Vasco da
Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvaʃku ðɐ ˈɣɐmɐ]) (c.
1460 or 1469 – 24 December 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most
successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail
directly from Europe to India. For a short time in 1524 he was the Governor of
Portuguese India, under the title of Viceroy.
Early life
Vasco da Gama
was born in either 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal,
probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas. Sines, one of
the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster
of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, tenanted chiefly by fisherfolk.
Vasco da
Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of
the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and went on to rise in the
ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed
alcaide-mór (civil governor) of Sines in the 1460s, a post he held until 1478,
and continued as a receiver of taxes and holder of the Order's commendas in the
region.
Estêvão da
Gama married Isabel Sodré, a daughter of João Sodré (also known as João de
Resende), scion of a well-connected family of English origin. Her father and
her brothers, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, had links to the household of
Infante Diogo, Duke of Viseu and were prominent figures in the military Order
of Christ.
Vasco da Gama
was the third of five sons of Estêvão da Gama and Isabel Sodré - in (probable)
order of age: Paulo da Gama, João Sodré, Vasco da Gama, Pedro da Gama and Aires
da Gama. Vasco also had one known sister, Teresa da Gama (who married Lopo
Mendes de Vasconcelos).
Little is
known of Vasco da Gama's early life. The Portuguese historian Teixeira de
Aragão suggests that Vasco da Gama studied at the inland town of Évora, which
is where he may have learned mathematics
and
navigation and it has even been claimed (although dubiously) that he studied
under the astronomer Abraham Zacuto.
Around 1480,
Vasco da Gama followed his father (rather than the Sodrés) and joined the Order
of Santiago. The master of Santiago was Prince John, who would ascend to the
throne in 1481 as King John II of Portugal. John II doted on the Order, and the
Gamas prospects rose accordingly.
In 1492, John
II dispatched Vasco da Gama on a mission to the port of Setúbal and to the
Algarve to seize French ships in retaliation for peacetime depredations against
Portuguese shipping - a task that da Gama rapidly and effectively performed.
Exploration before Gama
From the
earlier part of the 15th Century, Portuguese expeditions organized by Prince
Henry the Navigator had been crawling down the African coastline, principally
in search for west African riches (notably, gold). They had greatly extended
Portuguese maritime knowledge, but had little profit to show for the effort.
After Henry's death in 1460, the Portuguese crown showed little interest in
continuing and, in 1469, sold off the neglected African enterprise to a private
Lisbon merchant consortium led by Fernão Gomes. Within a few years, Gomes's
captains expanded Portuguese knowledge across the Gulf of Guinea, doing
business in gold dust, melagueta pepper, ivory and slaves. When Gomes charter
came up for renewal in 1474, Prince John (future John II), asked his father
Afonso V of Portugal to pass the African charter to him.
Upon becoming
king in 1481, John II of Portugal set out on many long reforms. To break the
monarch's dependence on the feudal nobility, John II needed to build up the
royal treasury, and saw royal commerce as the key to it. Under John II's watch,
the gold and slave trade in west Africa was greatly expanded. He was eager to
break into the highly-profitable spice trade between Europe and Asia. At the
time, this was virtually monopolized by the Republic of Venice, who operated
overland routes via Levantine and Egyptian ports, through the Red Sea across to
the spice markets of India. John II set a new objective for his captains: to
find a sea route to Asia by sailing around the African continent.
By the time
Vasco da Gama was in his 20s, these plans were coming to fruition. In 1487,
John II dispatched two spies, Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva, overland via
Egypt, to East Africa and India, to scout the details of the spice markets and
trade routes. The breakthrough came soon after when John II's captain
Bartolomeu Dias returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, having
explored as far as the Fish River (Rio do Infante) in modern-day South Africa
and having verified that the unknown coast stretched away to the northeast.
It remained
for an explorer to prove the link between the findings of Dias and those of da
Covilhã and de Paiva and to connect these separate segments into a potentially
lucrative trade route into the Indian Ocean. The task, originally given to
Vasco da Gama's father, was finally offered to Vasco by Manuel I on the
strength of his record of protecting Portuguese trading stations along the
African Gold Coast from depredations by the French.
