During this quincentenary year, we will all hear a great deal about the famous first voyage made by Christopher Columbus. As we should. He did sail off bravely, convinced that by following his nose he would eventually hit India and the treasures of the East-as long as his nose was facing west. What we don't hear about is his comely cousin Christina Columbus, herself a gifted explorer and adventurer. She, too, made a journey in 1492 that was supported by the king and queen of Spain and she, too, discovered new worlds. Archival confirmation of this Columbus' exploits was recently discovered and was lovingly recreated by British photographer and amateur historian Byron Newman. Here are the facts, as we are able to piece them together.
Soon after Christopher Columbus hatched his scheme to sail to the Indies, Christina figured she might as well get in on some of this action, too. Being modern in her attitudes, she understood that she needed a hook, something to distinguish her journey from Chris's. Realizing that he was assembling an all-male crew-which was predictable and had been done before-she decided to recruit only females. She then took her crew to the royal court. Queen Isabella was unimpressed, but King Ferdinand understood a good boondoggle when he saw one and green-lighted the whole thing.
Thus did Christina and her ragamuffin band of Italo-Iberian women set sail for the New World from that lusty and busy port city of Genoa-home of the hard salami. The women, as it turned out, were not the most experienced of sailors, having been chosen on the basis of their fund-raising abilities, not on their nautical skills. They were prone to seasickness-this, you'll remember, was way before the advent of Dramamine or those little skin patches you can wear behind your ear-and the first day out of port was not a pretty one. Recovered, they remained indifferent sail trimmers, barely passable lookouts and less-than-stellar navigators. The one thing that they became quite good at was falling asleep, coaxed by the bracing salt air and the ship's gentle rocking. They passed their waking hours playing dominoes-a game that centuries later would become popular throughout the Caribbean. The days passed slowly for the crew and for their fearless, shirtless leader.
After months at sea, land was sighted. Whereupon our crew gathered the beads and trinkets they had carried with them and went ashore to wow the natives-who, unlike the natives that Columbus encountered, knew the value of beachfront property. Christina, as it turned out, spent most of her time in the New World negotiating timeshare deals and raising venture capital for the condominiums and casinos for which the sun-blessed Caribbean was naturally suited.
