Explorer Giovanni da Verrazano

The First European to Explore New England’s Atlantic Coast

Oct 21, 2009

This one-time pirate was the first to explore North America's Atlantic Coast for France but his exploits are largely forgotten today.

He was born into a rich family near Florence, Italy around 1485, the son of Piero Andrea da Verrazano (also spelt Verrazzano) and Fiammetta Capelli. Little is known about his early life until he arrived in Dieppe, France in 1506 and learned the trade of navigator. After making a number of voyages into the Mediterranean Sea where he gained fame as a corsair raiding Spanish ships, he was invited by Francis I of France (who would later sponsor Jacques Cartier a member of the expedition) to undertake a voyage of exploration to the New World and seek out a route past the Americas to the Pacific Ocean.

Exploration for Francis I

By early March of 1524, sailing via the Madeira Islands, Verrazano was off the coast of North America in his ship La Dauphine, piloted by Antoine de Conflans. He had left Dieppe with four ships but only one had proven seaworthy. After a short stay near Cape Fear he sailed north to what is now North Carolina and Pamlico Sound. Without exploring further he assumed he had found a route to the Pacific and sent a letter to Francis with that information. At about the same time he made contact with aboriginals as he continued to explore the coast passing the mouths of the Chesapeake and Delaware Rivers and pausing at the mouth of the Hudson. For the most part, the explorers did not linger ashore as they feared the natives and wild animals they encountered. Sailing past Long Island he entered Narragansett Bay and received a delegation of Wampanoag. Verrazano spent two weeks in the area before sailing north again along the coast of Maine, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland before returning to France.

Nova Gallia

Verrazano reported to Francis I that he had discovered the passage to the Pacific Ocean and concluded that North America was merely a narrow strip of land between Europe and China. For many years after maps were drawn to reflect this belief and the water to the west was named Verrazano’s Sea. Even though his survey proved that the land he called Nova Gallia or Francesa, was one continuous land mass many subsequent explorers refused to believe it and continued searching for a route through to the Pacific.

Exploring Florida

Nothing is known about his second voyage to the Americas but he made a third in 1527 or 1528. This time he explored south Florida and the islands of the Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean possibly going as far south as Brazil. Here he met an untimely end when he left his ship to row out and greet some natives who turned out to be less friendly than they had originally appeared. Another source states that he was captured by the Spanish who hanged him for his piratical escapades in the Mediterranean some years before.

Verrazano Bridges

The names Verrazano gave to his discoveries did not survive being replaced by those of subsequent explorers partly due to some doubts regarding the authenticity of his letters to Francis I. His name does remain on a number of bridges in the northeast United States including the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island and bridges in Maryland and Jamestown’s Narragansett Bay.

Bibliography

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