Riley Griffin, age 11, of Hutchinson, Kan., for his question:
DID CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS WANT TO PROVE THE WORLD WAS ROUND?
Christopher Columbus, called the discoverer of America, was one of the greatest seamen and navigators of all time. He definitely was not trying to prove that the world was round, as so often has been said. He didn't have to because he and most thinking people of his time knew the world was round.
When Columbus sailed westward from Spain in 1492, he was simply trying to find a short sea route to the Indies. He had no fear at all of dropping off the edge of a flat earth.
Prior to Columbus' first westward voyage he had been corresponding with Paolo Toscannelli, a learned man of Florence who believed that Japan lay only 3,000 nautical miles west of Lisbon, Portugal.
Columbus expected, by sailing 2,400 nautical miles west along the latitudes of the Canary Islands, to reach a group of islands near Japan where the natives would accept him as lord and master. There he planned to establish a great city for trading the products of the East and the West.
It is interesting to note that in the Philippine Islands, which the Spanish occupied some 60 years after Columbus' death, the great navigator's dream was achieved.
Columbus had a difficult time in selling his simple plan because the learned men to whom it was referred had a more nearly correct idea of the size of the world than he. As a bird flies, it is about 11,000 nautical miles from the Canaries to Japan.
Columbus wrongly estimated the size of the globe and the width of the Atlantic. This mistake made him think that Japan was about where the Virgin Islands are located.
In 1485 Columbus went to Spain to offer his services to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The experts told the sovereigns to dismiss the idea, but the queen liked it. The royal treasurer persuaded her to support the trip, telling her she would be missing a great opportunity if she didn't. The queen offered to pawn the crown jewels to raise money but the treasurer supplied the funds. Isabella kept her jewelry and also won a new world.
Columbus thought he had missed his chance in Spain. He was actually riding a mule homeward to Italy when the queen's messenger caught up with him and gave him the good news that the voyage to the new world would be made.
Columbus was given everything he asked for: ships, honors, titles and a percentage of the trade that would result. No discoverer was ever promised so much before his performance. No discoverer's performance so greatly exceeded his promise.
The treasurer supplied the funds which amounted to about $14,000. Columbus was given three vessels for his voyage. They were the Santa Maria and two smaller vessels, the Pinta and the Nina.
The vessels were made of wood. The Santa Maria was manned by 40 men, the Pinta by 26 men and the Nina by 24.
Columbus had no instrument for "shooting a star" except a crudequadrant that was not accurate when the ship rolled. Columbus navigated by dead reckoning. He knew just enough celestial navigation to measure latitude from the North Star.