Following Columbus Log Book 2016
2016 Itinerary
Admiral Morison’s description of Columbus’s landing at and departure from the island he named San Salvador is found in pp. 315-331 of volume I of his two volume Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Boston, 1942. Morison’s reconnaissance of San Salvador was carried out on board the Mary Otis in early June 1940. The Admiral fixes Columbus’s first landing at Fernandez/Long Bay on the west coast of Watlings/San Salvador.
On Watlings/San Salvador Island in the 1980s, Charles Hoffman excavated a substantial Lucayan settlement, contemporaneous with the first landing, close to the coast of Long Bay, where advocates of this island suppose Columbus first disembarked. Dr. Hoffman describes the Long Bay site as lying “between 100 and 200 meters from the beach of Long Bay.” The site is suspected to “cover quite a few hectares” and may “involve a linear distance of some 7 km.” By Columbus’s account, it was not until the second day after he anchored that he first saw a native village. In view of the apparent size and proximity to Long Bay of the San Salvador settlement, it does not fit Columbus’s description of settlements containing no more than fifteen houses.