This paper is based on the Eva G. R. Taylor lecture given by the author at the Royal Geographical Society on 28 November 1990. The precise landfall of Columbus in the New World has been the subject of discussion for many years owing to various interpretations of the information given by copies of his log and his own statement that his San Salvador lay about 28° north. The twofold aims of the author's 1989 voyage were: first, to experiment with fifteenth-century methods and instruments to find out by practical experimentation how accurate the navigation at the time might have been and so cast light on this 4° error in latitude; and secondly, to follow the navigation information given by Columbus as closely as possible to assess the effect of the currents on his dead reckoning as clues as to his landfall.
