Jean Cousin (seafarer)

Jean Cousin was a lieutenant in the fleet of the Norman shipowner Jehan Ango from Dieppe .

Life

On the basis of various chronicles from the 15th century, it is likely that Jean Cousin set out for West Africa in an Angos merchant ship in 1488 and , after a two-month voyage across the Atlantic, came across an unknown land and a huge river , driven away by the equatorial current near the Azores . which he called " Maragnon " and after a short stay in West Africa in 1489 returned safely to Dieppe. Several early voyages by different ships of different captains of the shipping company Ango to Brazil , which had an excellent navigator school in Dieppe, are striking .

Reports that Jean Cousin had already circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope appear doubtful .

More recently, on February 14, 1922 , the New York Times reported the contents of a message received by telegram from France.

According to this, thirty Norman merchants from Rouen and Dieppe are said to have come together to equip a fleet with which they wanted to open up new trade opportunities west of Africa. The reason for this step was that the Dutch, English and Portuguese controlled the coasts of West Africa down to the equator. It would therefore have been necessary to arm merchant ships as well. The merchants avoided these costs.

Cousin set sail in 1488, sailed to the equator and then westward. It is said to have reached the American continent after two months, near the mouth of the Amazon.

It is said that he reached South Africa on the return journey and circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope nine years before Vasco da Gama. Followers of Cousin kept pointing out that there was a Spaniard named Vicente Pinzón among the occupation.

Four years later, Columbus was accompanied by four Pinzón brothers, one of whom, Vicente Yañez Pinzón, was his navigator.

The town of Dieppe's records of Jean Cousin's voyage were destroyed during a bombing by the English in 1604.

Web links

• Article of the New York Times