Vasco da Gama's Voyage: Myths and Realities in Maritime History
2003; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 19; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/port.2003.0012
ISSN2222-4270
Autores Tópico(s)Travel Writing and Literature
ResumoVascoda Gama'sVoyage: Myths andRealities in Maritime History FRANCISCO CONTENTE DOMINGUES Fivehundred yearsafter Vascoda Gama'svoyagetoIndiaitcaneasilybe said thatwhat we reallyknow about it is more the resultof a reappreciation ofgeneral information abouttheCarreira da India,thanthe reflection ofprecise data aboutthevoyageitself.1 Itcan also be saidthat Portuguese maritime history is,now,welldocumented fortheperiodthat coversthelatesixteenth andthefirst halfoftheseventeenth century, due to a massiveamountof documentation that coversmost aspects of maritime enterprise, suchas thecharacteristics ofships, thesalariesofthe crew, theroutes takenandlife onboardship. A sortof contradiction arisesfromthefactthattraditional historiography would clearlyprefer theopposite:theearlyvoyagesbeingthe subject ofstudy concerned with theso-called glorious eraofthePortuguese maritime enterprise, withthemissing data generally obtainedthrough a simplistic retrospective projection of knowninformation. On theother hand,whentheinformation is reallyobtainable, letus say,from c. 1580 onwards, we enter thedarksideofPortuguese maritime history from the samepointofview:joinedwithSpain,thecountry wouldhavecollapsedif it had had to faceSpanishchallengers to themaritime routes,and the Dutchand theEnglishwouldhave succeededin challenging Portuguese supremacy ofthemaritime route toIndia.ThePortuguese navywouldthen have collapsedand almostovernightthecountry would have seen its empirebecomea shadowof whatit was - according to some.Sucha perspective is crystalized in one sentence byOliveiraMartins:'Portugal acaba; os Lusíadassäo umepitafio'.2 Loss is not,by itself, an appealingsubject.Makingtheeffort to reexaminedocuments and conclusions, itis alwayseasierto look back to earliertimeswhenthenavaland maritime supremacy ofPortugal could notbe questioned. Vascoda Gama's voyagecan be identified withoneof thosemoments thatdramatically changedtheeventsofhistory. It was a turning point.Thiswasdefinitely notthecasewithexpeditions ofthelate sixteenth century, whenshipssailedtheseasas they hadalwaysdone,but nowwith theexpectation oftheobstacles thatpredicted theendofanera. 1For a generaloverviewof the Carreira da India, see Francisco Contente Domingues, A Carreirada India. The India Run (Lisbon:CTT Correiosde Portugal,1998). 2 J. P. Oliveira Martins,Historia de Portugal(Lisbon: ImprensaNacional-Casa da Moeda, 1988),p. 266. 2 FRANCISCO CONTENTE DOMINGUES The evidenceis notas obviousor impressive as one wouldlike.As a technique ofapproach thepictorial dramaprovides aneasyandconvenient solution. The margin forsustainable hypothesis isalso largebecausethere is little to disprove it;thehypothesis thusbecoming a sortof'historical fact'. The myths surrounding Vasco da Gama himself and hisvoyagewere mainly created inthelatenineteenth century, morethana century ago.3At thistimea groupofscholars devotedto maritime history beganto study thisparticular subject, boththrough intensive workinthearchives, andby writing monographs on thehistory of maritime voyages.At thistime Portugal wasfacing a very serious political trauma, beingunabletosustain its projectsof expansionin Africain theface of British colonialism.4 Maritime history was themirror thecountry neededto reflect itspastas wellas thefuture. Unableto find theprecise information they wantedledthesehistorians toconclude thatthings must havebeensimilar inthelatesixteenth century towhatcamelater:Gama'svoyagewasthenunderstood as theresult ofa long periodof experimentation, bothfromthe viewpoint of previous maritime voyages ofexploration, andfrom thenewly uncovered informationaboutthetechnical resources then available. It is an unquestionable factthatthe Portuguese art of navigation, developedduringthefifteenth century, was a majorachievement in the history of navigation(perhapsthe greatest Portuguese achievement in maritime history).5 Author DavidWaters suggests thatthedevelopment of navigationbegan even earlier.6 The processand proceduresare well documented, and itis also knownthatnauticalscienceis thebranchof history wherePortuguese historians excelinan international perspective, due to scholarssuch as Luciano Pereirada Silva,ArmandoCortesäo, Avelino Teixeira da Mota,and,aboveall,LuísdeAlbuquerque.7 3 See AbdoolkarimVakil,'Varios Vascos da Gama', in O Tempo de Vasco da Gama, ed. by Diogo Ramada Curto(Lisbon:Comissäo Nacional para as Comemoraçoesdos Descobrimentos Portuguese- Difel, 1998), pp. 353-78; and O 'Centenarioda India' [1898] e a memòriada viagemde Vasco da Gama, ed. byJorgeManuel Flores(Lisbon: CNCDP, 1998). See also in the samevolume,SergioCampos Matos, 'O "Centenarioda India" (1898) no Portugalfinissecular', pp. 119-38; and CarmenRadulet,'Vasco da Gama e a sua viagemna memorianacional (séculos XV-XX)', pp. 157-71. Many moretitlescould easilybe added to thislist,butthesegivea good overviewand biblioeraohv. 4 Foran understanding ofthediscoveries fromtheperspective ofPortuguese historiography of thenineteenth century, seeSèrioCampos Matos, 'Ahistoriografía portuguesa dos descobrimentos no século XIX', in La culturaen la PenínsulaIbérica, Los 98 Ibéricosy el mar, 2 (Madrid: Sociedad EstatalLisboa '98, 1998),55-80. Luís de Albuquerque,Dúvidas e Certezasna Historia dos Descobrimentos(Lisbon: Vega, 1991), 11. David Waters,'Columbus's Portuguese Inheritance', Mariner'sMirror,78 (1992), 385-40*. 7 W. G. L. Randies,'Luís de Albuquerqueand theHistoryofNautical ScienceinPortugal',in Luís de Albuquerque Historiadore Matemàtico (Lisbon: Chaves Ferreira-Publicaçoes, 1998), pp. 135-4*- VASCO DA GAMA'S VOYAGE 3 Butifwe considerthekindsof shipsGama sailedto India in things becomecompletely different. The nau>thecargovesseltypically usedon theIndiarun, wasofcoursethevesselusedbyGama,although accounts of thetimerefer tobarinéis as shipsofthefleet. The questionisnotwhether...
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