You Wouldn t Want to to Sail with Christopher Columbus! Teachers Information Sheet by Nicky Milsted The book follows the fortunes of Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew, as they sail west across the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach Japan the easternmost country known to Europeans in the 15th century and other Far Eastern lands such as India. Columbus has based his idea of sailing west to end up in Japan on a book called Imago Mundi which says the Earth is round. By sailing to the west, he is convinced that he will cross the Atlantic Ocean (which he believes to not be very wide) and end up in Japan and the Far East. The year is 1492, and Columbus has successfully petitioned Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain for funds to pay for his voyage. Columbus takes three ships on his journey, the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria. Unfortunately for Columbus and unknown to him and his crew including you North and South America and the uncharted huge Pacific Ocean lie between Spain and Japan! The challenges encountered on the journey are many and varied. The ships are crowded, damp, smelly and infested with fleas, lice and rats. There are no beds or chairs for ordinary sailors, and the four-hourly rotation of watches (four hours on duty followed by four hours of rest) is disorientating and ensures that the crew are tired all of the time. Tasks on board are repetitive and boring, and often physically demanding too. And when you finally stand on solid ground more than two months after leaving Spain, the land that you have discovered does not look like Japan! Was the whole expedition a waste of time and money? Whatever you think, it is very clear that You Wouldn t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus! Who was Christopher Columbus? Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was born in the part of modern-day Italy called Genoa. His name in his native language would have been Cristoforo Colombo. He was born sometime before 31 October 1451; his actual birth date and exact place of birth are unknown. He died probably aged 54, on 20 May 1506. Columbus first went to sea aged about 10. Columbus lived during a time that we call the Renaissance, which was at its height between around 1400 and 1600. During this period, there were lots of discoveries and new ideas emerging across Europe. Some of these new theories were actually based on ideas that had been first considered in ancient Greek and Roman times such as the fact that the world is round. World exploration was a huge craze during the Renaissance, with lots of voyages of discovery being undertaken.
Columbus made four voyages between Spain and the Americas between 1492 and 1503, which were funded by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain. He did not discover America; there were indigenous people already living there, and the first Europeans to visit America were the Vikings many centuries earlier. However, Columbus s voyages did mark the beginning of regular trade and contact between Europe and the Americas. Columbus s aim in sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean was not to discover the Americas. He was trying to plan a new route to trade with Asia, which was rich in spices and exotic goods. The route around the south of Africa to get to Asia was long and dangerous, and Columbus believed it would be quicker and easier to cross the Atlantic; he did not know how large the Ocean was, or that the continents of North and South America lay between Europe and Asia! When Columbus first landed in the present-day Bahamas, he believed he was on one of the socalled Spice Islands (present-day Indonesia) in Asia. He also visited Cuba and Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic) during his first voyage before returning to Spain as a hero, where he was made Governor of the Indies (his newly discovered lands). His later voyages were made to try and establish colonies in the newly discovered territory. These can be seen on the map in You Wouldn t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus! After his third voyage, Columbus was accused of fraud when the colonists in the Americas rebelled against him, and he was sent home as a prisoner. He was eventually released and allowed to return to the Americas, but not in his previous role as Governor. During his fourth and final voyage, Columbus and his men were stranded in Panama, and then marooned on Jamaica for a year. He finally arrived home in 1504, and was tired, ill, bitter and angry. He died two years later, still convinced that he had reached the continent of Asia. Activity 1: Petitioning for funds It is the 15th century, and world exploration is the latest big craze. There s money to be made and fame to be won by explorers and merchants that discover new trading routes and new lands to conquer and exploit. But there is a problem. It s an expensive business! Christopher Columbus needs funding for his proposed expedition to Japan, via the Atlantic Ocean. He has previously petitioned King John of Portugal, and the Spanish king and queen. He had even sent his brother Bartholomew to ask whether the English king, Henry VII, would sponsor the voyage. All of his pleas for money fell on deaf ears. But now his fortunes could be about to change. It is 1492, and Columbus has again asked Queen Isabella of Spain to fund his voyage. And this time she has said yes! Challenge your pupils to present a written argument to Queen Isabella outlining why she should fund the expedition. This could be a letter (using the activity sheet), an illustrated report or even a PowerPoint presentation (just imagine that computers had been invented in the 15th century!)
