WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:07.080 opening a file on a man who is simultaneously 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.080 one of the most famous figures in history. And, 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:13.839 well, a complete ghost. You know the name. You 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:15.939 probably learned it in, what, fourth grade. He's 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:17.760 the guy on the postage stamp. The man who found 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.579 North America for the English. That's the one. 00:00:19.699 --> 00:00:23.000 Exactly. John Cabot, 1497. New world. End of 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:26.100 story. But as I was reading through the... The 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:28.320 stack of research you sent over for this, the 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:30.800 letters, the custom rolls, the chronicles, I 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:32.679 realized that almost everything I thought I knew 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:35.700 about this guy was just, it was two -dimensional. 00:00:35.859 --> 00:00:39.140 Oh, absolutely. The reality is, well, it's messier. 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:40.770 And frankly, it's so much more interesting. We're 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:43.130 talking about a man who was a fugitive from debt, 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:45.829 a failed civil engineer. And potentially a bit 00:00:45.829 --> 00:00:48.189 of a con artist. He was certainly a hustler. 00:00:48.229 --> 00:00:50.890 And you're right. The textbook version of Cabot 00:00:50.890 --> 00:00:53.850 is incredibly sanitized. When you dig into the 00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:58.310 primary sources like the John Day letter or the 00:00:58.310 --> 00:01:00.390 recent work by the Cabot Project at the University 00:01:00.390 --> 00:01:04.090 of Bristol, you find a figure who is just. He's 00:01:04.090 --> 00:01:07.349 desperate. He's ambitious, and he's operating 00:01:07.349 --> 00:01:10.989 in this world of high -stakes industrial espionage. 00:01:11.129 --> 00:01:13.950 And that's our mission today. We are going to 00:01:13.950 --> 00:01:16.689 look past the statue in the park and try to find 00:01:16.689 --> 00:01:19.709 the real human being. We need to talk about his 00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:24.329 real name, his money problems, and a massive 00:01:24.329 --> 00:01:28.129 historical mystery. The mystery. A mystery involving 00:01:28.129 --> 00:01:31.109 a historian who's spent 35 years studying him 00:01:31.109 --> 00:01:34.099 and then destroyed her own work. That story about 00:01:34.099 --> 00:01:37.939 Al and Ruddock is truly one of the most heartbreaking 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:39.939 tragedies in modern academia. You'll definitely 00:01:39.939 --> 00:01:41.599 get there. But let's start with the basics. The 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:43.939 name. We call him John Cabot. I mean, that wasn't 00:01:43.939 --> 00:01:45.760 his name, was it? No, not at all. If you walked 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.819 up to him in 1390 and shouted John, he probably 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:49.819 wouldn't have turned around. In the Italian records, 00:01:50.060 --> 00:01:53.040 he is Giovanni Caboto. In the Venetian dialect, 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:56.459 he actually signed his own name, Zuan Caboto. 00:01:56.659 --> 00:02:00.420 Zuan, Z -U -A -N. Exactly. And later, when he's 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:03.040 trying to... you know hustle up work in spain 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.700 he shows up in the documents as john cabot montecaluna 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:08.419 montecaluna that sounds like he's trying to sound 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:10.199 like nobility or something or at least trying 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.979 to blend in and this brings up a key insight 00:02:12.979 --> 00:02:16.620 about the era identity in the 15th century was 00:02:16.620 --> 00:02:20.360 it was fluid especially for a merchant okay there 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:22.819 was a european tradition of nativizing names 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:25.219 it's the same reason we might call a historical 00:02:25.219 --> 00:02:27.259 figure named jacques james in english history 00:02:27.259 --> 00:02:30.280 books or why charles becomes coral in german 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:33.020 So he wasn't necessarily hiding his identity. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:36.159 He was just marketing himself. Exactly. He was 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:38.280 a chameleon. When he was in Venice, he was Zwan. 00:02:38.580 --> 00:02:40.860 When he dealt with his Italian banker in London, 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:43.800 his banker called him Giovanni. And then when 00:02:43.800 --> 00:02:45.960 he was petitioning the king of England, he became 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:48.259 John. He became whoever he needed to be to close 00:02:48.259 --> 00:02:50.800 the deal. So let's look at where Zwan came from. 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:54.000 We know he was born around 1450, maybe in Genoa 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.819 or Gaeta. But the paper trail really starts when 00:02:56.819 --> 00:02:59.979 he becomes a citizen of Venice in 1476. Right. 