Navigation and oceanographic conditions of the first discovery voyage of columbus

Navigation means the science and the practice of getting ships (or planes), from position to position. It is especially the method of determining the position, the course, and the travelled distance, and the ship-traffic under the circumstances of the seafaring as there are wind, seastate, currents, and the ships by themselves. This presentation refers in a brief way to these nautical assumptions and conditions concerning the first transatlantic voyage of Columbus for the so-called discovery of America. This article treats reports and aspects of that voyage which lead to the discussion on the first landfall at the Bahamas which still is controversial.