fashioned plan is to fib a strong iron lever called a " com- presser " under the deck pipe, fixed at one end in such a position that when the other end is hove round by a tackle the cable will be jammed between the compresser and the lower edge of the pipe. In place of coinpressers, or to act in conjunction with them, several kinds of stoppers have been used, fitted either at the deck pipes, or just inside the hawse pipes ; those patented by Harfield and Co. find the most favour in the Royal Navy, but the coinpressers are almost invariably fitted with them. Ships are generally held when " riding at anchor " by one or two turns of the cable being taken round the " riding bitts," which are strong structures of iron or wood, placed for this purpose near the hawse pipes. " Stopper bolts" i.e., ring-and-eye bolts, placed in the deck forward are also fitted, to which the cable may be secured while the turns are being put on or taken off the riding bitt, while the mooring swivel is being
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Fig. 2.—Mooring Swivel.
CABOT, Sebastian,[1] the renowned navigator, and contemporary of Columbus, was the son of John Cabot, a Venetian merchant, and was born in Bristol, England, while his father was a resident of that city. On the disputed question of his birthplace, Richard Eden (Decades of the New World, fol. 255) says Sebastian told him that, when four years old, he was taken by his father to Venice, and returned to England while still very young, " whereby he was thought to have been born in Venice." Stow, in his Annals, under the year 1498, styles " Sebastian Gaboto a Genoas sonne, borne in Bristow." Galvano and Herrera also give to England the honour of his nativity. Neither the year of his birth nor that of his death can be stated with precision ; conjecture fixes the former event in about 1476. No instructive details of his early life, until he had passed his twentieth year, can now be recovered.
The discoveries of Columbus infused into young Sebastian an ardent desire to emulate his brilliant achievements. Henry VII. resolved to enter the new field of maritime discovery, which had already rewarded Spain with the Antilles ; and the Cabots having proposed to the king the project of shortening the voyage to India by sailing west, to them was confided its execution.
The first patent was granted March 5, 1496 (llth Henry VII.), to " John Gabote, citizen of Venice ; to Lewes, Sebas tian, and Santius, sonnes of the said John." It empowered them to seek out, subdue, and occupy, at their own charges, any regions which before had "been unknown to all Christians." They were authorized to set up the royal banner, and possess the territories discovered by them as the king s vassals. Bristol was the only port to which they were permitted to return ; and a fifth part of the gains of the voyage was reserved to the Crown. The discoverers were vested with exclusive privilege of resort and traffic.
With respect to Lewes and Santius, the chronicles are silent. John and Sebastian sailed from Bristol in the "Matthew" in the following year (1497), and, as now seems probable, returned to England after the first discovery had been made (see Bristol, p. 350). There is in the account of the Privy Purse expenses of Henry VII. the following entry: " 10th August 1497. To him that found the New Isle, 10."
Although it is probable that the Island of Newfoundland was discovered in this voyage, a careful scrutiny of the various maps and chronicles sustains the belief that the Cabots saw the mainland of America before any other, the term Terra prim/am, visa having been used to distinguish tne continent, or what was believed to form a part of it. The relation of Sebastian (see Hakluyt, 1 1 1 , p. 7) does not warrant the inference that the first land seen was an island.
The most precise account of the discovery is from a map drawn by Sebastian Cabot, and engraved in 1549 by Clement Adams, which is known to have Imng in Queen Elizabeth s gallery at Whitehall. The notice runs as follows : " In the year of our Lord 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, and his son Sebastian, discovered that country which no one before his time had ventured to approach, on the 24th of June, about five o clock in the morning. He called the land Terra primwn visa, because, as I conjecture, this was the place that first met his eye in looking from the sea. On the contrary, the island which lies opposite the land he called the island of St John, as I suppose, because it was discovered on the festival of St John the Baptist."
On Sebastian Cabot s map of 1544, the original of which is in the Geographical Cabinet of the Imperial Library at Paris (see fac-simile in Jomard s Monuments de la Geographic], nothing is designated above the sixtieth parallel. Prima tierra vista is delineated between 45 and 50, with the island St Juan (corresponding with Prince Edward), within the great gulf at the embouchure of what is plainly the St Lawrence. The authenticity of the map being- accepted, the " land first seen " could be no other than the coast of Nova Scotia, or island of Cape Breton.
A second " patent " to John Cabot, dated 3d February 1498, authorized him to take six English ships, of not more than 200 tons, in any port in the realm, " and them convey and lede to the lande and isles of late found by the said John in oure name and by cure commandment." Before the expedition was ready, John Cabot died, and Sebastian, with a fleet of five vessels, sailed from Bristol in May 1498. It is believed that this is the voyage referred to by Peter Martyr, Gomara, Fabyau, and by Sebastian himself in his letter to Ramusio. Cabot, upon falling in with the coast, ascended it as high as latitude 67~, probably passing into Hudson s Bay. He persevered in the effort to find an open channel to India, until his sailors, appalled by the danger of navigating the ship among icebergs, broke out in open mutiny and compelled him to turn back. He then retraced his course, pausing at Baccalaos to refit ; and, after examining the coast as far south as 38, returned to England. Sebastian took with him in this voyage three hundred men, with the purpose, as Gomara states, of colonizing the newly-found regions. Thevet, French cosmographer, relates that Cabot landed these emigrants where the cold was so intense that nearly the whole company perished, although it was in July. Cabot brought to England three native inhabitants of the countries he had visited ; his great achievement was the discovery of eighteen hundred miles of sea-coast of the North American continent.
- ↑ v e Patent of 1496 Kabotto, Patent of 1498; Cabote, Eden; YJaboto, Gomara, Stow.