First voyage
On 8 July
1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from
Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back
was greater than around the equator.The navigators included Portugal's
most experienced, Pero de Alenquer, Pedro Escobar, João de Coimbra, and Afonso
Gonçalves. It is not known for certain how many people were in each ship's crew
but approximately 55 returned, and two ships were lost. Two of the vessels were
as naus or newly built for the voyage, possibly a caravel and a supply boat.
The four ships were:
- The São
Gabriel, commanded by Vasco da Gama; a carrack of 178 tons, length 27 m, width
8.5 m, draft 2.3 m, sails of 372 m²
- The São
Rafael, whose commander was his brother Paulo da Gama; similar dimensions to
the São Gabriel
- The
caravel Berrio, slightly smaller than the former two (later renamed São
Miguel), commanded by Nicolau Coelho
- A storage
ship of unknown name, commanded by Gonçalo Nunes, later lost near the Bay of
São Brás, along the east coast of Africa
Journey to the Cape
The
expedition set sail from Lisbon on 8 July 1497, following the route pioneered
by earlier explorers along the coast of Africa via Tenerife and the Cape Verde
Islands. After reaching the coast of present day Sierra Leone, da Gama took a
course south into the open ocean, crossing the Equator and seeking the South
Atlantic westerlies that Bartolomeu Dias had discovered in 1487. This course
proved successful and on November 4, 1497, the expedition made landfall on the
African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than 6,000 miles
of open ocean, by far the longest journey out of sight of land made by the
time.
By December
16, the fleet had passed the Great Fish River (Eastern Cape, South Africa) -
where Dias had turned back - and sailed into waters previously unknown to
Europeans. With Christmas pending, da Gama and his crew gave the coast they
were passing the name Natal, which carried the connotation of "birth of
Christ" in Portuguese.
Arab-controlled
territory on the East African coast was an integral part of the network of
trade in the Indian Ocean. Fearing the local population would be hostile to
Christians, da Gama impersonated a Muslim and gained audience with the Sultan
of Mozambique. With the paltry trade goods he had to offer, da Gama was unable
to provide a suitable gift to the ruler and soon the local populace became
suspicious of da Gama and his men. Forced by a hostile crowd to flee
Mozambique, da Gama departed the harbor, firing his cannons into the city in
retaliation.
Mombasa
In the
vicinity of modern Kenya, the expedition resorted to piracy, looting Arab
merchant ships - generally unarmed trading vessels without heavy cannons. The
Portuguese became the first known Europeans to visit the port of Mombasa but
were met with hostility and soon departed.
Malindi
In February
1498, Vasco da Gama continued north, landing at the friendlier port of Malindi
- whose leaders were then in conflict with those of Mombasa - and there the
expedition first noted evidence of Indian traders. Da Gama and his crew
contracted the services of a pilot whose knowledge of the monsoon winds allowed
him to bring the expedition the rest of the way to Calicut (Kozhikkodu),
located on the southwest coast of India. Sources differ over the identity of
the pilot, calling him variously a Christian, a Muslim, and a Gujarati. One
traditional story describes the pilot as the famous Arab navigator Ibn Majid,
but other contemporaneous accounts place Majid elsewhere, and he could not have
been near the vicinity at the time.Also, none of the Portuguese historians of
the time mention Ibn Majid.
Calicut, India
The fleet
arrived in Kappadu near Calicut, India on 20 May 1498. The King of Calicut, the
Samudiri (Zamorin), who was at that time staying in his second capital at
Ponnani, returned to Calicut on hearing the news of the foreign fleets's
arrival. The navigator was received with traditional hospitality, including a
grand procession of at least 3,000 armed Nairs, but an interview with the
Zamorin failed to produce any concrete results. The presents that da Gama sent
to the Zamorin as gifts from Dom Manuel—four cloaks of scarlet cloth, six hats,
four branches of corals, twelve almasares, a box with seven brass vessels, a
chest of sugar, two barrels of oil and a cask of honey—were trivial, and failed
to impress. While Zamorin's officials wondered at why there was no gold or
silver, the Muslim merchants who considered da Gama their rival suggested that
the latter was only an ordinary pirate and not a royal ambassador.Vasco da
Gama's request for permission to leave a factor behind him in charge of the
merchandise he could not sell was turned down by the King, who insisted that da
Gama pay customs duty—preferably in gold—like any other trader, which strained
the relation between the two. Annoyed by this, da Gama carried a few Nairs and
sixteen fishermen (mukkuva) off with him by force.Nevertheless, da Gama's
expedition was successful beyond all reasonable expectation, bringing in cargo
that was worth sixty times the cost of the expedition.
