Question

Answer all questions in the prompt using at least two pieces of historical reasoning.

Imagine you are a crew member aboard Christopher Columbus's ship as it sails across the vast Atlantic Ocean on its first voyage. Write a journal entry expressing your experience.

As the voyage progresses, which is growing more powerful - your confidence, or your concerns? Will your role in the mission end in failure or success? Describe the observations and beliefs which justify your thoughts as your home grows further behind you. Maximum word count is 125 words

Answer 1

Day at sea aboard the Santa María. As my home dwindles astern, my concerns grow more powerful than confidence. Men whisper of scurvy and mutiny as rations thin—common perils of long voyages—and I see fatigue in hardened sailors. Yet Columbus’s certainty, his charts and skill with celestial navigation and the steady trade winds, plus sightings of land-birds and floating wood, argue for success. By historical practice—relying on dead reckoning and the westward trade-wind route—he may reach new shores. I fear the journey, but I believe our role will end in discovery rather than failure.