Amerike

The Italian navigator John Cabot is credited as the first European to set foot on American soil following an historic voyage on the Bristol ship ‘Matthew’, although many others are thought do have done so earlier.

On his returns from two voyages to the New World, Cabot received handsome pensions conferred upon him by the King, from the hands of the Collectors of Customs of the Port of Bristol. The senior official who actually handed over the money was Richard Amerike, a leading citizen of Bristol at the time who went on to become Sheriff.

The United States government was contacted in 1929 about the theory that the name given to the newly found land by its discoverer was ‘Amerike’, in honour of the person from whom he received his pension. The stock market crash, the Depression and, eventually, the Second World War sidelined the concept until much more recent discoveries revived it and gave rise to this fascinating and well written book.

Earlier this year, the revolutionary China First theory was introduced, proposing that a Chinese exploration fleet circled the world between 1421 and 1423, making maps which reached Northern Italy by the 1450s. Could these maps have emboldened Columbus, Cabot and Vespucci, Northern Italians all, to sail out across the Atlantic?

Author Rodney Broome was born in Bristol, the grandson of a sea captain, but has lived in America for over 30 years. As his research for this book built, linking Richard Amerike with Cabot and Columbus, it also took him back to his own British roots and seafaring ancestry.

Amerike
By Rodney Broome
Published by Sutton Publishing
ISBN 0 7509 2909 X
Hardback, 228 pages,
Price £14.99