Gavin Menzies

Biography:

Gavin Menzies (Royal Navy Submarine Commanding Officer, retired) first went to China in 1937, where he spent the first two years of his life. He joined the Royal Navy in 1953 and served in submarines from 1959 to 1970. As a junior officer he sailed the world in the wake of Columbus, Dias, Cabral and Vasco da Gama. When in command of H.M.S. Rorqual (1968 - 70), he sailed the routes pioneered by Magellan and Captain Cook. Since leaving the Royal Navy, he has returned to China and the Far East many times, and in the course of researching 1421 he has visited 120 countries, over 900 museums and libraries and every major seaport of the late Middle Ages.

Past Shows:

	Chinese Impact on Western Culture
	Saturday June 14, 2008

Retired British Royal Navy submarine commander and author Gavin Menzies discussed his work chronicling the Chinese discovery of the Americas, and how their technology sparked change in Europe in the 15th century.Menzies argues that the Chinese circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan was credited with the accomplishment and also discovered the Americas 70 years before Columbus was born. According to Menzies, Columbus even sailed from Europe with Chinese maps in his possession. "An enormous number of Chinese were in the Americas... before the first Europeans got there," he said.Menzies provided some evidence in support of his theory. Chinese ships called 'junks' were found by Spanish explorers on the Oregon coast in the 1540s, he explained. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the first European to reach the Atlantic coast of Florida, also found Chinese junks when he arrived. Vázquez de Coronado discovered Chinese people already living in the Southwestern region of Amer ... More
Host: Ian Punnett