Sagres photo by G. Wilson

Sagres photo by G. Wilson

Sagres photo by G. Wilson

Sagres, a precipice known as the Sacred Promontory, was established in 1420 by Henrique, son of the King of Portugal, on the south-western tip of Portugal and Europe. This ridge, high atop windswept crags where land ends and the boundless sea begins, is starkly beautiful. Perpetual winds whistle over the barren headland and out across the ocean whose white caps dot the distance as far as the eye can see. Below, the sea surges ashore, thundering and foaming against the rocky ramparts of fortress Europe. Sensational sights and sounds combine with the smell of the sea, its salty fragrance clean and sharp at this hauntingly desolate place that the Romans named Sacrum promotorium, 'the promontory where gods gathered'. Ships passing this last lonely point of land dip their sails in tribute to the man and his memory.

Here on this craggy location, Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the great driving forces behind exploration movements, held his small court, an informal clearing house of nautical knowledge and enterprise. He gathered about him the greatest sailors and scientists of the day to plot Portugal's conquest of the seas. Among his courtiers were astronomers and ship-builders, cartographers and instrument-makers, navigators and geographers, men like himself fascinated with discovery and seaborne trade.

Henry's Fortress photo by G. Wilson

His eyrie at Sagres was an oblong defensive works enclosing plain stone buildings, the ruins of which remain on the bleak landscape. Inside the walls of the fortress which date from the 15th century, there is a large, impressive geometric figure which was discoverd in 1928. Made of rough stones and measuring some 43 metres in diameter, it is thought to be a rosa dos ventos, a 'wind rose' or mariner's compass dating back to Henry's time.

Rosa dos Ventos photo by G. Wilson

Here Henry concentrated everything needed to attract and supply seamen - naval provisions, food, water, even a chapel for worship. In addition he accumulated invaluable information about winds, tides and ocean currents as well as improved maps and charts he had commissioned. By combining knowledge, skill and daring, Henry opened uncharted seas to discovery and exploration and in the process inspired faith and dispelled myths about the "end of the world." Sagres was a hive of effort and energy and the point of departure for explorers who launched the Age of Portuguese discoveries thereby enlarging the known world.

Statue of Henry the Navigator photo by G. Wilson

Inspired by Henry's vision and nurtured by his knowledge, his captains inched their way down the coast of Africa for it lured Henry most insistently. His navigators has sailed south only to encournter the great bulge which disheartened them and they sailed back fearing tales of horrible things awaiting anyone who ventured around this hump in the continent. Henry ordered them back and finally they rounded the bulge and found not fear but fair and fertile lands. Thereafter all their trips were trial runs for the long voyage around Africa and west to the new world. Henry sent out expeditions to islands off Portugal and along the African coast past Cape Verde. His captains discovered Madeira and other jewels of the sea like the Azores and Cape Verde Islands and pushed down the coast of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea. For forty years he and his aides gathered and studied accounts of sailors and other travellers making Portugal in the process the acknowledged centre of geographic and maritime science.

Portugal was to ocean exploration what the United States and Russia are to space research. No less brave than astronauts and cosmonauts who soar into space were seaman who sailed into unknown seas "to seek, to find and not to yieled."

Lisbon's Monument to Explorers photo by G. Wilson

Monument to Explorers

Located at the mouth of the Tagus River is Lisbon's Monument to the brave discoverers, a huge, stylized sandstone ship, its crew composed of Portugal's great explorers. At their head in the prow stands Henry the Navigator holding in his hands a model of the caravel, the rugged little vessel that ploughed the perilous seas in search of a precious cargo: information and insights.

Henry the Navigator

The Portuguese pioneered the European exploration and one of Portugal's greatest explorers was Vasco da Gama.

Vasco da Gama

As much as anyone after Henry the Navigator, Gama was responsible for Portugal's success as an early colonizing power. His astute mix of politics and war on the other side of the world placed Portugal in a prominent position in Indian Ocean trade. He died in 1524 of malaria and was buried at St. Francis Church, Fort Kochi, but his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539 and re-interred in Vidigueira in a splendid tomb.

Vasco Da Gama's Tomb photo by G. Wilson

One of the most efficient ships in history, the Portuguese caravel had the special distinction of being able to sail against the wind. Its predecessors lacked this facility and as a result were pinned to the coast of Europe by the prevailing westerly winds. Its secret - a lateen or triangular sail "whose lower edge almost feathered the sea. The yards were rigged from the deck and by simply moving them from one side of the vessel to the other, the sail would open from any quarter according to the direction of the wind."

THE CARAVEL [Daring explorers set out into perilous seas in search of new lands. Their frail vessel, the caravel, a small, highly manoeuverable, two or three-masted ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for long voyages of exploration beginning in the 15th century.]

THE CARAVEL [A small 15th and 16th century ship that has broad bows, a high, narrow poop and usually three masts with lateen or both square and lateen sails.]

More valuable than Henry's lifetime achievements was the impetus he gave to exploration which continued long after his death. It led to discovery and maping of two-thirds of the globe as we know it today and opened up routes to Brazil, India, and the Far East. Before Henry's time, men shared the spirit of discovery. He orchestrated it.

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Copyright © 2007 W. R. Wilson