Horta, Faial, Azores
Having made good speed over recent days, Expedition Leader Jim Kelley delighted guests before dinner yesterday by announcing a transatlantic stop in the Azores. Like thousands of sailing boats following the westerlies from North America to Europe year on year, our port of call was the fine sheltered harbor of Horta on Faial, the walls of which are decorated with the names of hundreds of transient craft. A favorite watering hole of sailors, Peter’s Café Sport, was high on our list of places to visit, not just for the famous G&Ts, but also to visit an upstairs room that contains the world’s finest collection of scrimshaw, for whaling was a traditional Azorean occupation.
The café is not far from the town’s main square. Currently under restoration, the square is named in honor of the Infante Enrique, better known to English speakers as Henry the Navigator. There are few towns in the whole of the Portuguese speaking world – which reaches from Macao in the east to Brazil in the west – that do not commemorate Henry the Navigator somewhere or other, so important was he to the history of his country. Born in the Middle Ages, at the end of the fourteenth century, he was involved in the first European act of colonization on the continent of Africa when he helped his father organize the capture of Ceuta on the North African coast in 1415. His father knighted him and made him Grand Master of the Order of Christ. It is the cross of this new order, controlled jointly by the Papacy and the Portuguese king, which Henry is wearing proudly on this monument to him in Horta’s main square. Henry became an Afrophile from that moment onward, hence his exotic headwear. From his court in Sagres, close to the Atlantic approaches, he organized expedition after expedition south along the west coast of Africa. His motives were partly mediaeval: to outflank the Moors by gaining control of their coast. To harass the Infidel – he took his duties as Grand Master very seriously. To search for the legendary Christian King, Prester John, and join forces with him in a pincer movement against Islam.
But there was also something very modern about Henry’s mindset. He would not tolerate any legend or superstition from his captains in respect of the southern voyages that he organized. (The term Henry the Navigator, used by English historians, is something of a misnomer for a man who personally spent very little time at sea). Within a generation of his death in 1460, Bartlomew Diaz had discovered the southernmost tip of the African continent (in 1467) and Vasco da Gama had crossed the Indian Ocean from Malindi to Calicut (in1487). In consequence, Portugal was transformed from one of the poorest countries in Europe to its first Atlantic-based maritime power. So banish all superstition: especially as tomorrow is Friday the 13th…
Having made good speed over recent days, Expedition Leader Jim Kelley delighted guests before dinner yesterday by announcing a transatlantic stop in the Azores. Like thousands of sailing boats following the westerlies from North America to Europe year on year, our port of call was the fine sheltered harbor of Horta on Faial, the walls of which are decorated with the names of hundreds of transient craft. A favorite watering hole of sailors, Peter’s Café Sport, was high on our list of places to visit, not just for the famous G&Ts, but also to visit an upstairs room that contains the world’s finest collection of scrimshaw, for whaling was a traditional Azorean occupation.
The café is not far from the town’s main square. Currently under restoration, the square is named in honor of the Infante Enrique, better known to English speakers as Henry the Navigator. There are few towns in the whole of the Portuguese speaking world – which reaches from Macao in the east to Brazil in the west – that do not commemorate Henry the Navigator somewhere or other, so important was he to the history of his country. Born in the Middle Ages, at the end of the fourteenth century, he was involved in the first European act of colonization on the continent of Africa when he helped his father organize the capture of Ceuta on the North African coast in 1415. His father knighted him and made him Grand Master of the Order of Christ. It is the cross of this new order, controlled jointly by the Papacy and the Portuguese king, which Henry is wearing proudly on this monument to him in Horta’s main square. Henry became an Afrophile from that moment onward, hence his exotic headwear. From his court in Sagres, close to the Atlantic approaches, he organized expedition after expedition south along the west coast of Africa. His motives were partly mediaeval: to outflank the Moors by gaining control of their coast. To harass the Infidel – he took his duties as Grand Master very seriously. To search for the legendary Christian King, Prester John, and join forces with him in a pincer movement against Islam.
But there was also something very modern about Henry’s mindset. He would not tolerate any legend or superstition from his captains in respect of the southern voyages that he organized. (The term Henry the Navigator, used by English historians, is something of a misnomer for a man who personally spent very little time at sea). Within a generation of his death in 1460, Bartlomew Diaz had discovered the southernmost tip of the African continent (in 1467) and Vasco da Gama had crossed the Indian Ocean from Malindi to Calicut (in1487). In consequence, Portugal was transformed from one of the poorest countries in Europe to its first Atlantic-based maritime power. So banish all superstition: especially as tomorrow is Friday the 13th…
