Vasco da Gama
09 June 2016 | Sines
David and Andrea
A short overnight stop in the busy commercial port region of Sines was mandated. The town itself has little to recommend but there was a castle from 1362 in reasonably good condition. The town is notable for its place in history as the site of Vasco da Gama’s birth. He of course, opened the sea route to India resulting in a booming spice trade for Portugal, competing strongly with those interests that used the Mediterranean/Arabic pensinsula route. Vasco is venerated for his explorations of course, but he did have a mean streak. In one well-documented instance, he personally oversaw the looting of a Muslim pilgrim ship followed by its burning with more than 400 men, women and children locked inside.
He died of malaria in Cochin, India after his third voyage there.