Return
Vasco da Gama
left Calicut on 29 August 1498. Eager to set sail for home, he ignored the
local knowledge of monsoon wind patterns which were still blowing onshore. The
fleet initially inched north along the Indian coast, and then anchored in at
Anjediva island for a spell. They finally struck out for their Indian Ocean
crossing on 3 October 1498. But with the winter monsoon yet to set in, it was a
harrowing journey. On the outgoing journey, sailing with the summer monsoon
wind, it had taken Gama's fleet only 23 days to cross the Indian Ocean; now, on
the return trip, sailing against the wind, it took 132 days. Vasco da Gama's
fleet finally arrived in Malindi on 7 January 1499, in a terrible shape -
approximately half of the crew had died during the crossing, and many of the
rest were afflicted with scurvy. Not having enough crewmen left standing to
manage three ships, Vasco da Gama ordered the São Rafael scuttled off the East
African coast, and the crew re-distributed to the remaining two ships, the São
Gabriel and the Berrio. Thereafter, the sailing was smoother. By early March,
they had arrived in Mossel Bay, and crossed the Cape of Good Hope in the
opposite direction on March 20. They reached the west African coast by April
25.
The diary
record of the expedition ends abruptly here. Reconstructing from other sources,
it seems they continued to Cape Verde, where Nicolau Coelho's Berrio separated
from Vasco da Gama's São Gabriel, and sailed on by itself. The Berrio arrived
in Lisbon on July 10, 1499 and Nicolau Coelho personally delivered the news to
King Manuel I and the royal court, then assembled in Sintra. In the meantime,
back in Cape Verde, Vasco's brother, Paulo da Gama had fallen grievously ill.
Gama elected to stay by his side on Santiago island, and handed the São Gabriel
over to his clerk, João de Sá, to take home. The S. Gabriel under Sá arrived in
Lisbon sometime in late July or early August. Vasco da Gama and his sickly
brother eventually hitched a ride with a Guinea caravel returning to Portugal, but
Paulo da Gama died en route. Vasco da Gama got off at the Azores to bury his
brother at the monastery of São Francisco in Angra do Heroismo, and lingered
there for a little while in mourning. Vasco da Gama eventually took passage on
an Azorean caravel and finally arrived in Lisbon on August 29, 1499 (according
to Barros).,or early September (8th or 18th, according to other sources).
Despite his melancholic mood, Vasco da Gama was given a hero's welcome, and
showered with honors, including a triumphal procession and public festivities.
King Manuel wrote two letters in which he described Vasco da Gama's first
voyage, in July and August 1499, soon after the return of the ships.Girolamo
Sernigi also wrote three letters describing the first voyage of Vasco da Gama
soon after the return of the expedition.
The
expedition had exacted a large cost - one ship and over half the men had been
lost. It had also failed in its principal mission of securing a commercial
treaty with Calicut. Nonetheless, the spices brought back on the remaining two
ships were sold at an enormous profit to the crown. Vasco da Gama was justly
celebrated for opening a direct sea route to Asia. His path would be followed
up thereafter by yearly Portuguese India Armadas.
The spice
trade would prove to be a major asset to the Portuguese royal treasury, and
other consequences soon followed. For example, Gama's voyage had made it clear
that the east coast of Africa, the Contra Costa, was essential to Portuguese
interests; its ports provided fresh water, provisions, timber, and harbors for
repairs, and served as a refuge where ships could wait out unfavorable weather.
One significant result was the colonization of Mozambique by the Portuguese
Crown.
Rewards
In December
1499, Vasco da Gama was rewarded by King Manuel I of Portugal with the town of
Sines as a hereditary fief (the very town which his father, Estêvão, had once
held as a commenda). This turned out to be a rather complicated affair, for
Sines still belonged to the Order of Santiago. On the face of it, it should not
have been a problem for Jorge de Lencastre, the master of the Order, to endorse
the reward - after all, Gama was a Santiago knight, one of their own, and a
close associate of Lencastre himself. But the fact that Sines was awarded by
the king's hand, provoked Lencastre to refuse out of principle - lest it
encourage the king to make other donations of the Order's properties.Gama would
spend the next few years attempting to take hold of Sines - an effort which
would estrange him from Lencastre and eventually prompt Gama to abandon his
beloved Order of Santiago, switching over to the rival Order of Christ in 1507.