00:03:01.129 --> 00:03:03.969 Now, in your notes, you flag this as a massive 00:03:03.969 --> 00:03:07.689 deal. Why? I mean, today's citizenship is just 00:03:07.689 --> 00:03:10.330 a passport. It was so much more than a passport 00:03:10.330 --> 00:03:13.610 back then. In 15th century Dennis, citizenship 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.610 was a commercial license. It was an exclusive 00:03:16.610 --> 00:03:19.330 club. So not just a piece of paper. Not at all. 00:03:19.409 --> 00:03:21.669 To get full citizenship, you had to prove you 00:03:21.669 --> 00:03:23.889 had lived in the city for 15 years. That is a 00:03:23.889 --> 00:03:26.530 very, very high bar for an outsider. For 15 years? 00:03:26.770 --> 00:03:28.789 Just to get the paperwork. 15 years of residency. 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.060 And the reason you would do that, the return 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:33.500 on that investment, was that only citizens could 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:36.099 engage in the maritime trade with the East. Oh, 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:38.039 okay. If you weren't a citizen, you couldn't 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:40.740 captain a ship to Alexandria or Beirut to pick 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:43.060 up spices. You were just shut out of the most 00:03:43.060 --> 00:03:45.520 lucrative trade on the planet. So by getting 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:47.560 that citizenship, he wasn't just saying, I love 00:03:47.560 --> 00:03:49.939 Venice. He was getting his union card. He was. 00:03:50.099 --> 00:03:53.030 He was entering the big leagues. Precisely. He 00:03:53.030 --> 00:03:57.449 was trading in silks, spices, gems, all the goods 00:03:57.449 --> 00:03:59.430 that made Venice the richest city in Europe, 00:03:59.569 --> 00:04:02.129 and we have proof he was there. There is a document 00:04:02.129 --> 00:04:05.750 from 1483, a receipt essentially, that places 00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:08.250 him in Crete. And this is where we see the grim 00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:10.530 reality of the time, though. He wasn't just selling 00:04:10.530 --> 00:04:13.610 nutmeg. No. The document records him selling 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:16.910 an enslaved woman. He had acquired her while 00:04:16.910 --> 00:04:19.129 he was in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt. 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:22.110 Which would be modern day Israel, Syria, Lebanon, 00:04:22.310 --> 00:04:26.189 that sort of area. That region, yes. And this 00:04:26.189 --> 00:04:28.629 is important for understanding his mindset. He 00:04:28.629 --> 00:04:30.750 later claimed to the Milanese ambassador that 00:04:30.750 --> 00:04:33.149 he had been all the way to Mecca. To Mecca. Now, 00:04:33.189 --> 00:04:35.370 we can't verify if he actually set foot in Mecca, 00:04:35.490 --> 00:04:37.790 but we know he was embedded in that eastern supply 00:04:37.790 --> 00:04:40.430 chain. He saw the caravans coming in. He saw 00:04:40.430 --> 00:04:42.629 the goods arriving from the Silk Road. Right. 00:04:42.769 --> 00:04:45.430 He understood the geography of value. He knew 00:04:45.430 --> 00:04:47.290 that the spices were coming from somewhere far, 00:04:47.350 --> 00:04:49.069 far to the east, and they were traveling this 00:04:49.069 --> 00:04:52.350 long, expensive overland route. He realized that 00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:54.670 if someone could cut out the middlemen. The caravans. 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:57.920 Cut out all of it, they would make an absolute 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:00.579 fortune. So he's basically a supply chain expert. 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:02.879 He sees the inefficiency in the market. Yep. 00:05:02.939 --> 00:05:06.779 But then, the bottom falls out. We think of these 00:05:06.779 --> 00:05:09.579 explorers as noble adventurers, but Cabot leaves 00:05:09.579 --> 00:05:13.300 Venice in 1488 because he's broke. Broke is putting 00:05:13.300 --> 00:05:16.540 it mildly. He was insolvent. The hustle had failed. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:20.420 The date is November 5, 1488. He leaves Venice. 00:05:20.990 --> 00:05:23.550 And he doesn't just leave, he flees. He had to. 00:05:23.649 --> 00:05:26.670 His creditors were absolutely furious. They had 00:05:26.670 --> 00:05:29.990 filed what was called a Lettera di Raccomandazione 00:05:29.990 --> 00:05:32.930 a Giustizia. Okay, what's that? In English, that's 00:05:32.930 --> 00:05:35.449 a recommendation to justice. It was basically 00:05:35.449 --> 00:05:37.470 an order to the authorities to find this man, 00:05:37.649 --> 00:05:39.550 arrest him, and throw him in prison until he 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:42.360 paid up. So the great John Cabot. the hero of 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:45.060 the British Empire, started his career as a fugitive 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:47.259 running from debt collectors. It completely changes 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:49.000 how you view him, doesn't it? This wasn't just 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.060 curiosity driving him. It was pure desperation. 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:53.500 He couldn't go home. He needed a new patron. 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.160 He needed a big win to wipe the slate clean and 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.420 restore his status. So where does a bankrupt 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:02.220 Venetian merchant go to reinvent himself? Naturally, 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:05.420 he goes to Spain. This is the 1490s. Columbus 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:08.740 is there. The Portuguese are active. But here's 00:06:08.740 --> 00:06:10.949 the curveball. He doesn't go there to sail. No. 00:06:11.050 --> 00:06:13.290 He goes there to build stuff. This is a fascinating 00:06:13.290 --> 00:06:15.709 detour that usually gets left out of the history 00:06:15.709 --> 00:06:19.009 books. He shows up in Valencia and he's pitching 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:23.769 himself as a civil. An engineer. A civil engineer, 00:06:23.990 --> 00:06:27.269 yes. He proposes this plan to improve the harbor 00:06:27.269 --> 00:06:29.430 there. And how did that go for him? They rejected 00:06:29.430 --> 00:06:31.889 him flat out. So he moves on. He goes to Seville 00:06:31.889 --> 00:06:35.529 in 1494. And this time, he actually gets a contract. 