The ceremony included implanting the flag of St.
This assumption discounts the accuracy of Cabot’s latitude measurement by an amount that would be very unlikely for such a seasoned navigator.Īt this spot Cabot would have gone ashore for a stable place to measure latitude and to perform a brief ceremony taking possession of the land for King Henry VII. Some historians and residents of Nova Scotia claim Cabot landed at Cape Breton, over 300 miles to the south. Cabot did not anchor there, and his probable landing is a bay a few miles to the south.
English sailors in the 15th century had no knowledge of that settlement, so Cabot would have assumed that he was the first European to visit that site.
The voyage from Dursey Head, Ireland, the last point of land in the British Isles, to Newfoundland was only 32 days, a record speed that held for almost a century.Ĭabot’s probable landfall was remarkably close to L’Anse aux Meadows, the site of Leif Ericson’s Viking settlement established nearly 500 years earlier in 1001. The exact location is unknown, however the most probable site is the northeast portion of the northern peninsula of Newfoundland Island. The Mathew reached Newfoundland late in the afternoon on June 24th. His course was due west along latitude 51˚ 33′ which he expected would take him to northern coast of China. Aboard were Cabot, his young son Sebastian, and a crew of eighteen men. Although the letters patent authorized five ships, Cabot had financial support for only one a small, fifty ton caravel, the Mathew. Henry VII was unimpressed and ignored the protest.Īfter an abortive start in 1496, Cabot sailed west from England in May, 1497, five years after Columbus sailed from Spain. On that basis the Spanish king protested when he heard of Cabot’s plans to sail into the new lands. Spain and Portugal expected England and all others to stay out of their global land grab. International recognition of Cabot’s discoveries was doubtful from the beginning. Cabot and his sons could govern these newly claimed lands in the King’s name and could profit from the produce of these lands, paying 20 percent to the crown. Cabot was granted authority to sail under Henry’s banner to all parts of the east, west, and north with five ships to “seek and find lands of the infidels and heathens” which were not previously known to Christians. It is known that in March 1496, Henry VII granted letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, Lewes, Sebastian, and Santius. It is certain they both learned the seafaring trade by signing on with ships out of Genoa. Perhaps they spent time together at the pier watching ships and talking to sailors. Little is known about Cabot, but it is quite likely that he and Columbus knew each other as young boys in Genoa between 14. Today we usually regard him as an Englishman and call him John Cabot. Also at just this right moment a Genoese navigator named Giovanni Cabotto was in Bristol to present a plan for finding a passage through the new continent. After hearing of Columbus’s great discovery, the merchants of Bristol, one of England’s prominent ports, saw a chance to start a lucrative trade with the Orient and perhaps find some new fishing areas. After watching Spain and Portugal reap the riches of the New World, King Henry VII of England could not help wanting part of the action.
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