Gago Coutinho

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Gago Coutinho, 1922

Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho (born February 17, 1869 in Lisbon , † February 18, 1959 there ) was an officer in the navy, navigator and historian . He was born in the Madragoa district of Lisbon. His greatest merit is crossing the South Atlantic route by plane . His report on the flight, along with other flight documents, was declared World Document Heritage in 2010 .

He traveled all over the world in the service of the Portuguese Navy . Among other things, he was briefly a lieutenant on the gunboat Zaire and commanded the gunboat Pátria when it was used in the Manufahi rebellion in Portuguese Timor . Coutinho eventually achieved the post of admiral. At the same time he drew attention to himself as a historian. He wrote several works on history and geography , mainly on the Portuguese voyages of discovery, such as "O Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama" and his version of the " Lusíadas ", the national epic of Portugal.

Route of the first South Atlantic crossing by plane

From 1898 he wrote some geographical works about the Portuguese overseas territories, in the course of which he also traveled to Africa. Together with Sacadura Cabral he flew the Lisbon- Funchal route in 1921 , before he and his partner became world-famous in 1922 when they were the first to fly the South Atlantic route from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro .

He again spent the last years of his life dedicating himself to Portuguese history as a seafaring nation. His essays from that period are summarized in the work “Náutica dos Descobrimentos”.

He received several awards for his life's work and was revered as the Sebastian Messiah in Portugal , at a time when the national feeling of the proud seafaring nation Portugal was badly damaged.

  • Monument to the first flight from Portugal to Madeira in Funchal

  • Monument in honor of Gago Coutinho in Funchal

  • Memorial to the first flight over the South Atlantic in Mindelo (Cape Verde)

literature

  • Horst Dieter Maurer: In flight over the Atlantic. The pioneering work of Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral , in: Schiff & Zeit / Panorama maritim , No. 74, autumn 2011, pp. 37–44.

Web links

Commons : Gago Coutinho  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ First flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922. In: Memory of the World - Register. UNESCO , 2010, accessed August 28, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Coutinho, Gago
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coutinho, Carlos Viegas Gago (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese navy officer, navigator and historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1959
Place of death Lisbon