00:06:35.829 --> 00:06:38.449 He is hired to build a stone bridge over the 00:06:38.449 --> 00:06:41.250 Guadalquivir River. I'm just picturing this space 00:06:41.250 --> 00:06:43.389 merchant standing on a riverbank in Seville, 00:06:43.509 --> 00:06:46.089 holding a blueprint, trying to tell stonemasons 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:47.949 how to build a bridge. I mean, did he even know 00:06:47.949 --> 00:06:49.550 how to build a bridge? The evidence suggests. 00:06:50.370 --> 00:06:52.949 Probably not. The project was a complete disaster. 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:55.230 It lasted five months before the city council 00:06:55.230 --> 00:06:57.089 realized nothing was happening and they cut his 00:06:57.089 --> 00:07:00.689 funding. So he's 0 for 2 in Spain. He's failed 00:07:00.689 --> 00:07:03.250 at trade. He's failed at engineering. And he's 00:07:03.250 --> 00:07:05.290 running out of time. You have to remember, he's 00:07:05.290 --> 00:07:07.970 in Seville and Lisbon during the exact moment 00:07:07.970 --> 00:07:10.290 Christopher Columbus is getting his funding and 00:07:10.290 --> 00:07:12.230 setting sail. Right. The timing is critical. 00:07:12.790 --> 00:07:15.230 Cabot was likely pitching his own Atlantic voyage 00:07:15.230 --> 00:07:17.449 to the Spanish and Portuguese crowns, but he 00:07:17.449 --> 00:07:20.750 was late to the party. Spain had Columbus. Portugal 00:07:20.750 --> 00:07:23.209 had their route around Africa. There was just 00:07:23.209 --> 00:07:25.509 no room for a Venetian with a bad credit rating. 00:07:25.670 --> 00:07:28.730 So he looks north. He realizes if the south is 00:07:28.730 --> 00:07:32.430 taken, he has to try England. He arrives in Bristol 00:07:32.430 --> 00:07:36.230 around 1495. Now, for the listener who might 00:07:36.230 --> 00:07:39.629 not know 15th century English geography, why 00:07:39.629 --> 00:07:42.720 Bristol? Why not London? London was the political 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:45.720 capital, sure, but Bristol was the Silicon Valley 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:48.560 of exploration. It was the second largest seaport 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:50.899 in England, and it was facing west, right into 00:07:50.899 --> 00:07:53.060 the Atlantic. Right. But more importantly, the 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.060 merchants there were obsessed with a legend, 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:58.019 the legend of High Brazil. High Brazil. It sounds 00:07:58.019 --> 00:07:59.759 like the country in South America, but it's different, 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:01.500 right? Completely different. High Brazil was 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:03.980 a mythical island from Celtic folklore. It was 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:05.339 supposed to be somewhere out in the Atlantic, 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:08.220 shrouded in mist. A ghost island. Pretty much. 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:10.699 But the Bristol merchants didn't think it was 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:12.839 a fairy tale. They thought it was a commercial 00:08:12.839 --> 00:08:15.139 opportunity. What were they looking for on this 00:08:15.139 --> 00:08:18.019 mythical island? Brazil wood. It's a type of 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:20.759 wood that produces a very, very valuable red 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:24.439 dye. In the textile industry of the time, red 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:28.639 dye was liquid gold. Since about 1480, Bristol 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:31.139 merchants had been sending ships out into the 00:08:31.139 --> 00:08:33.820 Atlantic looking for this island. And this brings 00:08:33.820 --> 00:08:35.700 us to one of the most controversial and exciting 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:38.539 parts of your research notes. Yeah. We mentioned 00:08:38.539 --> 00:08:41.600 the historian Alwyn Ruddock earlier. She had 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:43.779 a theory that just blows the timeline of discovery 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:46.259 wide open. Oh, yeah. She believed the Bristol 00:08:46.259 --> 00:08:49.179 sailors didn't just look for the island. She 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:51.379 believed they found North America before Cabot. 00:08:51.460 --> 00:08:53.679 This is the pre -discovery theory. It's huge. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:56.519 Ruddock claimed she found evidence in the Italian 00:08:56.519 --> 00:08:58.779 archives that Bristol merchants had reached the 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:01.679 New World. Probably Newfoundland sometime before 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:05.220 1470. Before 1470. That's more than 20 years 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:08.139 before Columbia. Exactly. More than 20 years. 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:10.980 That is wild. But if they found it, why didn't 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:12.500 they claim it? Why didn't they put it on a map? 