Vasco da gama travel routes
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Vasco da gama travel routes
Vasco da Gama’s voyage 1497-1498
In 1497, King Manuel I of Portugal chose Vasco da Gama to lead the first maritime expedition to the Indies.
The route had already been opened up by Bartolomeu Dias who had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope ten years earlier.
In the meantime, Pero da Covilha had sent back to Lisbon valuable information on navigational conditions in the Indian Ocean.
Da Gama’s flotilla was composed of four ships.
It left Lisbon on 8 July and headed for the islands of Cape Verde.
It then sailed westwards taking advantage of the favourable winds in the South Atlantic before returning to the African coast at Saint Helena Bay.
The ships sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in mid-November, after struggling for several days against winds and strong currents.
Vasco da Gama then spent one month on the coast of what is now Natal Province, giving his crew time to recuperate their strength and repair the ships.
They then continued to sail along the eastern c