Columbus and the Pinzón Brothers

You may remember reading in your high school history book that when Christopher Columbus and his fleet of three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, had passed beyond the sight of land, his crew threatened to mutiny. The were afraid that the ships would fall off the edge of the world or drift forever lost on the vast ocean, and they wanted to turn back toward the safety of familiar shores – but Columbus stood firm and declared that they would continue westward, ever westward.

It is a good story, and it has been repeated in endless variations. In some versions the mutiny is started because of a problem with the compass or a disagreement over how far the ships had traveled, but it always ends with Columbus staying on course despite a storm of doubts and fears. It is a powerful image, and it has served as a popular model for leadership.

Unfortunately, the story is not true.  At least there is no mention of it in Columbus’s logs or in the ships’ logs kept by Martín and Vicente Pinzón, who were captains aboard the Nina and the Pinta. Instead, all three captains tell us that when the ships were about half way across the ocean, the Pinzón brothers came on board the Santa Maria and convinced Columbus that they could make better use of the wind and travel faster if the three ships turned a few degrees to the south.

Columbus took the brothers’ advice, and saved the fleet from disaster. The journey turned out to be much longer than he had expected, and by the time they first sighted land, the fleet was almost out of food. The men were not near mutiny, but they were close to starvation.  If Columbus had not changed course, if he had continued "westward, ever westward" as the story tells us, then they would have reached land farther to the north and several days later, and Columbus and his crew would have been dead or dying.

The obvious lesson to the story is that a good captain does not stand firm when everybody else is telling him that the ship is off course. Rather, the first lesson of leadership is to hire good people – then listen to them.