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:14.629 Why keep it a secret? Because they were merchants, 00:09:14.809 --> 00:09:18.289 not glory hunters. If you find a massive untapped 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:20.789 fishing ground or a new source of timber, the 00:09:20.789 --> 00:09:22.590 last thing you want to do is announce it. You 00:09:22.590 --> 00:09:23.909 want to keep it to yourself. You want to keep 00:09:23.909 --> 00:09:26.289 it a trade secret. You don't want the French 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:29.169 or the Spanish or, frankly, your own king to 00:09:29.169 --> 00:09:31.870 know about it and start taxing it. So Cabot arrives 00:09:31.870 --> 00:09:35.549 in Bristol in 1495, pitching a voyage to Asia 00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:38.590 via the West. And he walks into a community that 00:09:38.590 --> 00:09:40.820 might be sitting there thinking, Well, we know 00:09:40.820 --> 00:09:42.919 there's land out there. Let's see what this Italian 00:09:42.919 --> 00:09:46.080 can do. Precisely. He provides the veneer of, 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:48.480 you know, scientific respectability and the royal 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:51.100 connection. He's the front man for a project 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:53.500 that's already kind of in motion. So let's talk 00:09:53.500 --> 00:09:55.580 about that royal connection. He needs permission, 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:58.279 right? You can't just sail off and claim land 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:02.049 without a king's backing. In 1496... He gets 00:10:02.049 --> 00:10:04.850 the royal patent from King Henry VII. The paperwork 00:10:04.850 --> 00:10:07.210 is crucial. Henry VIII issues a patent to Cabot 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:09.529 and his three sons, Ludovico, Sebastian, and 00:10:09.529 --> 00:10:12.149 Sancto. It grants them the right to sail with 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:14.490 five ships to all parts of the eastern, western, 00:10:14.649 --> 00:10:16.870 and northern sea. I looked at the terms of this 00:10:16.870 --> 00:10:20.070 deal. It is very... Henry VII, he was known for 00:10:20.070 --> 00:10:23.889 being famously tight with money. Right. Very 00:10:23.889 --> 00:10:26.929 tight. The king basically said, you have my permission 00:10:26.929 --> 00:10:29.269 to go, but you pay for everything yourself. Good 00:10:29.269 --> 00:10:32.350 luck. Don't ask me for money. Pretty much. However, 00:10:32.509 --> 00:10:35.129 the potential upside was huge. The king granted 00:10:35.129 --> 00:10:38.169 them a monopoly. Any trade from these new lands 00:10:38.169 --> 00:10:40.490 had to come through Bristol, and Cabot would 00:10:40.490 --> 00:10:42.710 get the profits. And the king. The king, of course, 00:10:42.730 --> 00:10:46.009 would take a 20 % cut right off the top. Classic 00:10:46.009 --> 00:10:48.850 venture capital deal. The king takes equity for 00:10:48.850 --> 00:10:52.009 zero risk. But if Cabot is broke and the king 00:10:52.009 --> 00:10:55.129 isn't paying, who funded the ships? This is where 00:10:55.129 --> 00:10:57.210 the modern detective work by the Cabot Project 00:10:57.210 --> 00:10:59.470 really shines. For centuries, we just didn't 00:10:59.470 --> 00:11:01.769 know. But they followed the money trail, and 00:11:01.769 --> 00:11:04.210 it leads back to the Italians. Specifically, 00:11:04.529 --> 00:11:06.929 the Barty family. The Florentine bankers. Yeah. 00:11:06.970 --> 00:11:09.750 In London. Yes. The Barty family had a branch 00:11:09.750 --> 00:11:13.149 in London. Records show they gave Cabot 50 nobles, 00:11:13.269 --> 00:11:15.809 that's a unit of currency, to find the new land. 00:11:16.009 --> 00:11:18.679 50 nobles? Is that a lot of money? It wasn't 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:20.860 enough to fund an entire expedition, but it was 00:11:20.860 --> 00:11:22.840 significant seed money. It gave him credibility. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:27.320 And he had another important backer, Father Giovanni 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:30.340 Antonio de Carbonarius. The papal tax collector. 00:11:30.679 --> 00:11:33.100 It sounds like a joke set up, doesn't it? A Venetian 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:35.879 debtor, a Florentine banker, and a papal tax 00:11:35.879 --> 00:11:38.379 collector walk into a bar in Bristol. Right. 00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:41.279 But Carbonarius is a key figure. He was an Augustinian 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:44.190 friar and a diplomat. Ruddock believed he was 00:11:44.190 --> 00:11:46.169 the one who actually got Cabot the audience with 00:11:46.169 --> 00:11:48.590 the king. So it's this whole international coalition. 00:11:48.789 --> 00:11:51.289 You have Italian money, church influence, and 00:11:51.289 --> 00:11:53.549 English sailors. Exactly. It's a multinational 00:11:53.549 --> 00:11:55.850 startup. So they have the cash. They have the 00:11:55.850 --> 00:12:00.110 permit. They set sail in 1496. And they fail. 00:12:00.210 --> 00:12:02.409 We often skip this part because it's a bit embarrassing. 00:12:02.470 --> 00:12:05.289 But yes, the 1496 voyage was a total disaster. 00:12:05.629 --> 00:12:07.950 It happened. He had one ship. He ran into bad 00:12:07.950 --> 00:12:10.789 weather. He was short on supplies. And the chronicles 00:12:10.789 --> 00:12:14.179 say the crew was... Confused is a very polite 00:12:14.179 --> 00:12:17.179 way of saying mutinous, isn't it? Probably. Or 00:12:17.179 --> 00:12:19.620 just terrified. I mean, you're sailing into the 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:22.320 complete unknown. Cabot decided to turn back 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:24.879 before things got really ugly. That must have 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:27.360 been humiliating. He's been talking this big 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:29.600 game about reaching the markets of Asia, and 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.379 he comes back to Bristol with his tail between 00:12:31.379 --> 00:12:33.639 his legs. The pressure for the next trip must 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:36.080 have been immense. It was make or break. Absolutely. 