Welcome to the History of the Americans podcast, Episode 7.

I'm your host, Jack Heneman, and this episode is The Admiral of the Ocean Sea, part five, our last on Christopher Columbus.

I'm recording this on February 4th, 2021 in New Orleans.

Last week, we looked at Columbus's expedition as it moved around the Caribbean after the

first contact in the Bahamas, including the discovery of Cuba and Hispaniola, and more importantly,

for the long term, gold in the ground.

This time, we will discuss the visit home, which required impressive seamanship in the context of

delivering some of the most important news ever to travel by sea, and the spreading of that

news once Nina and Pinta got back to

Europe. The fleet left the Gulf of Arrows in the wee hours of January 16, 1493, carrying with

it the greatest geographical secret of all time. All that followed depended on Columbus getting back to Spain, and that was by no

means a foregone conclusion, since he and his expedition would be crossing the Atlantic and winter

over water that no other human had ever traversed. Columbus had learned from the voyage west

that the route from the canaries involved quite consistent Easterlies,

so going back the way he came would not make any sense.

While he knew that strong westerlies blew down on the Azores,

he did not know how far south and west of the Azores he was.

And in any case, Columbus really did not want to get caught up with the Portuguese who controlled

the Azores while he was on a mission for Spain, their rival, and occasional enemy.

In short, Columbus only knew part of what we know today about the clockwise circulation of winds in the Central Atlantic, from easterlies in the south to the Gulf Stream, then westerlies in the north.

Once again, Columbus made a major error that turned out in his favor.

He recorded in his journal that he had set a, quote, direct course for Spain,

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