Gil Eanes

Gil Eanes (first half of the 15th century) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer in the service of Henry the Navigator .

Statue for Gil Eanes in Lagos

Life

There is virtually no personal information about Gil Eanes. Most of the researchers see his birthplace in Lagos . Another group adopts the port city of Olhão . On behalf of Heinrich the Navigator, he tried in 1433 to bypass Cape Bojador on the southern Moroccan coast .

In the European Middle Ages, Cape Bojador was considered to be the end of the navigable sea areas, as south of it supposedly all life would be extinguished by the sun in a boiling lake and the skin would turn black. This opinion was supported by the inhospitable coastline, sandbanks and shallows, as well as the constant fog at Cape Bojador.

In 1434 Gil Eanes succeeded in sailing first a western and then a southern course over the Cape. At the level of the cape, he turned east and approached the coast cautiously. Probably a coincidence came to his aid in these maneuvers. The prevailing wind direction in these sea areas makes it necessary to cruise against the wind when heading south. The Portuguese ship types of that time could hardly do that . Eanes' little ship was single-masted with a square square sail . If Heinrich's captains wanted to advance further south, they could only do so with a new type of ship. In the following years the Portuguese therefore developed the caravel , with which it was possible to sail higher upwind and to cross more easily against one another.

Eanes stated that the sea remains navigable even after the Cape. To prove his discovery, reports the chronicler Gomes Eanes de Azurara in his Crónica do descobrimento e conquista da Guiné ( Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea ), he brought Henry the first "Roses of Saint Mary" ( Real Rose of Jericho ). The Portuguese kept this maritime masterpiece a secret. Some authors attribute another trip to Cape Bojador to him, after which the traces of Gil Eanes are lost in history.

On the memorial in his (possible) hometown of Lagos it is written: "He opened the ancient sea to modern man."

literature

• Portugal. Dicionário Histórico, Corográfico, Heráldico, Biográfico, Bibliográfico, Numismático e Artístico. Vol. I -VII, Lisboa, 1904–1915, here: vol. III (DK), Lisboa 1907, p. 105.
• Gomes Eanes de Zurara: Crónica da Guiné. (Introduction and remarks by José de Bragança), Porto (Liv. Civilização) 1973, here: especially chap. IX,

Web links

Commons : Gil Eanes  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Article on Eanes in the Dicionário Histórico (Portuguese)
• Biography of Gil Eanes (Portuguese) of the Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões, ( Memento of September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Gomes Eanes de Zurara, Chronica do descobrimento e conquista da Guiné