00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:40.299 And that brings us to 1497. The voyage that changed 00:12:40.299 --> 00:12:44.799 the map. Let's set the scene. May 1497. He has 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:47.679 a ship called the Matthew. Now when I hear exploration 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:50.759 ship, I think of a galleon. But the Matthew was 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:53.960 tiny, right? Oh, it was tiny. Just 50 tons. To 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:56.139 give you a sense of scale, that's about 70 feet 00:12:56.139 --> 00:12:59.240 long. It's the size of a modern tugboat or a 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:03.019 large yacht. And he packs 18 to 20 men onto this 00:13:03.019 --> 00:13:05.120 tugboat for an Atlantic crossing. It would have 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.419 been incredibly cramped, smelly. constantly wet, 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.179 and the crew list is pretty interesting. We know 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.960 there were Bristol sailors, but also a Burgundian 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:15.659 and a Genoese barber -surgeon. I love that job 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:17.940 title, barber -surgeon. I can give you a trim 00:13:17.940 --> 00:13:21.659 and amputate your gangrenous toe. It was a necessary 00:13:21.659 --> 00:13:23.960 duality. You needed someone who could pull teeth, 00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:26.580 stitch wounds, and cut hair. There was no space 00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:29.179 on that boat for a specialist. So they sail west, 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.039 they go past Ireland out into the open Atlantic, 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:37.889 and on June 24, 1497, they spot land. Now, this 00:13:37.889 --> 00:13:40.049 is the subject of endless arguments in Canada, 00:13:40.169 --> 00:13:42.990 I gather. Where exactly did they land? It is 00:13:42.990 --> 00:13:45.850 a huge debate. If you ask someone from Newfoundland, 00:13:45.909 --> 00:13:48.049 they will tell you with absolute certainty it 00:13:48.049 --> 00:13:50.549 was Cape Bonavista. If you ask someone from Nova 00:13:50.549 --> 00:13:52.549 Scotia, they will fight you and say it was Cape 00:13:52.549 --> 00:13:55.250 Breton Island. There is even a theory that he 00:13:55.250 --> 00:13:58.090 landed as far south as Maine. So what does the 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.659 actual evidence say? The best evidence we have 00:14:00.659 --> 00:14:02.919 is that John Day letter we mentioned. John Day 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:05.200 was a merchant writing to, we think, Christopher 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.620 Columbus reporting on Cabot's voyage. Right. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:10.840 He gives specific latitude details. And based 00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:13.379 on that analysis, the most likely landing is 00:14:13.379 --> 00:14:15.480 indeed somewhere in Newfoundland or the northern 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:18.120 tip of Cape Breton. So they hit land. They drop 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.539 anchor. Do they storm the beach? Do they plant 00:14:20.539 --> 00:14:23.480 a flag? What happens? They were extremely cautious. 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:25.779 In fact, paranoid might be the better word. The 00:14:25.779 --> 00:14:27.940 sources say they landed only once. Just once. 00:14:28.409 --> 00:14:30.809 Just one time. And here's the detail that really 00:14:30.809 --> 00:14:35.529 sticks with me. They did not advance beyond the 00:14:35.529 --> 00:14:37.570 shooting distance of a crossbow. That is such 00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:39.970 a vivid image. They get off the boat, but they 00:14:39.970 --> 00:14:42.649 stay within bow shot of the water of their escape 00:14:42.649 --> 00:14:44.570 route. They were terrified. They didn't know 00:14:44.570 --> 00:14:46.309 what was in those woods. They found signs of 00:14:46.309 --> 00:14:48.909 life, a fire that had been recently burning, 00:14:49.070 --> 00:14:52.870 a human trail, some nets, a wooden tool for working 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:55.730 with nets. But they didn't see any people. It's 00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:57.899 like a horror movie setup. The campfire is still 00:14:57.899 --> 00:14:59.940 warm, but the campsite is empty. It suggests 00:14:59.940 --> 00:15:02.519 the indigenous people, likely the Beothuk or 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:04.759 the Mi 'kmaq, were watching them. They were staying 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:07.580 hidden, observing these strange visitors. And 00:15:07.580 --> 00:15:10.220 Cabot, for his part, didn't take any chances. 00:15:10.299 --> 00:15:12.159 He didn't try to make contact. So what did he 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:14.620 do? He seized these signs of life and... He did 00:15:14.620 --> 00:15:16.659 the legal bare minimum. He took on fresh water. 00:15:17.179 --> 00:15:19.500 He raised the banner of St. Mark for Venice and 00:15:19.500 --> 00:15:21.480 the banner of the Pope, claiming the land for 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:23.820 England and the church. And he got right back 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:26.799 on the boat. A touch and go. Basically, they 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:29.240 spent a few weeks sailing along the coast, mapping 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:31.539 it from the safety of the water, observing the 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:34.100 massive, massive schools of codfish, and then 00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:36.220 they turned around and headed home. They arrived 00:15:36.220 --> 00:15:40.240 back in Bristol on August 6th, 1497. So he's 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.940 back. He thinks he's found the outskirts of Asia. