THE CARIBBEAN AS COLUMBUS SAW IT

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1964

Between 1492, when he made the first transatlantic crossing in history, and his death in 1506, Columbus sailed four times to the Caribbean. This present book might well be titled Columbus's Fifth Voyage, for it tells of a one-plane air expedition which in 1963 followed his wake in the Caribbean, photographing every coast and island he saw and correlating his records with its own. The expedition consisted of a Cessna plane, ""Six-zero-Papa,"" a photographer, David Crofoot, and two of Columbus's fervent, admirers: Prof. Morison, USNA, his historian and biographer, and the diplomat, Maurico Obregon, owner and pilot of the Cessna. From the book emerge not merely the islands on which Columbus landed and the seas he sailed, but the man himself: skilled navigator and master seaman, with his stout little ships and his grumbling sailors, and his conviction that he had reached China. The chief difference between the two expeditions was that of speed. Both Columbus and his air-borne successors relied on dead reckoning; both saw the same shore-lines; Columbus worried about water, but not about currency problems, customs officers, not ever-present Calypso singers in hotels. Filled with photographs (which this reviewer has not seen), this informal and accurate historical ravelogue will appeal to Caribbean travelers and Columbus enthusiasts on shore, in small boats, and on the decks of cruise-ships.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: ittle, Brown-A.M.P.

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION