Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry of Portugal, known as Henry the Navigator, was a member of the Portuguese royal house who became the central patron of Portugal's fifteenth century maritime exploration along the West African coast. Although he did not personally sail on the voyages he sponsored, Henry organized and financed expeditions that pushed past Cape Bojador in 1434, a psychological and navigational barrier that had long discouraged European sailors, and steadily extended Portuguese knowledge of the African coastline toward the Gulf of Guinea. He gathered cartographers, shipbuilders and navigators at Sagres and Lagos, encouraging the development of the caravel, a fast and maneuverable ship well suited to exploration against prevailing winds and currents. His patronage laid groundwork for the later Portuguese voyages of Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, and historians continue to debate the extent and organization of the so called Sagres school he is traditionally credited with founding.