Talk:Guanahani

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I think San Salvador/Watling better be called Watling. Calling it San Salvador might lead to confusion with Columbus' San Salvador. --Mixcoatl 14:06, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I think Wikipedia style is to use official names. And anyway, this is explained in the text so the probability of confusion is lessened. And remember that this is an ongoing debate so we should not give preference to one opinion (even the majority's) by selectively using an old name. Gadykozma 14:30, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Not sure why there are "most likely," "lesser," and "unlikely" candidates. This seems to follow Pickering's opinions to closely, and he's an advocate for one. It's not an encyclopedia's job to judge which candidates are "most likely" is it? If so how do you determine that officially? Can't exactly go by scholarly consensus on this one. --MateoP 23:50, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

It's not Watling Island - San Salvador is the official name the Bahamian government gives it. In addition, many of these so-called "clues" fit the island of San Salvador better than any of the other candidates. Columbus says the island has "muchas aguas y una laguna en medio muy grande". Looking at a map of San Salvador, one can see that (1) about 30-35% of the island's area is covered with water, including lakes, lagoons, blue holes, etc. and (2) there is a complex system of lakes and lagoons that appears to be "one very large lagoon in the middle [of the island]". Also, it is possible to make a NNE transit of San Salvador (the main road on the eastern half of the island does this today), and looking North from the island one can see a reef that surrounds most (but not all) of that part of the island. Between the reef and the island is the rather expansive Graham's Harbour, with some "islands" of Holocene carbonate sediment that are built on top of the shallow carbonate shelf.

There is one other story that I heard while I was on the island. Columbus, in his diary, spoke of seeing "seven islands" to the southwest from his island. Most researchers to San Salvador never see these seven islands and thus discredit the island as a possible landing site. I was there on an especially clear day, and the lead researcher pointed out the seven islands while we were on a topographic high. To the uninformed observer (Columbus) these appear to be seven, distinct islands, but they are in fact five hills on nearby Rum Cay and two hills on Conception Island. They are just on the horizon and only visible on clearer days.

Columbus most certainly would have landed on the West side of the island, which makes sense if he approached it from the South. At one place along the West Side of the island is the generally accepted landing site (marked by a monument from the government of Spain). Excavations at this site revealed early Spanish coins along with a number of other artifacts that are from the same time period as Columbus.

It's obvious that I'm letting my opinion shine through, but having been to the island, I read this article and recalled my time there. I'll be there again in about two and a half months and I'll find out as much as I can while I'm there. A map of the island can be found at http://www.newhaven.edu/sansalvador/gis/topo.htm, so please look it up if you're interested. I also have tons of great pictures but until I figure out how to put such a great photo album on Wikipedia it'll be everyone's loss. 70.113.113.73 02:04, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "muchas aguas y una laguna en medio muy grande"

Shouldn't an English translation be included with this quote? Sk8a H8a 09:30, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Candidates section

The old one, dividing them up into "Most likely," "Less Likely," etc. was too POV and worse, I don't think was very reflective of consensus opinion. I broke the islands up instead into "Prominent" and "Other suggested", which I think is a more reasonable listing. I also moved Watling up to the top, since it is historically the most prominent suggested Guanahani, and in fact is the only one enough people have ever felt confident in to have it named after Columbus's island. 69.227.126.47 15:02, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

"If erratic steering and the fact that no one knows whether the compass card was fixed to the needle accurately is taken into account all attempts at reconstructing the track from the "Diario" turn out to be meaningless." I think it was Newfoundland. Trekphiler 02:52, 24 August 2007 (UTC)