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:45.419 He rides to London to see the king. He presents 00:15:45.419 --> 00:15:49.500 his findings. And Henry VII gives him 10 pounds. 00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:51.580 10 pounds. I have to stop you there. 10 pounds. 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:54.639 He found a new continent. He opened a door to 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.559 the future of the British Empire, and he got 00:15:57.559 --> 00:16:00.019 10 pounds. It sounds incredibly insulting to 00:16:00.019 --> 00:16:02.679 our modern ears, doesn't it? But we have to contextualize 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:04.879 the currency. 10 pounds was a lot of money for 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.980 a regular person. It was about two years' wages 00:16:06.980 --> 00:16:09.940 for a skilled craftsman or a laborer. Okay, okay, 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.440 so it's a decent bonus. But it's not exactly, 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:15.039 I found America money. No, it's not. It was a 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.500 job well done cash gift. But the king did follow 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:21.279 up. Later, Cabot was granted a pension of 20 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:23.620 pounds a year. Now that was a... Proper gentleman's 00:16:23.620 --> 00:16:25.340 salary. It was enough to live very comfortably. 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:27.340 But there was a catch with that pension, wasn't 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:29.299 there? Something in the fine print. There's always 00:16:29.299 --> 00:16:31.759 a catch. The king didn't pay it from his own 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:34.259 pocket. He ordered it to be paid out of the customs 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:36.809 receipts of the port of Bristol. Meaning Cabot 00:16:36.809 --> 00:16:38.750 had to go down to the docks and collect his own 00:16:38.750 --> 00:16:41.830 salary from the tax collectors. Exactly. And 00:16:41.830 --> 00:16:44.029 we have records showing the customs officers 00:16:44.029 --> 00:16:46.809 in Bristol actually refused to pay him at first. 00:16:46.990 --> 00:16:49.649 You're kidding. No. He had to go back to the 00:16:49.649 --> 00:16:53.070 king and get a special warrant, a mercy, forcing 00:16:53.070 --> 00:16:55.610 them to hand over the cash. Even the great admiral 00:16:55.610 --> 00:16:58.289 has to deal with local bureaucracy. It really 00:16:58.289 --> 00:17:01.299 humanizes him. but despite the cash flow issues 00:17:01.299 --> 00:17:05.380 for a few months he was a superstar the milanese 00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:07.140 ambassador wrote that cabot was being called 00:17:07.140 --> 00:17:09.980 the great admiral he was dressing in silk people 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:11.880 were running after him in the streets like he's 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:14.359 a rock star he had finally made it the hustle 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:18.420 paid off for a moment but fame is fleeting and 00:17:18.420 --> 00:17:20.940 this is where the story takes a dark turn we 00:17:20.940 --> 00:17:24.299 move to 1498 the final voyage this was supposed 00:17:24.299 --> 00:17:27.039 to be the big one right the first trip was reconnaissance 00:17:27.589 --> 00:17:29.950 This was business. Correct. He had five ships 00:17:29.950 --> 00:17:32.569 this time. And crucially, the cargo manifests 00:17:32.569 --> 00:17:36.029 show they were carrying merchandise, cloth, lace 00:17:36.029 --> 00:17:38.789 points, and what the records just call trifles. 00:17:38.809 --> 00:17:41.230 Trifles. What does that mean? Small, cheap goods 00:17:41.230 --> 00:17:45.069 intended for trade. Trinkets. This tells us they 00:17:45.069 --> 00:17:47.250 fully expected to meet people this time. They 00:17:47.250 --> 00:17:49.109 weren't just mapping. They were planning to barter. 00:17:49.190 --> 00:17:51.190 They thought they were going to Japan or China 00:17:51.190 --> 00:17:54.369 to trade English wool for spices. So they leave 00:17:54.369 --> 00:17:58.210 in May 1498. One ship gets damaged in a storm 00:17:58.210 --> 00:18:00.930 and limps into Ireland. The other four ships, 00:18:01.009 --> 00:18:03.930 they just vanish. That has been the standard 00:18:03.930 --> 00:18:07.930 history for 500 years. Lost at sea, Cabot and 00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:10.470 his ship sail into the mist and are never seen 00:18:10.470 --> 00:18:13.970 again. A tragic end to a bold explorer. This 00:18:13.970 --> 00:18:15.789 is where we have to talk about Owen Ruddock again. 00:18:15.910 --> 00:18:18.049 Because she didn't buy the Lost at Sea story 00:18:18.049 --> 00:18:20.210 at all. This is the part of the deep dive that 00:18:20.210 --> 00:18:22.630 really blew my mind. Owen Ruddock was a formidable 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:24.549 scholar. I mean, she was the authority on the 00:18:24.549 --> 00:18:26.789 Bristol trade. She spent 35 years researching 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:28.869 Cabot, and she claimed she had found evidence 00:18:28.869 --> 00:18:31.130 that completely overturned the entire narrative. 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:34.869 She claimed Cabot came back. Yes. She argued 00:18:34.869 --> 00:18:38.009 that the 1498 voyage wasn't a failure. It was 00:18:38.009 --> 00:18:41.289 actually a partial success. She believed Cabot 00:18:41.289 --> 00:18:44.069 returned to England in the spring of 1500. Two 00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.869 years later. Two years later. She argued that 00:18:46.869 --> 00:18:49.049 the fleet explored the entire east coast of North 00:18:49.049 --> 00:18:51.309 America, all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay, 00:18:51.490 --> 00:18:54.109 and maybe even into the Caribbean. That is huge. 00:18:54.450 --> 00:18:56.269 That would mean the English were poking around 00:18:56.269 --> 00:18:59.150 in Spanish territory way, way earlier than we 00:18:59.150 --> 00:19:01.150 thought. Correct. And she pointed to a specific 00:19:01.150 --> 00:19:04.490 piece of evidence. The famous map by Juan de 00:19:04.490 --> 00:19:07.349 la Cosa. He was Columbus's cartographer. Okay. 00:19:07.450 --> 00:19:11.450 His map dated around... shows a coastline roughly 00:19:11.450 --> 00:19:13.950 corresponding to North America with English flags 00:19:13.950 --> 00:19:17.029 on it and a label that says, Sea Discovered by 00:19:17.029 --> 00:19:19.329 the English. So the Spanish knew the English 00:19:19.329 --> 00:19:21.309 had been there. Ruddock argued this map is the 00:19:21.309 --> 00:19:24.049 proof of Cabot's long coasting voyage of 1498. 