Prince Henry the Navigator

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Prince Henry the Navigator
Susan M. Pojer, Web Mistress http//www.pptpaloo
za.net/

• And his school of navigation at Sagres, Portugal
• By
• Deborah L. Hoeflinger

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Prince Henry the Navigator

• Prince Henry the Navigator (Dom Henrique) was the
  son of King João of Portugal, born in 1394. He is
  most famous for the voyages of discovery that he
  organized and financed, which eventually led to
  the rounding of Africa and the establishment of
  sea routes to the Indies. Henry was also a very
  devout man, and was Governor of the Order of
  Christ from 1420 until his death in 1460.

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the end of the world where the waters of the
ocean boil at sunset. (Roman name for Sagres.)
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Sagres, Portugal's Lands End.

• This place, a promontory on the edge of the open
  ocean, had an otherworldly reputation, and had
  been called the Sacred Promontory by Marinus and
  Ptolomy (from which the name Sagres derives.)

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Sagres

• The exact location of Henry's School of
  Navigation is not known. It is generally accepted
  that he sited his headquarters at Sagres and
  created a settlement on land granted by the
  crown. The settlement came to be known as Vila do
  Infante, or Prince's town. This is popularly
  believed to have been situated on the headland
  within the walls of the forteleza which were
  rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. The only
  building still surviving and thought to have been
  around in more or less its present form in
  Henry's day, is the starkly simple little church
  within the fortress

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The Work at Sagres

• Here, the legend goes, Prince Henry made his base
  for sea exploration, making it a centre for
  cartography, navigation and shipbuilding. The
  Catalan Jew from Majorca, Jehuda Cresques, son of
  the cartographer Abraham Cresques, was brought to
  Sagres to supervise the collation of geographic
  facts brought back by Henry's explorers, who were
  encouraged and later required to keep detailed
  logs of their voyages. Muslims and Arabs,
  Italians from Genoa and Venice, Germans and
  Scandinavians came to Sagres.

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SagresLands End

• Under Henry's patronage, a community of brilliant
  scholars came here to teach and to study,  and 
  accumulated and correlated nautical knowledge as
  it was brought back by captains of successive
  voyages to hitherto unknown places. The scholars
  in turn instructed less experienced captains
  about Atlantic currents and wind systems and the
  latest navigational methods. Cartography was
  refined with the use of newly devised
  instruments. Maps were regularly updated and
  extended. A revolutionary type of vessel, the
  caravel, was designed.

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Sagres Successes

• Navigational instruments,such as the quadrant,
  and new mathematical tables to aid in determining
  latitude.

• The local port of Lagos saw the development of a
  new type of ship, the caravel.

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Voyages of Discovery

• During the two-year period from 1444 to 1446,
  Prince Henry intensified the exploration of
  Africa, sending between 30 and 40 of his ships on
  missions. The last voyage sponsored by Prince
  Henry sailed over 1,500 miles down the African
  coast.
• Although he never sailed on the expeditions, the
  voyages that he paid for in the mid-1400s helped
  launch Portugal into the front of the race to
  find a sea route to the Indies.

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The Islands

• Henry's first success was the discovery of the
  small island of Porto Santo.

• Soon after, he went on to discover Madeira.
• Later, he discovered and colonized the Azores.

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Sagres Importance
The most southerly community in Portugal and the
most south-westerly in continental Europe is at
Sagres, overlooking the Bay of Sagres, which is
itself flanked by two headlands Atalaia Point
and Sagres Point. It is only when you catch sight
of the grey ramparts of the fortress blocking off
the massive plateau of Sagres Point and cast your
eye around the 10 km arc of sheer cliffs to the
lighthouse at Cape St. Vincent that you get a
real feeling for the tremendous historical
importance of this place. It was at least as
important during the Age of Discovery as Cape
Canaveral was during the early years of space
exploration. When the weather is fair, it can be
a powerful sensation to sit quietly anywhere
along the clifftops here and look out to sea and
ponder the extraordinary adventurers who have
passed this way.
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Henrys Death

• Henry lived in the vicinity of Sagres for most of
  his life and this is where he died on November
  13, 1460 at the age of 66. He had opened the way,
  but had not lived long enough to savour and share
  the successes of Bartolomeu Dias who rounded the
  Cape of Good Hope in 1488, and Vasco da Gama who
  finally pushed through the sea route to India in
  1498.

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Susan M. Pojer, Web Mistress http//www.pptpaloo
za.net/