The voyage of the Matthew

John Cabot · 1497 CE · Earth

The voyage of the Matthew — John Cabot · 1497 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Find a short western route to the spice lands of Asia for English merchants.

Historical context

Bristol merchants had been sending ships west in search of the island of Brasil for a decade before Cabot arrived, and Henry VII wanted a share of what Spain had found in the south. One small ship and eighteen men went out on a rumour and came back with a continent nobody yet understood.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Out of Bristol

    May 1497

    In May 1497 the Matthew drops down the Avon with a crew of about eighteen and provisions for a season.

  2. Last land at Dursey Head

    1497 CE

    Rounding the south-west corner of Ireland, the Matthew takes her departure and steers west into open ocean.

  3. Thirty-five days west

    1497 CE

    A single ship of some fifty tons holds a westerly course through fog and contrary winds for five weeks.

  4. Landfall, 24 June

    24 June 1497

    On midsummer day a wooded coast rises ahead; Cabot names it the New Found Land and raises the banners of England and Venice.

  5. A snare and a needle

    1497 CE

    The only landing party stays within bowshot of the ship and finds a fire pit, a snare for game and a bone netting needle.

  6. The cod grounds

    1497 CE

    Coasting south, the crew find a sea so thick with fish that they can be lifted aboard in weighted baskets.

  7. Ten pounds for a continent

    6 August 1497

    The Matthew is back in Bristol on 6 August; Cabot rides to court and is granted a pension of twenty pounds a year.

Outcome

Reached a wooded coast, almost certainly Newfoundland, and returned in ten weeks with news of inexhaustible cod.

John Cabot

Venetian navigator who sailed from Bristol in 1497 and made the first documented European landfall in North America since the Norse.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

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