In the
meantime, Gama made do with a substantial hereditary royal pension of 300,000
reis, and the award of the noble title of Dom (lord) in perpetuity for himself,
his siblings and their descendants. In early 1502 (some say as early as 1500),
Vasco da Gama was awarded the title of Almirante dos mares de Arabia, Persia,
India e de todo o Oriente ("Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India
and all the Orient") - an overwrought title reminiscent of the ornate
Castilian title borne by Christopher Columbus. (Evidently, Manuel must have
reckoned that if Castile had an 'Admiral of the Seas' running around, then
surely Portugal should have one too.)Another royal letter, dated October 1501,
gave Vasco da Gama the personal right to intervene and exercise a determining
role on any future India-bound fleet.
Around 1501,
Vasco da Gama married Catarina de Ataíde, daughter of Álvaro de Ataíde, the
alcaide-mór of Alvor (Algarve), and a prominent nobleman connected by kinship
with the powerful Almeida family (Catarina was a first cousin of D. Francisco
de Almeida).
Second voyage
The follow-up
expedition, the Second India Armada launched in 1500, was placed under the
command Pedro Álvares Cabral, with the mission of making a treaty with the
Zamorin of Calicut and setting up a Portuguese factory in the city. However,
Cabral entered into a conflict with the local Arab merchant guilds, with the
result that the Portuguese factory was overrun in a riot and up to 70
Portuguese killed. Cabral blamed the Zamorin for the incident and bombarded the
city. Thus war broke out between Portugal and Calicut.
Vasco da Gama
invoked his royal letter to take command of the 4th India Armada, secheduled to
set out in 1502, with the explicit aim of taking revenge upon the Zamorin and
force him to submit to Portuguese terms. The heavily-armed fleet of fifteen
ships and eight hundred men left Lisbon on 12 February 1502. One of the
squadrons was led by his cousin, Estêvão da Gama (the son of Aires da Gama),
and two of his maternal uncles, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, were
pre-designated to command an Indian Ocean naval patrol.
Along the
way, on the outgoing voyage, Gama's fleet opened contact with the East African
gold port of Sofala, and reduced the sultanate of Kilwa to tribute, extracting
a substantial sum of gold. On reaching India in October 1502, da Gama started
capturing any Arab vessel he came across in Indian waters, most notoriously the
Miri, a pilgrim ship from Mecca, whose passengers he had massacred in open
water.He then appeared before Calicut, demanding redress for the treatment
meted out to Cabral. While the Zamorin was willing to sign a new treaty,Gama
made a preposterous call to the Hindu king to expel all Muslims from Calicut
before beginning negotiations, which was naturally turned down. The Portuguese
fleet then bombarded the city for nearly two days from the sea shore. He also
captured several rice vessels and barbarously cut off the crew's hands, ears
and noses, dispatching them with an insulting note to the Zamorin.
The violent
treatment meted out by Gama quickly brought trade along the Malabar coast of
India, upon which Calicut depended, to a standstill. But the Zamorin
nonetheless refused to submit to Portuguese terms, and even ventured to hire a
fleet of strong corsair warships to challenge Gama's armada (which Gama managed
to defeat in a naval battle before Calicut harbor). Gama loaded up with spices
at Cochin and Cannanore, small nearby kingdoms, half-vassal and half-at-war
with the Zamorin, whose alliances had been secured by prior Portuguese fleets.
The 4th armada left India in early 1503. Gama left behind a small squadron of
caravels, under the command of his uncle, Vicente Sodré, to patrol the Indian
coast, continue harassing Calicut shipping and protect the Portuguese factories
at Cochin and Cannanore from the Zamorin's inevitable reprisals.
Vasco da Gama
arrived back in Portugal in September 1503, effectively having failed in his
mission to bring the Zamorin to submission. This failure, and the subsequent
more galling failure of his uncle Vicente Sodré to protect the Portuguese
factory in Cochin, probably counted against any further rewards. When the
Portuguese king Manuel I of Portugal decided to appoint the first governor and
viceroy of Portuguese India in 1505, Vasco da Gama was conspicuously
overlooked, and the post given to D. Francisco de Almeida.