Extension activity: Queen Isabella has limited funds, and there are several expeditions o on the table, all of which are looking to sail across the Atlantic Ocean to Japan, and to open up new profitable trade routes. It is very important that your expedition is funded otherwise you will not be able to undertake it, so you need to research and present your expedition to the Queen in as persuasive a way as possible. Nominate a female member of staff to play the part of Queen Isabella. In groups, challenge your class to present your researched expeditions to the Queen. What tricks can the expedition groups use to gain favour and funding for their voyage over other proposals? (Hint: flattery works!) Activity 2: Christopher Columbus expedition advert Congratulations Christopher Columbus! His petition to the Queen was successful. He now needs a crew. Challenge your pupils to design a poster or advert to encourage Spanish people to join Columbus s crew. The poster or advert should entice men and boys to come forward, so make sure that your pupils think about what potential explorers could gain or achieve from joining the crew. However, it is also important to Columbus to ensure that he has the right types of men involved with his expedition. What skills would be needed aboard the ships? Remember, in Columbus s time, it was thought to be unlucky to allow any women on board! Extension activity: The voyage is over-subscribed. Appoint a panel of pupils as members of Columbus s crew including Columbus himself and ask them to conduct job interviews of the potential candidates. The panel should decide on the questions to ask the candidates. What characteristics are they looking for in their expedition crew? Why not try asking the potential crew members to prepare a CV or complete a job application form? What skills can they demonstrate, and how will these be useful on board ship? Activity 3: Diary of the journey Keeping a diary of the voyage would have provided members of the crew with something to keep them occupied during their time at sea. Challenge your pupils to create a character for themselves from Columbus s crew, and to write a series of short diary extracts about their experiences. How might the tone of the diary change as time passes? Would excitement and adventure give way to boredom and anger? How might this be expressed in a diary? What does your character think about other members of the crew? The diary might include pen portraits of other people on board ship, as well as descriptions of daily life and the routine of work on board. Talking point: If your pupils were to undertake an expedition now, how would they record their adventures? Think about how the internet and modern technology has altered the ways in which events are recorded and reported. Why not try writing a series of tweets, recording the progress of the expedition in messages of fewer than 140 characters? Can your class come up with some hashtags to use?!
Activity 4: Crew duty Crew duties on board Columbus s ships included: Pumping bilge-water Cleaning the deck Mending sails Checking ropes Inspecting cargo Mending leaks Challenge your pupils to choose one of these tasks and produce an instructional text to explain how the job should be done to another member of the crew. Encourage them to think sequentially, and to use numbers or subheadings to break up their text. What tools or equipment will they need for each job? How many men does each task require? How long will it take? Are there any risks or dangers to watch out for? Extension activity: Spilt your class into small groups and give each group instructional texts written by other children. Ask each group to act out the task by following the instructions that they are given. Are the instructions complete enough for the group to get the job done? Activity 5: What s worst? Life on board Columbus s ships is far from comfortable! They are crowded, cold, damp, unhealthy and smelly, and infested with fleas, rats and lice. There s a lack of space and privacy because there is nowhere to sit or sleep comfortably, and the toilet is just a wooden seat fixed over the side of the ship. It s boring and repetitive too, and everyone is exhausted. Challenge your pupils to decide What s worst? about the conditions on board and explain why they think this on the activity sheet. Extension activity: you could record your pupils votes for What s worst as pie charts or bar graphs. Can you undertake some statistical analysis? For example, 20% of the class think that living alongside rats and fleas is worse, whereas 50% say that the lack of space and privacy would be hardest to deal with. Activity 6: Two months in on, or back? After two long months of being at sea, tension is high aboard Columbus s ships. Many of the crew members are unhappy, and they organise a protest to confront Columbus. Split your class in half; one group should argue for continuing the journey, and one group should present reasons for returning to Spain. The groups should begin by brainstorming their reasons for either turning back or continuing the journey, before presenting their arguments to each other.
