Happy Columbus Day!

[william24424]

A day to all reflect on the accomplishments of a great sailor, navigator, and explorer. Sailing in Genova last June, seeing the church where he was married, walking the cobblestone streets up to the Dukes Palace reminded me of what an interesting time Columbus lived. To celebrate I'm leaving work early and making some authentic Genovese pesto sauce, some pasta, and finish off with a moscato wine and a cannoli in honor of the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea."

 

[sardo]

I am with you on that William!

Columbus day is always a favorite in my family too. I am told (My Mother side) that I am directly related to Chris. One of these days I will get busy on my geneology and find out more about this.

 

[Doug13108]

I also agree and yet

as sardo well knows, Columbus Day is NOT a state holiday in Florida. Without him there would have been no DeSoto, St. Augustine, etc. - so what's up with that? Remove all the myth and legend and the fact remains that the man pioneered a European route to the Caribbean and changed the world forever. We'll probably have Chianti and spaghetti with garlic bread - not really Genovese, but close enough.

 

[Ross]

With Native American ancestry I don't find

Columbus day to be a reason to celebrate.

 

[soling42]

A holiday for sailors

A "short" sail without electronics, motors and charts into untold danger with a mutinous crew would seem an appropriate way to celebrate a sailors sailor. Every beach you hit is filled with cannibals, yet how many times did he cross the Atlantic?? Hardtack, putrid water and rotten meat would be the fare of the day, at least until returning to a lavish banquet held by the queen.My, how different can it get. The queen never trumpets my arrival home after a hard day anymoreTo the boats, it's a sailing holiday!!

 

[Doug13108]

Ross, I also have

Native American blood, and I fully understand the horrors resulting from Spanish and other European invaders. 1492 was also the the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition. Still, we are the inheritors of the world that they made possible; and it is both fitting and our responsibilty to recognize it and make it better if we can. I have failed at making it better - I'm pretty good at celebrating though. Columbus was an ambitious dreamer who more or less succeeded 4 times at something no one else had ever done; he did it with sailboats; and he wound up in prison for his trouble. A glass of good Marsala never hurt anybody and I don't mind hoisting one in his memory.

 

[abe]

Before blaming the Spaniards for all that evil....

Native Americans have been directly responsible for many deaths around the world. They gave us tabacco. Besides the Natives are still alive in Central and South America....very few pure whites in those areas many more Indian and mixed blood. The Spaniards took the natives as wives and their children became Spanish citizens entitled to own land and all the other prevliges of Spaniards.We didn't have issues like "half breeds" nor did we create "Indian Reservations" like they did in N America. They were people of their times...not any worse than blacks trading other blacks in the slave trade or Native Americans fighting within each other in the Americas. If Columbus never would have come....all the Native Americans would still be living in the stone age dying of diseases and living till their mid 30's.I have nothing to be sorry about nor feel guilty...tired of all this anti Columbus b.s..abe

 

[abe]

#1 Killer today world wide...tobacco related...

...than you to all the Native Americans. That is about a dumb and people blaming europeans for all the ills of the Native Americans.abe

 

[Robert Gainer]

Columbus did his trips before the quadrant

William,Columbus did his trips before the quadrant or sextant was invented. He also didn’t have the use of a chronometer so he had no way to measure longitude. He did have a crosstaff so he could get latitude to some degree of accuracy. His longitude was based on using a chip log and he underreported the distance to the crew.All the best,Robert Gainer

 

[sardo]

Ross my personal apology

Sorry for the pain. I don't think Colombus really meant it to go the way it did. But here we are today. Me and you. We can be gentleman and friends.Sardo

 

[Benny]

Don't send pictures from Maine. Send some from

Key Biscayne and their anual regatta...

 

[David10790]

Ross, Blaming Columbus

for the terrible disaster that befell the aboriginal populations of the Americas is kind of like blaming the sun for skin cancer. As Jared Diamond goes to great pains to point out in "Guns Germs and Steel" the native populations had no natural immunity to the endemic diseases of Europe, most importantly smallpox. If it hadn't been Columbus in 1492, it would have been some Englishman or Dutchman or Portuguese sailor sometime in the next decade or so. The result would have been the same regardless of how benign the intent of the explorers. Natives died from disease in the millions; the number killed in battle was probably less than 1% of the total who died in the first 150 years of European conquest.Which is not to say that the actions of your government and mine in the last 150 years is anything but shameful and a permanent stain on our claim to "civilization".

 

[Swandriver]

Hey Ross - what was new?

