Christopher Columbus' lost ship, the Santa Maria, may have been found!

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by u crank

His fear was based on the fact that he had not found what he had promised to find; the riches of China.

I haven't seen anyone speculate about it in print, but I've always wondered if Columbus himself had a pretty good idea of the truth of his discoveries, but never dared admit it for that very fear. He had after all claimed the world was much smaller than his opponents did, and his claims were based on the work of Martinus of Tyre, which gave a much smaller estimate than did the findings of Ptolemy two hundred years later.

I also wonder if he didn't use the computations for a smaller earth intentionally, convinced that he would never get backing if he admitted the voyage might have been longer than was feasible at the time.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I haven't seen anyone speculate about it in print, but I've always wondered if Columbus himself had a pretty good idea of the truth of his discoveries, but never dared admit it for that very fear.

I also wonder if he didn't use the computations for a smaller earth intentionally, convinced that he would never get backing if he admitted the voyage might have been longer than was feasible at the time.

Well that seems to be Bergreen's conclusion. He paints a somewhat unflattering portrait of Columbus but does consider him to be a brilliant sailor, given the technology of his time. Basically nothing. What he does seem to say is that Columbus did indeed to a certain extent, intentionally mislead people as to what he had discovered and also was intentionally vague about how to get there. Course he didn't want anybody else to get the credit or the perceived riches that he was sure were just over the horizon. In the end Columbus died without being exactly aware of what or where the lands were that he discovered. He had no idea about the size of South America, the existence of North America and that a huge ocean had to be crossed to get to China.

[TarJak]