Why not try hosting your debate like a political TV debate, with a presenter and commentators who discuss the points raised by those involved in the debate? You could create a piece of drama based on the debate to present to the rest of the school or an invited audience. Extension activity: Ask your pupils to write explanations for why each of the signs of land illustrated on the activity sheet show that there may be land nearby. Activity 7: A sailor s meal Storing food aboard ships during the 15th century would have been difficult, and would have meant that a sailor s diet would have been unpleasant and unhealthy. Foods included salted or pickled meat, dried peas and cheese. Some live animals were taken to kill and eat, but they wouldn t have lasted long, as they took up space and required feeding themselves. Freshly caught fish from the sea would have added some variety to the diet, but it might have looked strange and tasted worse! The staple of the sailors diet would have been ship s biscuits, which were hard, dry and tasteless. Biscuits were packed instead of flour or bread because they were easier to preserve. They were made of a bland mixture of water and flour, which was baked for a long time sometimes even baked twice to make them easier to store for the months of a long sea voyage. However, even ship s biscuits were often packed with maggots! Use the recipe on the activity sheet to make your own ship s biscuits. What do they look and smell like?! The biscuits will be very hard, so you may decide it is best not to eat them to avoid damaging teeth! Sailors used to soak their ship s biscuits to soften them before eating them. Challenge your pupils to rewrite the recipe as an instructional text, using the step-by-step photos and templates on the activity sheet. The biscuits were designed to be stored for long periods of time. You could try conducting an experiment to see how the biscuits change over time when stored in different conditions. For example: keep some biscuits in air-tight containers in the dark; keep some in air-tight containers in full sunlight; leave some open to the air; you could even store some in water. What other conditions can your pupils think of? There is an observation recording sheet in the pupils pack. Use this to note the changes to the differently stored biscuits over time. How do they change, if at all? Is there any evidence to suggest the best conditions for storing ship s biscuits in? Extension activity: Challenge your pupils to come up with a list of adjectives for the ship s biscuits. Can they also create a list of adjectives for their favourite foods too? Research challenge: what foods are packed for expeditions today? How are they kept fresh and stored, and how does this differ from how foods were stored during Columbus s time? Compare a meal for Columbus s crew with a meal that might be served during a modern expedition. Which would you rather eat?!
Activity 8: Top explorers Columbus s voyages inspired many other explorers. A few of these are listed in the back of You Wouldn t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus! Ask your pupils to choose an explorer from the list in the book (or given below) and challenge them to use the internet and other resources to research more about their life and their explorations: Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese, 1470 1521) Juan Sebastián Elcano (Spanish, 1476 1526) John Cabot (Italian, c. 1450 c. 1499) Amerigo Vespucci (Italian 1454 1512) Vasco Núñez Balboa (Spanish c. 1475 1519) Juan Ponce de León (Spanish 1474 1521) Juan Díaz de Solís (Spanish 1470 1516) Giovanni da Verrazzano (Italian, 1485 1528) Your pupils could choose to present their research as a booklet or report, as a poster or illustration, or as a PowerPoint presentation. Extension activity: Challenge your pupils to design their own expedition. Where would they like to explore? Would they like to go into space? Or journey to the centre of the earth? Would a trip to a remote jungle be their choice? Or would they rather attempt to climb an inaccessible mountain or explore the depths of the ocean? What would they hope to discover on their trip? What equipment would they need to take? How would they travel? Pupils pack contents Petitioning for funds activity sheet Crew member job application form My journey diary activity sheet Crew duties activity sheet What s worst? activity sheet Signs of land activity sheet Recipe for ship s biscuits How to make ship s biscuits instructional text templates (x2) Storing ship s biscuits! Observation and recording sheet Blank sheet with the border top and bottom for your pupils own artwork and writing