00:19:24.269 --> 00:19:27.269 But here's the tragedy. Ruddock died in 2005. 00:19:28.150 --> 00:19:30.349 She'd been working on a massive book that was 00:19:30.349 --> 00:19:33.630 going to reveal all this proof. But in her will. 00:19:33.750 --> 00:19:35.990 It's painful just to say it. In her will, she 00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:38.150 ordered all of her research notes to be destroyed. 00:19:38.509 --> 00:19:41.990 70 bags of refuse. Decades of work. Shredded 00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:45.430 or burned. But why? Why would a historian destroy 00:19:45.430 --> 00:19:48.210 her life's work? We don't know for sure. Was 00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:50.829 it a kind of extreme perfectionism? She hadn't 00:19:50.829 --> 00:19:52.650 finished the book and didn't want anyone else 00:19:52.650 --> 00:19:55.269 to finish it for her? Was it a desire to control 00:19:55.269 --> 00:19:58.579 her legacy? It remains a complete mystery. And 00:19:58.579 --> 00:20:00.900 it left modern scholars like Evan Jones and Margaret 00:20:00.900 --> 00:20:04.279 Condon with a massive headache. A huge one. They 00:20:04.279 --> 00:20:06.299 have been trying to reconstruct her research 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:08.880 from scratch. They are basically reverse engineering 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.400 her discovery, trying to refine the documents 00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:13.599 she found. And one of the things she claimed, 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:16.599 and this is the most tantalizing what if, involves 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:19.180 that friar we mentioned earlier, Father Carbonaris. 00:20:19.690 --> 00:20:21.630 This is the settlement theory, and it's wild. 00:20:21.930 --> 00:20:24.089 Ruddock believes she found evidence that Father 00:20:24.089 --> 00:20:26.789 Carbonaris didn't just go for the ride. She believed 00:20:26.789 --> 00:20:29.130 he stayed behind. Stayed behind in Newfoundland. 00:20:29.710 --> 00:20:33.690 In 1498. Yes. She believed the friar and a small 00:20:33.690 --> 00:20:36.150 group of settlers founded a mission there. If 00:20:36.150 --> 00:20:38.650 she is right, that would be the first Christian 00:20:38.650 --> 00:20:41.750 settlement in North America. We are talking about 00:20:41.750 --> 00:20:44.150 a medieval church built in Canada over a century 00:20:44.150 --> 00:20:46.960 before the pilgrims or Jamestown. Is there any 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.839 physical proof of this? I mean, have we found 00:20:48.839 --> 00:20:51.960 the church? Archaeology is ongoing. There is 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:55.519 a town in Newfoundland called Carbonear. Carbonear? 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:58.500 Yeah. Carbonearis. The name sounds suspiciously 00:20:58.500 --> 00:21:00.660 similar, doesn't it? Archaeologists have been 00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:03.460 digging there since 2011. They have found Spanish 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:06.160 coins from the period and evidence of early trade, 00:21:06.299 --> 00:21:09.900 but they haven't found the smoking gun, the foundations 00:21:09.900 --> 00:21:13.710 of a 1498 church. Not yet, anyway. It just makes 00:21:13.710 --> 00:21:16.109 you wonder, what was in those 70 bags of trash 00:21:16.109 --> 00:21:17.990 that Ruddock destroyed? Did she have the proof? 00:21:18.690 --> 00:21:21.869 The location? We may never know. But even without 00:21:21.869 --> 00:21:24.029 Ruddock's lost notes, the modern researchers 00:21:24.029 --> 00:21:26.690 did find something huge in the archives. They 00:21:26.690 --> 00:21:29.289 found a new hero. A guy named William Weston. 00:21:29.369 --> 00:21:31.410 This is a great example of how history is always 00:21:31.410 --> 00:21:34.509 changing. Until, what, 2009? William Weston was 00:21:34.509 --> 00:21:36.890 just a footnote, a name on a list. But then Evan 00:21:36.890 --> 00:21:38.569 Jones found a letter that changed everything. 00:21:38.609 --> 00:21:41.170 Oh, was he? He was a Bristol merchant. A local 00:21:41.170 --> 00:21:43.750 boy. And the letter shows that King Henry VII 00:21:43.750 --> 00:21:46.210 suspended legal action against Weston because 00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:48.730 he was about to go to the newfound land. Wait, 00:21:48.789 --> 00:21:51.829 suspended legal action? Was he in trouble too? 00:21:51.990 --> 00:21:54.150 It seems like everyone in this story is running 00:21:54.150 --> 00:21:57.230 from the law. It seems exploring was a popular 00:21:57.230 --> 00:21:59.930 career choice for people with legal issues. But 00:21:59.930 --> 00:22:03.069 here's the key. Weston led an expedition in 1499. 00:22:03.650 --> 00:22:06.509 This makes him the first Englishman born and 00:22:06.509 --> 00:22:09.009 bred to lead an expedition to North America. 00:22:09.690 --> 00:22:12.630 Remember... Cabot was Italian. Weston was English. 00:22:12.849 --> 00:22:15.509 And get this, the king paid him too. He did. 00:22:15.690 --> 00:22:18.869 In 1500, Weston received a reward of 30 pounds. 