Giovanni Caboto, or John Cabot as he is known in English, was born most likely around 1451 in Genoa, Italy. In 1461 he relocated to Venice and eventually became aVenetian citizen on March 28, 1476 after fulfilling the fifteen year residency requirement. As an employee of a mercantile firm, Caboto frequently traveled to the shores of theMediterranean and Mecca which was a great trading post at the time. As an experiencedseamen, Caboto envisioned a great voyage of discovery for himself. In 1484 Cabotomoved to England with his three sons, Ludovico, Sebastian, and Sancto. In 1492, came the word of Columbus’ success. With the discovery of what wasthough to be India, the great exploration race began. Not to be outdone by Spain whobacked Columbus, King Henry VII of England issued grants for Cabot and all of his sonsto seek islands and countries in the west, east, and north in hopes of a British monopolyon trade that could possibly be established. Caboto returned quickly to Bristol to prepare for his voyage. Caboto, on the basisthat the world was much bigger than Columbus claimed, created a plan to instead ofhaving a start point at a more southerly latitude he would start a northerly latitude wherethe longitudes are much closer together, making his voyage shorter and giving easieraccess to his goal of reaching “Cipango,” or current day Japan. On his maiden voyage in1496, Caboto experienced trouble in the forms of food shortage, inclement weather, anddisputes within his crew and was forced to turn around and return to Bristol. However,Caboto was determined to make the trip and in May 1947, he set sail once again fromBristol on the small ship Matthew with a crew of 18 men, one of which may have been hisson Sebastian. Caboto made the voyage in safe and amiable conditions up to three days prior tosighting land. Records show that on June 24, 1947, after fifty days of sailing fromEngland, he reached the American main...
