A cruising sailor with a passion for
history, Doug Peck, advocates the San Salvador landfall theory. The San Salvador landfall theory became widely
accepted as the site where Columbus first landed in the Bahamas when the well
known Columbus scholar, Samuel Elliot Morrison apparently established it as
the landfall in his widely read book, Admiral of the Ocean
Sea.
One of the things which distinguishes Peck, from most of
the others, and should be of interest to our readers, is that he is actually a
cruising sailor, who has sailed these waters. He has taken his
sailboat, Gooney Bird, along the entire route he proposes as the Columbus
track thorough the Bahamas. He has also sailed the Atlantic track recorded
in the Columbus log.
Peck has
strengthened many of the weaknesses of the original theory and has summarized
many of his findings and conclusion in a well written article. Like many
cruising sailors, he has concluded that neither the tiny island of Samana
nor the Plana Cays, could possibly be the home of the fine harbor which Columbus
described in his first landfall.
His
article, "Re-thinking the Columbus Landfall Problem," was published in Terrae
Incognitae. It constitutes a summary of his research which is contained in more
detail in his numerous other publications on the subject.
A
significant element of this article is that it does not dwell on the tired and
ambiguous minutiae of Columbus's cruise through the islands but covers the more
important controlling factors, to include two new factors, - the navigational
log of Ponce de Leon, and 16th century cartography.
It
should be noted that Terrae Incognitae is an international historical journal
that receives wide distribution, not only in the USA, but is in university
libraries in all of the Americas and Europe. Unfortunately, this publication is
not widely read by the interested lay public.
Many
readers of the National Geographic article were influenced in their opinion
regarding the landfall controversy more because of the huge circulation of
National Geographic and the reputation of the well respected journal, rather
than by convincing scholarly debate.
Many interested readers have never seen this Peck article in the
specialized academic journal Terrae Incognitae, and never would have, were we
not allowed to post it on the internet.
For that we are grateful to Doug Peck. The detailed article is over twenty pages with
footnotes and illustrations. The size of the original article makes it difficult
to display in a web page, so we have chosen to post the article in sections
using Doug's original topics as sub-headings, which do happen to fit into a web
page format and omit all but the most
relevant footnotes and illustrations. Except for these minor editorial
changes, to accommodate a web page format, the original information is presented
in its entirely.
Background
on the Columbus Landfall Controversy
Criteria
for Judging a Columbus Landfall Theory
The Atlantic Track of Columbus
The Proposed Islands Must Match Columbus' Description
Found in His Log
The Inter-island Track of Columbus Through the Bahamas
The Ponce de Leon Evidence
The 16th Century Cartographic Evidence
In the
interest of fairness, I have offered to post the National Geographic article
(Samana Cay); but the editors have declined. Readers interested in landfall
theories involving the Northern Bahamas are referred to Molander's articles, and
those who wish to learn more of the Plana Cays theory are referred to Keith
Pickering's site.
