Who Opened A Sailing School In Portugal?

The School of Sagres, also known as the Court of Sagres, was a group of Portuguese figures associated with fifteenth-century Portuguese navigation. Prince Henry of Portugal, also known as Henry the Navigator, gathered in Sagres near Cape St. Vincent to work on his obsession to push back the frontiers of the known world. He went on to study and sail with the Portuguese and marry a Portuguese woman before beginning his American voyage.

The myth of the Sagres school allegedly founded by Prince Henry was created in the 18th century, mainly by Samuel Purchas and Abbé Prévost. In 1487, Bartolomeu Dias led the first successful sea voyage to the southern tip of Africa, rounding the Cape of Good. Prince Henry the Navigator was a Portuguese prince noted for his patronage of voyages and sailing schools and courses (ISSA, RYA, IYT) in Portugal.

Prince Henry’s school of navigation was founded in 1418 and was located in Sagres, Portugal. Before the establishment of this school, there had been no expeditions into the West Coast of Africa. In 1415, when all of Christianity belonged to one church and Christians battled pagan Turks instead of one another, a force of Portuguese marines set sail for the coast.

The first written mention of a school at Sagres in English dates from the seventeenth century by Samuel Purchas, although Damião de Gois had already pointed out the school. Prince Henry made great efforts in this field, teaching sailors how to use the Mariners compass and the astrolabe. The person responsible for organizing the first Portuguese expeditions along the coast of Africa was Prince Henry the Navigator.