Photograph of John Cabot.
John Cabot

Overview

John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto; fl. 1450–1498) was a Venetian navigator and explorer commonly credited as one of the first early modern Europeans to land on the North American mainland, aboard the Matthew  in 1497.

Giovanni Caboto left his birthplace for Venice, Italy in 1461, and was naturalized on 28 March 1476. Although Venice is not his place of birth, for this reason he is known as a Venetian by force of government rights. It is here he acquired his experience with navigation on commercial voyages to Arabia, as well as the idea to sail westward to find a different route to the Spice Islands, the Northern Passage, as it was imagined.

In 1490, with his 3 sons: Ludovico, Sebastiano, and Sancto, he left for Bristol, England, and would remain there for the remainder of his life. It is unknown whether he had a hand in the failed expedition of 1491, but it is certain that after the success of Columbus the following year, that he decided to offer the same opportunity to Henry VII, and England, rather than to his other adoptive home in Venice, or to any of the Italian city states. Finally, on 6 March 1496, Henry VII issued letters patent awarding Cabot and his three sons the right to seek islands and countries of the heathen towards the west, east, and north, with five ships under the English flag.

Exploration

After an aborted effort in 1496, Cabot set sail from Bristol on the Matthew in May 1497. The trip was uneventful, and he finally spotted land a month later, landing somewhere on the east coast of Newfoundland on June 24, possibly Labrador, Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island (Canada and Great Britain accept Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland as the official landing site). Seeing signs of habitation, he explored south down the coastline. He mapped the North American coastline from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland.

Cabot believed he had reached the northeast coast of Asia, and returned on August 6, 1497. Amidst a positive reception, he planned to return and then continue on to Japan, and received new letters patent on February 3, 1498.

Richard Ameryk, the chief investor in Cabot's second transatlantic voyage, has been proposed as the person from whom the name America derives. Five ships set sail for Newfoundland the same year, but en route one ship was forced to return after being damaged in a storm. The rest were never heard from again, although some evidence suggests Cabot may have made it to America a second time. Cabot's voyages laid the groundwork for the later British claim to Canada.

Gallery

<gallery> Image:cabot.tower.bristol.1.arp.jpg|Cabot Tower (Bristol), distant view Image:cabot.tower.bristol.3.arp.jpg|Cabot Tower (Bristol), close up Image:cabot.tower.bristol.4.arp.jpg|Cabot Tower (Bristol), close up Image:Cabottowernf.jpg|Cabot Tower (St. John's) Image:Cabot tower stamp.jpg|Cabot Tower (Newfoundland) postage stamp Image:Cabotstamp.jpg|John Cabot Stamp. Image:nlc000840-v6.jpg|Letters patent for a voyage to discover new lands granted to John Cabot and his three sons by the king of England, Henry VII, at Westminster on March 5, 1496. Image:Matthew-BristolHarbour-Aug2004.jpg|A replica of the Matthew in Floating Harbour,Bristol Image:Johncabotbonavista.jpg|John Cabot statue, Bonavista Newfoundland </gallery>

External links

*Contemporary letters about Cabot's discoveries. *Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online *This article incorporates material from http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/cabot.html. Copied with permission. *Catholic Encyclopedia "John & Sebastian Cabot" *Encyclopaedia Britannica John Cabot *Preface and first few chapters Gibbons, Henry K. 1997. The Myth and Mystery of John Cabot: The Discoverer of North America. Marten Cat Publishers, Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. *Derek Croxton, The Cabot Dilemma: John Cabot's 1497 Voyage & the Limits of Historiography, 1990-1991 *The John Day Letter 1497-1498 *Home page of the Matthew replica with information about Cabot and the voyage. *John Cabot memorial Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia *Script about Vespucci's and Caboto's voyages

Further reading

* *Cabot's story was featured on A Moment In Time in 2007
Who is John Cabot connected to?
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How is John Cabot connected to Henry VII of England? Tell the world.

That biography says:

In old documents Ruysch was sometimes called a Fleming or German, but he was likely born in Utrecht in the current Netherlands. It is thought (see the Beneventanus commentary below) that he accompanied John Cabot on his expedition to North America in 1497 and 1498, or, considering the prevalence of Portuguese names on his 1507 map, a Portuguese ship leaving from Bristol...

That biography says:

...Eastern parts had previously been visited by the Norse, Basque and Breton fishermen, and perhaps the Corte-Real brothers and John Cabot (in addition of course to the Natives who first inhabit the territory). Cartier's particular contribution to the discovery of Canada is as the first European to penetrate the continent, and more precisely the interior eastern region along the St...

That biography says:

...With that they were the first to prove conclusively that the Greenlandic Norsemen had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Viking settlement in the 14/15th century could be explained by their emigration to North America.

This biography says:

John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto; fl. 1450–1498) was a Venetian navigator and explorer commonly credited as one of the first early modern Europeans to land on the North American mainland, aboard the Matthew  in 1497...

That biography says:

#REDIRECT John Cabot

That biography says:

...It was also during this time in the lead-up to the millennium that Newfoundland undertook an aggressive tourism marketing campaign which focused on important anniversaries such as the 500th year since John Cabot's voyage of discovery (1997), as well as the 1000th year since Vikings such as Leif Ericson made landfall on the province's shores (2000)...

That biography says:

...Furthermore, her own grandfather and founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII, ultimately proved more successful in bestowing a solvent treasury to his successors, while funding a maritime expedition (by John Cabot) to Newfoundland which resulted in the first English claim to overseas territory as well as seasonal visits to the region's fishing grounds...

That biography says:

...Innis tells the detailed history of competing empires in the exploitation of a teeming, natural resource -- a history that ranges over five hundred years. He begins by citing a report recounting John Cabot's 1497 voyage to North America that marvels about how "the sea there is swarming with fish, which can be taken not only with the net but in baskets let down with a stone, so that it sinks in the water." This abundance attracted various European nations, but Spain dominated the fishery until the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588...

That biography says:

* St. Brendan * John Cabot * Matthew (ship) * Helge Ingstad

That biography says:

In 1903, Amundsen led the first expedition to successfully traverse the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (something explorers had been attempting since the days of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, and Henry Hudson), with six others in the ship Gjøa. They travelled via Baffin Bay, Lancaster and Peel Sounds, and James Ross and Rae Straits to spend two winters exploring over land and ice from the place today called Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada...

That biography says:

Bastable later moved into independent production, and he produced training and promotional films for companies such as the Ford Motor Company, the National Bus Company, the Royal Navy, the Department of Transport and the Institute of Advanced Motorists. Bastable was also the co-author of two children's books and wrote biographies of John Cabot and Ferdinand Magellan, both of which were published in 2003. Tony Bastable was a qualified cricket umpire and founded the Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers...

That biography says:

...1445 – 1503) was a wealthy English merchant of Welsh descent who, it is theorized, funded John Cabot's voyage of discovery to North America in 1497. He is chiefly remembered because of the theory, not widely held, that the Americas are named after his surname.
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