama offered cloaks, honey, sugar, and hats. He was soon accused of being a pirate and not an official from Portugal.
Da Gama and Zamorin's officials soon argued over the selling of da Gama's goods, and they ended on poor terms. In fact, da Gama forcefully took around two dozen people away with him. So... kind of an ugly meeting.
The voyage back was an abosolute disaster. The winter monsoon winds battered the ships as da Gama crossed the Indian Ocean toward Africa. On the way to India it had taken 23 days. It now took 132 days to sail from India to Africa.
Nearly half of his crew died and many survivors had scurvy when da Gama finally reached Africa again. Since he didn't have enough men to sail three shps, he destroyed one of the ships and combined the rest onto the remaining two ships.
Da Gama sent a ship home ahead of him from the west coast of Africa to see to his sick brother Paulo. The first ship arrived on July 10th. Da Gama, whose brother died on the journey home, didn't make it to Lisbon until early September. Despite his sad mood, King Manuel gave him a hero's celebration, for he had indeed shown Portugal what could be possible for them in Asia.

While da Gama's first voyage is what makes him historically famous, he also made two other voyages. For a barbaric account of his second journey, click below.

The Second Voyage

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