ccording to Roman mythology the stretch of water we know nowadays as the Gibraltar Strait was flanked by twin summits on which stood two massive columns called The Pillars of Hercules. Between them the gods erected a banner carrying the warning: Ne Plus Ultra whose Latin message we translate as Go No Further Beyond Here. The myth remained powerful in the minds of medieval sailors who rarely ventured through the strait, limiting their maritime trading to the Mediterranean, the Aegean and the Black Sea. Then in 1492, Christopher Columbus persuaded the crews of his small fleet – Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria – to gamble their lives on the newfangled notion that the Earth was round; and that by sailing out of the Mediterranean and setting a course due west they would find a swift route to the