Pilgrim ship incident
On his second
voyage, Vasco da Gama inflicted acts of cruelty upon competing traders and
local inhabitants, which sealed his notoriety in India. During his second
voyage to Calicut, da Gama intercepted a ship of Muslim pilgrims at Madayi
travelling from Calicut to Mecca. Described in detail by eyewitness Thomé Lopes
and chronicler Gaspar Correia as one that is unequalled in cold-blooded
cruelty, da Gama looted the ship with over 400 pilgrims on board including 50
women, locked in the passengers, the owner and an ambassador from Egypt and
burnt them to death. They offered their wealth which 'could ransom all the
Christian slaves in the Kingdom of Fez and much more' but were not spared. Da
Gama looked on through the porthole and saw the women bringing up their gold
and jewels and holding up their babies to beg for mercy.'
After
demanding the expulsion of Muslims from Calicut to the Hindu Zamorin, the
latter sent the high priest Talappana Namboothiri (the very same person who
conducted da Gama to the Zamorin's chamber during his much celebrated first
visit to Calicut in May 1498) for talks. Da Gama called him a spy, ordered the
priests' lips and ears to be cut off and after sewing a pair of dog's ears to
his head, sent him away.
Third voyage
For the next
two decades, Vasco da Gama lived out a quiet life, unwelcome in the royal court
and sidelined from Indian affairs. His attempts to return to the favor of
Manuel I (including switching over to the Order of Christ in 1507), yielded
little. Almeida, the larger-than-life Albuquerque and the efficient Albergaria
were the king's new point men for India. But after Ferdinand Magellan defected
to the Crown of Castile in 1518, Vasco da Gama threatened to do the same,
prompting the king to undertake steps to retain him in Portugal and avoid the
embarrassment of losing his own "Admiral of the Seas of India" to
Spain.In 1519, after years of ignoring his petitions, King Manuel I finally
hurried to give Vasco da Gama a feudal title, appointing him the first Count of
Vidigueira, a count title created by a royal decree issued in Évora on December
29, after a complicated agreement with Dom Jaime, Duke of Braganza, who ceded
him on payment the towns of Vidigueira and Vila dos Frades. This decree granted
Vasco da Gama and his heirs all the revenues and privileges related,thus
establishing da Gama as the first Portuguese count who was not born with royal
blood.
After the
death of King Manuel I in late 1521, his son and successor, King John III of
Portugal set about reviewing the Portuguese government overseas. Turning away
from the Albuquerque clique, represented by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, John III
looked for a fresh start. Vasco da Gama re-emerged from his political
wilderness as an important advisor to the new king's appointments and strategy.
Seeing the new Spanish threat to the Moluccas as the priority, Vasco da Gama
advised against the obsession with Arabia that had pervaded much of the
Manueline period, and continued to be the dominant concern of Duarte de
Menezes, then-governor of Portuguese India. Menezes also turned out to be
incompetent and corrupt, subject to numerous complaints. As a result, John III
decided to appoint Vasco da Gama himself to replace Menezes, confident that the
magic of his name and memory of his deeds might better impress his authority,
and manage the transition to a new government and new strategy.
By his
appointment letter of February 1524, John III granted Vasco da Gama the
privileged title of "Viceroy", being only the second Portuguese
governor to enjoy that title (the first was Francisco de Almeida in 1505). His
second son, Estêvão da Gama was simultaneously appointed Capitão-mor do Mar da
Índia ('Captain-major of the Indian Sea', commander of the Indian Ocean naval
patrol fleet), to replace Duarte's brother, Luís de Menezes. As a final
condition, Gama secured from John III of Portugal the commitment to appoint all
his sons successively as Portuguese captains of Malacca.
Setting out
in April 1524, with a fleet of fourteen ships, Vasco da Gama took as his
flagship the famous large carrack Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai on her last
journey to India, along with two of his sons, Estêvão and Paulo. After a
troubled journey (four or five of the ships were lost en route), he arrived in
India in September. Vasco da Gama immediately invoked his high viceregent
powers to impose a new order in Portuguese India, replacing all the old
officials with his own appointments. But Gama contracted malaria not long after
arriving, and died in the city of Cochin on Christmas Eve in 1524, three months
after his arrival. As per royal instructions, Gama was succeeded as governor of
India by one the captains who had come with him, Henrique de Menezes (no
relation to Duarte). Vasco's sons Estêvão and Paulo immediately lost their
posts and joined the returning fleet of early 1525 (along with the dismissed
Duarte de Menezes and Luís de Menezes). It is reported that, on the return
journey, Luís de Menezes engineered a mutiny and seized control of the Santa
Catarina do Monte Sinai, and proceeded to turn to a piratical career.
