John Cabot was an Italian navigator and explorer who was the first European to discover the coast of North America. In May 1497, with the help of English King Henry VII, Cabot decided to sail west from Bristol to find out a direct route to Asia. In June, he discovered a land and named it Newfoundland. At that time, he believed it was Asia and claimed it for England. After returning to England, he planned another voyage and began his next expedition. In May 1498, he set out on a voyage along with a fleet of four or five ships, to discover Japan. It is believed that Cabot reached North America but he never managed to return back. Cabot set out on number of voyages in his lifetime. The fate of his last expedition is unknown and many studies have been undertaken to understand the final voyage of Cabot. Historian, Alwyn Ruddock, had been working on Cabot and his era for 35 years. She had certain claims about Cabot’s final voyage and she believed that Cabot and his ship successfully returned to England in 1500. On the occasion of 500th anniversary of Cabot’s expedition, Canadian as well as British government elected Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, as his first landing site. However, few other locations too have been proposed.
