Page 38 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

38 from Italy to the Canary Islands

besides, arousing the curiosity and fears of those who imagined the world
to be stationary and organised according to a theological geography, the
sailors thus were not so much afraid of going beyond the Pillars of Her-
cules as they were of not being able to turn around and come back if they
pushed themselves too far, to the extent that one of Christopher Columbus’
first concerns, when he decidedly set sail towards the west to reach the
east, was to lie about the exact number of leagues covered, so as not to
frighten the crew.
We can therefore justly think of Varazze-born Lanzerotto Malocello as
the precursor and master of the Genoese Christopher Columbus, because,
with his discovery, he showed him the routes and the winds of the Atlantic
and the desire and courage to reach the Indies. The same courage with
which the torpedo boat destroyer of our Navy was endowed. This destroy-
er was meaningfully named after Malocello and in the years of the last war
it took part in 149 missions, saving hundreds of lives at sea. The “Malocel-
lo” lies forever more 28 miles off Cape Bon; but we know nothing of the
ashes of our hero, just as we know nothing of brothers Ugolino and Vadino
Vivaldi who set sail from Genoa with the clear intention of landing in the
Indies or in the Kindgom of Prester John, travelling south-west and on
whose tracks Malocello did not hesitate to set out.
There was no radio, no GPS, and there were no navigational charts or
reliable instruments. There was however courage, the will for adventure,
the sense of trade-related business that a straight and flat route such as the
sea could indulge, fairly undemanding for those who knew how to sail it,
trusting in the name of God and in their own expertise.
I therefore hope that the passionate and profound work of our friend
Alfonso Licata will succeed in uncovering the fleeting yet real tracks that
our hero, our fellow citizen, left in the history of geographical discoveries
and navigation. And even though the worthy Lanzerotto will not have a
face or even a biography full of certain documents, his adventurous story,
his name and his imagination will be an example for our young people to
follow.
For our City and for us all it will in any case always be a model of perse-
verance, expertise, courage and faith understood as a pole star determining
the route of our actions.
May the wind be in our favour!

Mr Giovanni Delfino
Mayor of Varazze