Henry the Navigator

Henry the Navigator was the fourth son of the king of Portugal, and he was away fighting in North Africa. He was thinking about making a fleet of ships. He told the mapwriters to make new maps, and he made the fleet of ships. The sailors had to learn how to use lots tools. One was called a compass, and the other was called and astrolabe. They also had to learn how to tell directions by the North Star. The had to use a tool to tell how fast a boat was going. It was a rope with knots on it. One end had a stick, and one end had a reel. They threw the stick overboard and let the reel unroll. They used a timer that let sand out for one minute, then they would pull the reel up and counted the knots to see how many knots per minute. When the sailors were ready to go, they only sailed short distances because they thought the coast of Africa had sea monsters, and that the sea was so shallow that the boats would bump against the bottom, and that the sun was so hot there that it heated up the water and the water could boil humans. Finally a sailor named Gil Eannes sailed to the coast of Africa and found that it was like the water near home. After his example, sailors started going there and traded for pepper, spices, gold, and slaves.