A tribute to Bartolomeu Dias

This is a small tribute to one of the greatest Portuguese Sailors: Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias was the first European to discover and sail around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.


The Story:

In 1486 the Portuguese King D. João II assigned Dias, a member of the royal court, to command a voyage with both spiritual and material aspirations: Dias was to search for the lands of Prester John (a legendary Christian priest and African king). The second goal was to search for a sea passage to the Indies and therefore, challenge the Muslim dominance of trade with Asia. To Bartolomeu Dias were given 3 ships: 2 caravels and a suply ship.

The expedition sailed off from Lisbon on August 1487. During this expedition Bartolomeu Dias manages to round the continent of Africa and thereby indicating the existence of a sea passage to the Indies.
History says that he lost sight of the south African coast driven by a violent storm, which lasted thirteen days, that took him far beyond the cape to the south. When calm weather returned he sailed again in an easterly direction and, when no land appeared, turned northward, landing in the "Baia de S. Brás" (Mossel Bay) on February 3 1488. Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope then Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, in 1488 without knowing it. It was only on his return voyage that he discovered the Cape of Good Hope in May 1488.

He originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II as the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the opening of a route to the east. The discovery of the passage around Africa was significant because for the first time Europeans could trade directly with India and Asia bypassing Middle East overland routes and middle men.

Dias returned to Lisbon in December 1488 after an absence of sixteen months and seventeen days. He explored a total of about 2,030 km of unknown African coast.

Bartolomeu Dias died in 1500 during a storm when his ship wrecked near the Cape of Good Hope, the same cape he had discovered and rounded 12 years before.