Vasco da Gama set sail to find a sea route to India
On this day · 8 July 1497
Four ships left Lisbon on a gamble that would link Europe and Asia by ocean for the first time.
On July 8, 1497, Portuguese commander Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon with a fleet of four ships and roughly 170 men, aiming to reach India entirely by sea. The flagship São Gabriel led the São Rafael, the caravel Berrio, and a stores ship loaded with supplies for a journey of unknown length.
Da Gama’s plan was audacious: swing far out into the Atlantic, round the southern tip of Africa, and follow the East African coast toward India, avoiding the contested overland and Mediterranean trade routes entirely.
He landed at Calicut in May 1498, completing the first ocean link between Europe and Asia.
The voyage rewrote the map of global commerce, handing Portugal a sea road to the spice trade and inaugurating an era of European maritime empire. It came at a steep human cost, but as a feat of navigation it stands among the most consequential departures in history.
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