Crossing the Atlantic

Front:
First Voyage of Christopher Columbus Crossing The Atlantic 29USA ANST APR 24 1992 00820 CHRAS Vì

Back:
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC First Day of Issue: April 24, 1992 First Issue Location: Christiansted, US Virgin Islands For his first voyage, Columbus received three ships from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Pinta and the Niña, two caravels designed to sail fleetly into the wind, accompanied Columbus' flagship, the Mariagalante — officially renamed the Santa María. The ships set sail from the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. A good compass and crude quadrant were the admiral's only tools, for he measured latitude by the North Star and navigated by dead reckoning. Nine days later the ships reached the Canary Islands and on September 6, they put out to sea on a course set for due west. The sailors watched the last image of familiar ground disappear below the eastern horizon. For three weeks the ships sailed on. The Journal of the First Voyage noted on September 16 that “The Admiral (Columbus) says here that today and ever thereafter they had very mild breezes, that the savor of the mornings was a great delight, that the only thing wanting was to hear nightingales. Says he, 'The weather was like April in Andalucia.'" No. 92-14 First Day of Issue Postcard Collection™ ©1992 Fleetwood® Cheyenne, WY 82008-0001 Original painting for the First Day of Issue Postcard by Tom McNeely Fleetwood