11. Portugal and its sailing ships

Or how Portugal led the way in charting and mastering the open seas

Updated March 10, 2024

For the past eight articles, I have focused on the French exploration of Canada through the work of Jacques Cartier. France was not the only European nation to have gone to Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and possibly even up the St. Lawrence River. As I have touched upon previously, this entire area was rich in cod, whales and other prizes to take back to European ports. The money earned easily paid for the voyages and salt required to bring their catches back. But how did they manage to get to these rich fishing grounds. They certainly didn’t row there. The development of the Caravel by the Portuguese allowed the Basques, the English and even the French fishermen to venture across the Atlantic and first discover, then exploit the untapped wealth that was so easy to catch below and sometimes swimming on the ocean surface.

So, how did the Portuguese develop the revolutionary ocean-going ship called the Caravel? I hope to answer this briefly in this article.

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