00:22:19.109 --> 00:22:21.869 30 pounds. That's three times what Cabot got 00:22:21.869 --> 00:22:24.319 for the initial discovery. It implies that Weston 00:22:24.319 --> 00:22:26.440 achieved something really significant. Maybe 00:22:26.440 --> 00:22:28.839 he mapped more of the coast. Maybe he found better 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:30.960 fishing grounds. Maybe he pushed further north 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.119 looking for that Northwest Passage. We don't 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:34.960 know exactly what he did, but the king thought 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:37.059 it was worth more than Cabot's first trip. And 00:22:37.059 --> 00:22:39.619 yet, I have never heard of him until today. He's 00:22:39.619 --> 00:22:42.079 not on any postage stamps. History tends to focus 00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:44.759 on the first. Cabot got the glory of the first 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:47.059 landfall. Weston was just the guy who followed 00:22:47.059 --> 00:22:49.400 up. But his story proves that the Bristol merchants 00:22:49.400 --> 00:22:51.660 weren't just passive passengers on Cabot's ship. 00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:54.880 They were active, independent explorers. So we 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:58.079 have Cabot, the Italian hustler. We have the 00:22:58.079 --> 00:23:00.660 lost friar, potentially building a church. We 00:23:00.660 --> 00:23:02.359 have William Weston, the forgotten Englishman. 00:23:02.619 --> 00:23:04.740 And then there's one more character who just 00:23:04.740 --> 00:23:07.789 muddies all the waters. Sebastian Cabot. Ah, 00:23:08.109 --> 00:23:10.849 the son. Sebastian seems to be the reason a lot 00:23:10.849 --> 00:23:12.910 of this history is so confusing. He really is. 00:23:13.009 --> 00:23:15.769 Sebastian was one of John's sons listed on that 00:23:15.769 --> 00:23:18.269 original patent. He went on to become a famous 00:23:18.269 --> 00:23:21.009 explorer in his own right, working for both Spain 00:23:21.009 --> 00:23:23.950 and England later in the 16th century. But he 00:23:23.950 --> 00:23:27.549 had a habit of, let's just say, spinning the 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:29.569 narrative. He took credit for his dad's work. 00:23:29.750 --> 00:23:32.029 He often spoke about the voyages in a way that 00:23:32.029 --> 00:23:34.529 made it completely unclear whether he or his 00:23:34.529 --> 00:23:37.039 father was in charge. In some accounts he gave 00:23:37.039 --> 00:23:39.759 later in life, John Cabot almost disappears and 00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:42.819 Sebastian becomes the hero of the 1497 voyage. 00:23:43.119 --> 00:23:45.099 He was just building his own personal brand. 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:48.059 The original influencer. Exactly. It took historians 00:23:48.059 --> 00:23:50.819 centuries to untangle Sebastian's tall tales 00:23:50.819 --> 00:23:53.460 from the actual records of his father. For a 00:23:53.460 --> 00:23:55.420 long, long time, people thought Sebastian was 00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:58.099 the one who discovered North America. So as we 00:23:58.099 --> 00:24:00.359 wrap up this deep dive, what is the takeaway? 00:24:01.049 --> 00:24:03.750 We started with this man of many names, a debtor, 00:24:03.750 --> 00:24:06.210 an engineer, an explorer, who might have died 00:24:06.210 --> 00:24:08.529 at sea or might have come back. If we zoom out, 00:24:08.650 --> 00:24:12.009 John Cabot Giovanni Caboto, he's the bridge. 00:24:12.569 --> 00:24:14.630 He connects the old world of the Mediterranean 00:24:14.630 --> 00:24:17.710 spice trade, the world of Venice and caravans 00:24:17.710 --> 00:24:20.049 and slave markets, with the new Atlantic world. 00:24:20.589 --> 00:24:23.670 He represents that exact moment where the focus 00:24:23.670 --> 00:24:25.609 of Europe shifted from the east to the west. 00:24:26.009 --> 00:24:27.890 And even though he didn't bring back spices or 00:24:27.890 --> 00:24:30.509 gold, he gave England its legal claim to the 00:24:30.509 --> 00:24:34.069 continent. Without Cabot's voyage in 1497, the 00:24:34.069 --> 00:24:36.450 history of North America looks completely different. 00:24:36.609 --> 00:24:38.630 There is no British North America without that 00:24:38.630 --> 00:24:41.569 patent and that one landing. He laid the legal 00:24:41.569 --> 00:24:43.329 groundwork for everything that came later, the 00:24:43.329 --> 00:24:45.970 colonies, the trade, the English language in 00:24:45.970 --> 00:24:48.349 the New World. He failed to find Asia, but he 00:24:48.349 --> 00:24:50.670 accidentally founded the modern Atlantic economy. 00:24:50.950 --> 00:24:52.890 And yet there is that lingering question, the 00:24:52.890 --> 00:24:54.210 final thought I want to leave everyone with. 00:24:54.920 --> 00:24:57.240 If all in rhetoric was right. If she really saw 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:00.240 evidence that Father Carbonara has built a mission, 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:03.599 then somewhere in the rocky soil of Newfoundland, 00:25:03.640 --> 00:25:07.140 buried under 500 years of earth and moss, there 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:09.660 might be the foundations of a medieval church, 00:25:09.859 --> 00:25:12.859 a Gothic church in Canada. It gives you chills. 00:25:12.920 --> 00:25:14.940 It means history isn't finished. The answers 00:25:14.940 --> 00:25:17.880 might still be in the ground waiting for an archaeologist's 00:25:17.880 --> 00:25:20.400 trowel. And if you are ever in Bristol or in 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:22.599 Bonavista, you can go see the replica of the 00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:24.900 Matthew. You can stand on that tiny deck and 00:25:24.900 --> 00:25:27.339 imagine crossing the Atlantic with 18 other guys, 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:30.019 a barber surgeon, and just no idea what was on 00:25:30.019 --> 00:25:33.019 the other side. I highly recommend it. Just don't 00:25:33.019 --> 00:25:34.680 expect a private cabin. Thanks for listening 00:25:34.680 --> 00:25:37.220 to this deep dive. Stay curious, and we'll catch 00:25:37.220 --> 00:25:37.799 you on the next one.