Podcast – Columbus’ Crew Imprisoned, Released and the Return to Spain

From the Book
Colonial American History Stories – 1215 – 1664

Greetings, today I will talk about Columbus perilous voyage back to Spain.

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About a month after Columbus’ ships departed Hispaniola a fierce storm blew up. Heavy winds tossed the ships on tall, angry waves. The storm’s intensity increased. Columbus, fearing that the ships would perish in the storm, prepared a written account of the voyage, rolled it up, sealed it with wax and stuck it in a bottle, which he corked and sealed with more wax. He hoped that if the ships sank, some account of the voyage would be found, he tossed the bottle into the raging seas.

The storms continued for two days. The terrified crew prayed and promised that if they survived the tempest, they would all attend Mass. They also drew lots to determine which of them would embark on a spiritual pilgrimage at the conclusion of the voyage. Columbus drew the lot to go on the pilgrimage. The storm did abate, however the intensity of it once again separated the Nina and the Pinta. Pinzon and Columbus would not meet again until both ships returned to Spain. The storm had caused some damage to the ship and it needed repairs.

The crew sighted some islands nearby. Thinking they were the Canary Islands, Columbus entered a port and dropped anchor. Instead of a friendly port, they had anchored in a port in the Portuguese controlled Azores. The governor had half of Columbus’ crew imprisoned. Unluckily for him, the half the governor imprisoned comprised the best men in the crew. Columbus sailed once around the island. This short foray showed him that he really needed those men.

Somehow he managed to convince the governor to release his men. They sailed on without the needed repairs.

Another storm blew up, once again threatening to founder the ship. The ship finally limped into port in Lisbon, Spain on March 4, 1493. Columbus requested, and received, an audience with King John of Portugal. He stayed there about a week before returning to Spain on March 15. Word had leaked out about his voyage and the Spanish monarchs had heard about it, as had the entire Spanish nation.

Upon his return he drafted two letters, one of which he addressed to King Ferdinand and the other the main financial backer of the voyage, Luis de Santangel. In the letters he built a case for another voyage to the lands he had visited. Since he was trying to entice business men to invest more money, he stressed the good points of the lands he visited and downplayed the cons.

Somehow his letters found there way to printers, who printed them and distributed them. The letters sparked a good deal of interest and set off fierce competition between the European nations to plant colonies in this New World.

That concludes this episode. Next week we begin Columbus’ second voyage. These podcasts are based on articles from my book, Colonial American History Stories – 1215 – 1664. The articles in the book contain much more detail about the topics discussed. Additionally, there are other topics not included in the podcast. I encourage you to subscribe to both my web site, mossyfeetbooks.com and this You Tube channel.
I hope you enjoyed this podcast and thank you for listening.