# Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route Date: 1497 ## The fact On 8 July 1497 [Gama](/people/vasco-da-gama)’s fleet left the Lisbon/Restelo shore for India by the Cape. The dated departure is not the 20 May 1498 Calicut landfall and not the 1499 return. Vasco da Gama’s documented role is: He commanded four ships sailing from Restelo. Manuel I commissioned; unnamed crews, priests, and convicts sailed; he did not uniquely invent the Cape. Do not twin this with the 1498 Calicut landfall. Departure is not arrival. Later editors, printers, and excavators remain named where they appear. Vasco da Gama's documented role is: He commanded four ships sailing from Restelo. Manuel I commissioned; unnamed crews, priests, and convicts sailed; he did not uniquely invent the Cape. ## Context Bartolomeu Dias’s earlier rounding, Manuel’s commission, and unnamed carpenters already sat in the file. A departure is not unique seamanship of every later carreira. Later Jerónimos mythology is not 1497 masonry by his hand. Named others on the file: Manuel I as commissioner, unnamed crews, and [Dias](/people/wellington-dias) as predecessor of the route share the sailing. The public setting is the file around 1497-07-08. Unnamed clerks, soldiers, printers, or later editors may appear without becoming this instrument. The instrument stays Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route. The setting of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route is the public file around 1497-07-08. Shared offices, unnamed crews, printers, or later editors may appear without becoming this instrument. Driver [industrial-policy-activism](/drivers/industrial-policy-activism) is attached because the significance names a mechanism from this act, not because a standing list needed coverage. ## Evidence and sources Britannica and the later English journal independently date the 8 July 1497 Lisbon departure. Official: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, 1497 departure (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama; Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent: A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama — later English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599; Project Gutenberg). The two URLs are different pages. Where the carrier is a later edition or a received narrative, that limit is stated rather than upgraded to an autograph. Official carrier: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, 1497 departure (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama; Encyclopaedia Britannica). Independent carrier: A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama — later English (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599; Project Gutenberg). Official or archival record: Britannica — Vasco da Gama, 1497 departure (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama; Encyclopaedia Britannica). ## Significance Improving industrial-policy path: a completed royal oceanic departure. Complex shared crown expedition. Welfare reading improving. The attached mechanism is A dated departure opened a completed royal Cape-route expedition as an industrial-policy instrument of the Portuguese crown. Lag to any modern indicator is not treated as zero. This path is attached because the mechanism is named from this act, not because a driver list needed coverage. The welfare reading on this path is improving. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. ## What is established and what is not Established: 8 July 1497 departure. Not established: that Jerónimos monastery is this act, or that 1498 landfall is this same day. Established: a sourced public record of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route under 1497-07-08. Established: a sourced public record of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route under 1497-07-08. Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Do not twin this with the 1498 Calicut landfall. Departure is not arrival. Mixed effects of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route are separate paths. Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is industrial-policy-activism. The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Shared responsibility is part of Gama’s fleet leaves Lisbon on 8 July 1497 for the Cape route. Naming Vasco da Gama does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1497-07-08 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them. ## People - Vasco da Gama: https://factrail.ai/people/vasco-da-gama ## Drivers - Industrial-Policy Activism: https://factrail.ai/drivers/industrial-policy-activism ## Sources - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vasco-da-Gama - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22599 ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/vdg-lisbon-depart-1497