Vasco da
Gama's body was first buried at St. Francis Church, which was located at Fort
Kochi in the city of Kochi, but his remains were returned to Portugal in 1539.
The body of Vasco da Gama was re-interred in Vidigueira in a casket decorated
with gold and jewels.
The Monastery
of the Hieronymites, in Belém was erected in honor of his voyage to India.
Marriage and issue
Vasco da Gama
and his wife, Catarina de Ataíde, had six sons and one daughter:
- Dom
Francisco da Gama, who inherited his father's titles as 2nd Count of Vidigueira
and the 2nd "Admiral of the Seas of India, Arabia and Persia". He
remained in Portugal.
- Dom
Estevão da Gama, after his abortive 1524 term as Indian patrol captain, he was
appointed for a three-year term as captain of Malacca, serving from 1534 to
1539 (includes the last two years of his brother Paulo's term). He was
subsequently appointed as the 11th governor of India from 1540 to 1542.
- Dom Paulo
da Gama, captain of Malacca in 1533-34, killed in a naval action off Malacca.
- Dom
Cristovão da Gama, captain of Malacca fleet from 1538 to 1540; nominated to
succeed in Malacca, but killed in action while leading expedition to Abyssinia
in 1542.
- Dom Pedro
da Silva da Gama, appointed captain of Malacca from 1548 to 1552.
- Dom Álvaro
d'Ataide da Gama appointed captain of Malacca fleet in 1540s, captain of
Malacca itself from 1552 to 1554.
- Dona
Isabel d'Ataide da Gama, only daughter, married Ignacio de Noronha, son of the
first Count of Linhares.
His male line
issue became extinct in 1747, though the title went through female line.
Legacy
As much as
anyone after Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama was responsible for Portugal's
success as an early colonising power. Beside the fact of the first voyage
itself, it was his astute mix of politics and war on the other side of the
world that placed Portugal in a prominent position in Indian Ocean trade.
Following da Gama's initial voyage, the Portuguese crown realized that securing
outposts on the eastern coast of Africa would prove vital to maintaining
national trade routes to the Far East.
The
Portuguese national epic, the Lusíadas of Luís Vaz de Camões, largely concerns
Vasco da Gama's voyages.
The 1865
grand opera L'Africaine: Opéra en Cinq Actes, composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer
from a libretto by Eugène Scribe, prominently includes the character of Vasco
da Gama. The events depicted, however, are fictitious. Meyerbeer's working
title for the opera was Vasco da Gama. A 1989 production of the opera by the
San Francisco Opera featured noted tenor Placido Domingo in the role of da Gama.The
19th century composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray composed an eponymous
1872 opera based on da Gama's life and exploits at sea.
The port city
of Vasco da Gama in Goa is named after him, as is the crater Vasco da Gama on
the Moon. There are three football clubs in Brazil (including Club de Regatas
Vasco da Gama) and Vasco Sports Club in Goa that were also named after him.
There exists a church in Kochi, Kerala called Vasco da Gama Church, and a
private residence on the island of Saint Helena. The suburb of Vasco in Cape
Town also honours him.
A few places
in Lisbon's Parque das Nações are named after the explorer, such as the Vasco
da Gama Bridge, Vasco da Gama Tower and the Centro Comercial Vasco da Gama
shopping centre.[37] The Oceanário in the Parque das Nações has a mascot of a
cartoon diver with the name of "Vasco", who is named after the
explorer.
The Portuguese
Navy has a class of frigates named after him. There are three Vasco da Gama
class frigates in total, of which the first one also bears his name.
South African
musician Hugh Masekela recorded an anti-colonialist song entitled "Vasco
da Gama (The Sailor Man)", which contains the lyrics "Vasco da Gama
was no friend of mine". He later recorded another version of this song
under the name "Colonial Man".
Vasco da Gama
appears as an antagonist in the Indian film Urumi. The film, directed by
acclaimed cinematographer Santosh Sivan, depicts a failed assassination attempt
on da Gama by an Indian.
