Who really discovered America?
This is one that has stuck in my craw for years.
I have nothing against Christopher Columbus. For all I know, he was a pleasant chap who obviously had an adventurous spirit. While I don’t know what he looked like, he must have had a comely appearance and a well-tuned ability to speak winsomely to have persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance what was then viewed as a lunatic venture to find a new trade route to the Orient.
After all, everyone expected him to sail off the edge of the flat world.
But did he discover America as we were taught year after year (“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”) from grade school on?
I don’t think so.
Has history been rewritten?
No. Just some of it has been overlooked. Who really got here first: Columbus or Leif Erickson, a Norse explorer who reportedly landed in North America in 970 C.E., more than 500 years before Columbus?
But when you look at where each of these two men struck land, neither of them discovered what we today call the United States of America. Columbus set foot on an island in what are now the Bahamas, well south of the U.S. And Erickson stepped onto what today is Newfoundland, well north of the U.S.
But, as I noted, neither man discovered America proper.
Which is just as well because the person who did discover America was an ancestor of mine, Erick Leaf Columbia Christophe Pletcher, better known as Pletcher the Lost, Pletcher the Mad, Pletcher the Nutty, Pletcher the Wrong and Pletcher the Prevaricator. He arrived here in the year 890 C.B. (contrary to belief), landing on what is now New Jersey.
My ancestor grew up in the mountains of Switzerland where there was no ocean, sea or even a large lake. That didn’t prevent him from wanting to be a sailor. Family lore says he built his first boat on a hillside near his home. He would often be seen, sitting at the helm with a couple of his cows in the fore section, singing loudly, “Oh, a sailor’s life for me, I want to go so sea,” etc.
How he got to the ocean is another fascinating story. He was shanghaied on his way to trade one of his cows for some magic beans. Family lore says he was placed on a boat to China. When the navigator on the ship fell overboard, my ancestor stepped up and said he knew all about finding his way on the open sea.
Unfortunately, his shipmates believed him. He told them which way to steer to get back to China and thus retrace their path to Europe and that’s how he got to America.
It was a very long journey.
Along the way, my ancestor kept a journal, which he published when he returned to his native Switzerland. It contained a detailed report of his travels, complete with the latitude and longitude of the new world (which is outstanding since only latitude was known and used as a navigational tool at the time).
Now a little known fact is that copies of that journal were found amongst the personal papers of both Erickson and Columbus. Some believe they were passed down through their families, which is why they bore names similar to my ancestor’s.
So, when someone asks you who really discovered America, you’ll know what to say.
And, if they call you crazy, well, I know for a fact: Crazy isn’t all bad.
Have a good day.
James (The Looney) Pletcher Jr. is retired Herald-Standard business editor. He can be reached by e-mail at jpletcher@heraldstandard.com or jpletcher@heraldstandard.com.