29th February 1504: Christopher Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to secure supplies while stranded скачать в хорошем качестве

29th February 1504: Christopher Columbus uses a lunar eclipse to secure supplies while stranded

Columbus embarked on his fourth transatlantic voyage in May 1502 but, after sustaining significant damage in a series of storms, his fleet beached in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica where they remained stranded for a year. The native peoples were initially welcoming to the Europeans and traded food and shelter in return for trinkets. However, as time went on, their hospitality began to wane. After some of Columbus’ crew mutinied and attacked the locals, food supplies were stopped and Columbus’ crew faced possible starvation. Desperate to save himself and his crew, Columbus devised a plan that would fool the natives into providing more supplies. After consulting an almanac of astronomical tables, he noticed that a lunar eclipse would occur in the near future. In a meeting with the local leader, Columbus said that his God was angry that the natives had stopped providing food and would show his displeasure by making the moon appear ‘inflamed with wrath’. Three nights later, on 29 February 1504, the moon turned dark red. According to Columbus’ son Ferdinand who had accompanied his father, the natives greeted the sight with ‘great howling and lamentation’ and soon returned ‘laden with provisions and beseeching the admiral to intercede with his god on their behalf’. Columbus retired to his cabin where he used an hourglass to time the eclipse, emerging shortly before the almanac’s predicted end of totality. Informing the natives that he had prayed to his god to forgive them, the moon soon reappeared. Columbus and his men remained well-supplied before being rescued at the end of June.