Captain Jack Sparrow Inc. sells new and used pirate ships. It makes most of its money from new products and attempts to move used ones quickly, particularly since the pirating season is greatly shortened during hurricane season, and it does not want to be caught with extensive storage costs throughout the summer. Each September it has a major “blow-out, ships-ahoy” sale which is heavily promoted and provides genuine savings. Davey Jones is in the market for a used pirate ship. He tells the salesperson he wants a basic pirate, “no pirate tricks,” and as good a deal as he can get.
Cabrillo hoped to find a wealthy city know as Cibola, and somewhere in the Pacific coast, and a connecting route to the Northwest Passage. The expedition sailed out of the port of Navidad, on June 1542 and brought with him a crew of sailors, soldiers, and Indians in three ships. By the end of the month Cabrillo passed Baja Point and entered uncharted waters, where no Spanish ships gone before. On the 28th of September he landed on an island which he named San Salvador, after his flagship. They reached as far north as the Russian River before the autumn storms forced them to turn back to San Salvador on November 23, 1542.
He built hotels, and then bought railroads to connect them to other hotels, improving and even founding cities as he moved down the east coast to Miami. When others would have stopped, he saw the possibilities of continuing to Key West and accepted the challenge. By connecting an isolated string of islands to the rest of the world, Henry Morrison Flagler made his dream and The Keys come true. Born in Hopewell, New York in 1830, he left school at age 14 and moved to Ohio to work (and live) with his half-brother at a general store. Being a natural salesman, he quickly advanced from his original salary of $5 a month, and by age 22, he was partners with his half-brother in a grain business and distillery (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2004).
Local African kings scrutinized the European trading posts that they permitted along the Gold and Slave Coasts and collected profitable rents and fees from these traders and merchants. Europeans established colonial footholds in only two places--Angola and Cape
Columbus operated a little mapmaking and bookselling shop with his brother Bartolomeo while he lived in Portugal. 9. Columbus first landed near the coast of what is today known as Watling Island in the Bahamas. Although he thought he was near China, Japan, and India, he was actually more than 8,000 miles away. 10.
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima speaks of Christopher Columbus’ diary, which spoke of his many voyages and discoveries. After his second voyage, the Portuguese informed Columbus of Africans in large boats with merchandise sailing west of the Cape Verde islands. The Portuguese were aware of African navigation because they had been in Africa since 1415. Not only did the Portuguese tell Columbus of Africans but Natives in the Olmec civilization spoke of Africans as well. The Olmec civilization, was the first civilization established in the Americas.
The Age of Exploration, also known as the Great Navigations, was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and mapping the planet. Historians often refer to the Age of Exploration as the pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to the Indies, moved by the trade of gold, silver and spices. During this time period newer conquests of foreign lands and discoveries were made all due to the immense contributions of the advances in maritime technology. Such technological advances that aided the early pioneers were the quadrant. The quadrant was a device for measuring the angular height of a star or the sun.
Cartwright and Baird (1999) reveal that in 1801 the first steam driven ship commenced service in Scotland and over the following years wooden steam ships were used only for short journeys. In 1818 the first transatlantic crossing was made taking nearly 28 days and in 1839 Samuel Cunard was awarded the transatlantic mail contract which commenced on 4th July 1839. Ships such as the Britannia made the transatlantic crossing much safer and quicker for passengers and in 1843 the first steel hulled, propeller driven ship changed the future of the shipping industry. Ocean liners entered into service as early as 1881 and in the 1890’s Orient Line offered regular Caribbean, Mediterranean and Scandinavian cruises, by 1901 the White Star Line had placed its first ship into service and in 1912 Cunard commenced the first dual purpose ocean/cruise lines. Cruising at this time was still expensive and was mostly used for transport between two points however, ocean travel was considered to be completely safe until the Titanic disaster in 1912.
Significance of Exploration Christopher Columbus is a very important person in our country's history. He found the "New World," the one we live in today. Columbus was a noble man with unparalleled intentions. He was an Italian explorer and navigator who sailed west across the Altantic Ocean in search for the all-water route to Asia. Columbus’s courage and curiosity sparked the movement of exploration.
Access to commodities such as fabrics, spices, and gold motivated a European quest for a faster means to reach South Asia. It was this search that led the Portuguese down the coast of West Africa to Sierra Leone in 1460. Due to several technological and cultural advantages, Portugal dominated world trade for nearly 200 years, from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries. While, in the fifteenth century, the rest of Europe was decimated by the Black Plague, Portugal was protected by its physical isolation. Additionally, Portugal had an unusually strong national identity, due to its natural geographic borders, allowing the pooling of the considerable economic resources necessary to fund these ambitious explorations.