In memory of Henry the Navigator

Hans

It is not surprising to pass interesting historical places without giving them even a second look. Take the case of the new Coastal Cultural Museum in Malindi. How many people know that it was once the District Officer’s office? How many people know that on the left side of the museum stands a monument locally called the Mast Pond or Sail Monument of Portugal?

The Mast Pond or Sail Monument of Portugal in Malindi

Henry the Navigator was a staunch Catholic and had no interest in personal comfort and never married, but was at that time one of the richest men in Portugal. In 1418, he started the first school for Oceanic Navigation, with astronomical observatory and ship-building techniques. A new type of ship, the caravel, was one of the results.

Sailors from Genoa, Venice, Germany and Scandinavia arrived in Sagres, at the west coast of Portugal. In this school, people were trained in navigation, mapmaking, science and shipbuilding.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Firm linked to fake fertiliser calls for arrest of Linturi, NCPB boss
• 
  KWS to pay hotel owners Sh454m for demolition of property in 1997
• 
  MPs want Kenya out of Malindi space centre deal with Italy

In the last years of his life Prince Henry spent most of his time at the royal court, Sagres, and at the headquarters of the Order of Christ in Tomar.