EXPLORERS

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about

FACTS ABOUT THE EXPLORER JOHN CABOT

 

1. While John Cabot (or Giovanni Caboto) is one of the most famous Italian ocean explorers and navigators in history, it was actually England he represented after fleeing his debt Venice.

2. Cabot was a part of the earliest known European exploration of North America's coast where he claimed land in Canada for England and Henry VII. 

3. Previously an animal skins merchant, Cabot was a keen entrepreneur who was seeking to make a fortune by finding a direct trade route from Europe to China and Japan.

4. Cabot's ship, The Matthew, sailed from Bristol, where he had settled with his family. There's a modern reconstruction of the original ship in Bristol to this day. 

5. Finding North America was actually a happy accident on his way to finding a direct route to Asia.

6. His discovery of North America earned him a £10 reward from the King and then a pension of £20 per year for the discovery.

7. As a further result of his discovery, he is credited with forging a link between Italy and the Americas lasting over 500 years.

8. Only two of his voyages are documented in history, but Cabot had potentially also been as far east as Mecca while learning about Oriental spices, according to a London acquaintance in 1497.

9. While still searching for Japan, Cabot's voyage disappeared, leaving the fate of the expedition and Cabot's last days a mystery. It is thought that there was a storm and that Cabot died in the shipwreck.

10. Today, John Cabot is still memorialised in Bristol's Cabot Circus, John Cabot University,  John Cabot Academy, Cabot Tower and marketing agency John Cabot, bringing search and discovery into the modern, technological age.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking