Pros Of Columbus

In 1492 columbus sailed the ocean blue, we’ve all heard it. However, Columbus faced many hardships through his voyage. Columbus sailed from eastern Europe through the Atlantic, and landed off the coast of Florida in Hispanolia. However, Columbus’s voyage could have been more successful using present day technology. Today sailors can sail faster, know where obstacles in the ocean are, and know exact locations of the ships; if Columbus were to have this technology mistakes could have been prevented. Therefore, todays technology would have greatly benefited Columbus in many ways such as: sailing faster, knowing exact locations of ships and location of other obstacles in the ocean, and the ability for his ships to withstand harsh weather and
Today this voyage would have taken 2 weeks, which is much faster. This time would have saved people’s lives, many people died during this voyage for many reasons such as disease. Columbus used sails and rowes to travel, today we have engines, propelers, also a distance and speed log device which enables sailers to see the speed at which they are traveling. In columbus time they used a technique called dead reconing. They would throw a piece of floatsam over the side of the ship. The pilot would chant to time the movement of the flotsam past two marks on the ship’s side. However long it took to pass the marks is how fast the ship was moving. Speed was measured about every hour. This was not very accurate, but good enough for most people of this day. If columbus were to have a boat with a motor, propeller, and a speed log device this would have increased his speed of travel and cut the time in half, also it would have made the trip much less expensive, because they had to invest in many months worth of supplies, instead it would have only been weeks worth of supplies with todays
Columbus used maps, charts, magnetic compasses, dead reckoning, and celestial navigation to find his location, none of these techniques were quite as effective as what sailors use today. One of the main tools columbus used was celestial navigation, celestial navigation is the use of navigation by using the sun, moon, stars, and planets. The most vital tool Columbus used for celestial navigation was a quadrant. This was a metal tool that was flat and shaped like a quarter circle. This enabled columbus to measure the altitude of a star, or any other figure in space, and find the altidude of that object. By doing this it allowed columbus to measure his latitude on earth. This was not a very effective method of knowing your location, it just gives an idea of your location. Today navigators have a much easier way to determine their location, they use tools such as a GPS( global positioning system), a radar , and an automatic tracking aid . A GPS tells your exact location by using satalites in space, a radar system uses electromagnetic waves to capture any objects in the path of the signal, this tells navigators the location of other objects in the ocean or other land masses close by. Columbus would have benefited greatly by having this technology, because if he would have had today’s technology he would have known about the great land mass standing in his way of India by