The genius of Christopher Columbus was not so much in discovering a way to get to the New World but a way to get back. The Portuguese exploration of the route south had shown which way the winds were blowing off the Canary's but he figured out how to catch the winds back to Spain.
The notion that ships could have been disabled and drifted across to wreck in South America is not so far-fetched when you look at the winds and currents. Roman - and before them Carthaginian - ships regularly sailed the waters off Morocco. Ships of that time were not designed for long sea voyages and a situation where the ship's rudder was disabled would essentially leave them helpless before the winds. Merchants ships also had small crews which could have been easily dispatched by disease.
It would explain the occasional European artifact showing up in the New World but we have nothing....not even a wild story from antiquity...of anyone coming back.
The notion that ships could have been disabled and drifted across to wreck in South America is not so far-fetched when you look at the winds and currents. Roman - and before them Carthaginian - ships regularly sailed the waters off Morocco. Ships of that time were not designed for long sea voyages and a situation where the ship's rudder was disabled would essentially leave them helpless before the winds. Merchants ships also had small crews which could have been easily dispatched by disease.
It would explain the occasional European artifact showing up in the New World but we have nothing....not even a wild story from antiquity...of anyone coming back.