Ross - what did Columbus do that any other explorer (Asian, African, European, Pacific Islanders)before him, including American Indians (I'm Choctaw/Attakapas heritage)did not? Indians conquered, killed, raped, pillaged, exploited as well as anyone. Without Columbus you and I may have just ended up as skulls on some Aztec's war pole.Breath in, breath out - move on. By the way - I celebrated Columbus Day by driving somewhere I've been wanting to visit by sail - Pirates Cove, Josephine, Alabama. It was worth the dirve.

 

[Ross]

I simply said that I don't find cause to

celebrate Columbus Day. I also don't have great regard for the men who made treaties with the aboriginal populations of this fair land. I have ancestors on both sides and know that honor has a short life in the affairs of government in the Americas. In the relocation of the southern tribes all of the land north of the Red River, south of the Platte River and west of the Mississippi to the rocky mountians was made indian territory forever in the 1830's by 1850 Kansas was granted state hood and the Government was encouraging settlement by white easterners. That is about how long a treaty with our government lasts.

 

[Benny]

Ross, don't recall seeing

the Mayflower in Columbus fleet. Don't think you can pin that one on the Admiral.

 

[Joe]

Geez, Ross....

..that's the most ridiculous trail of reasoning I've heard from you. Please note that if Columbus hadn't made his voyage.... someone else would have. It was inevitable that the Americas would be discovered.... and that the riches of the new world would be coveted by others. There was no Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Peace Corps, United Nations, World Banking Org. or any International law protecting indigenous societies from invaders in those days. Why don't you blame the Normans, the Saracens, the Romans, the Huns, the Monguls, the Macedonians, or any other conquering civilization for the European mentality that resulted in colonization.Like a previous poster said, columbus' voyage is significant in that it led Europe out of the dark ages into The Age of Discovery and the Renaissance. Your native americans came here by a different route, Siberia I believe, and they have a history of violence as vivid as any other culture from Europe, Asia or Africa. For me, I've never given much attention to Columbus Day... because it's always been more a celebration of Italian heritage rather than a tribute to sailing and navigation.

 

[Capt Ron;-)]

Touching Couque'

Not so Joe. Firstly, Mr. Ross has is entitled to his opinion, and yes, the fellow that said it was ineveitable is right.The American indians (aptly named after another Italian explorer) were NOT bloodthirsty murderers. They learned scalping and betraying from both English and French druing the French-American war, that is where we get the term 'Yankee' the Algonquins/mohawks could not pronounce English, so they would say "we go kill engeeze" later shortend to yangeeze..'Yankees' all from the north east.The Indians, before the white man's arrival, would kill other indians but not as often as some portray it. They had a 'game' touching couque or touching their enemy, stealing his weapons or knocking him down (before there was a word for this is was) this was much braver than killing, and they would take prisoners to do work then let them loose come winter to return to their respective tribes.The Rensiansse, or 'rebirth' started in Florence with Michelanglo, Leanardo, Lorenzon and many others after the dark ages, this was before Columbus, and had beginnings with Marco Polo another Italian great who brought chess to Europe from its origins in India...where 'indians' recieved their name...Scientists agree that the first to land on the mainland of North America was Lief Erickson, following the groundwork of Erik the Red; Columbus never set a foot on the mainland and he made several trips.

 

[Swandriver]

Cpt Ron - The American Indians

"were NOT bloodthirsty murderers" ... well, not any more blood thristy than any other group of people. "They had a 'game' touching couque or touching their enemy" - and they took slaves, had human sacrifices in MesoAmerica, destroyed their enemies and had constant warfare amongs the tribes?Indians were and are no different than anyone else. The point is Columbus day is recognition of the opening of the "new world". Maybe many others came to the Americas first - they didn't tell anyone. Celebrate it or don't, blaming the world's problems on him is a little bit of a fantasy.Have a Sangria and go sailing.

 

[Paul Akers]

William?

Practice, Practice, Practice...You'll have the winter to practice at the shoreline. Cape Cod is a great place to practice. I met some cruisers that informed me of a location on Nantucket that's supposed to be an ideal location to practice the logitude siting that needs to be practiced. Look it up!

 

[maccauley123]

Follow up to Ross

I just wanted to follow up to Ross's comment on what Jared Diamond explained in "Guns Germs and Steel". An excellent book by the way.From the beginnings of man's history stronger tribes moved in and took over land from weaker tribes. It has been happening for thousands of years. Columbus was not the first, nor was he the last. This is how much of the world became populated, those who developed farming technology were stronger and eventually expanded, taking over those who were weaker.Columbus was only doing what has been done for ages. Europe was simply made up of the most advanced and strongest tribes on earth at the time and expansion was inevitable.What he did was extremely risky and noteworthy. Saw an excellent program about his voyage last night on PBS. Now they were true sailors.