Bastimentos, Portobelo

Bastimentos was an island, anchorage and harbour near Portobelo on the north-western coast of Panama discovered and named in Spanish "Isle and port of Provisions" by Christopher Columbus in 1502 during his fourth and last voyage. Although the location of the two adjacent Bastimentos Islands (Great and Little) is largely undisputed, the location of the harbour, shown on several 18th century Spanish maps as on the mainland opposite the islands, is suggested by various modern commentators to lie about 7 miles distant, thus its exact location is now uncertain and a matter of conjecture. Harris (2013) states: "by 1513 the record of (Columbus's) discoveries in this small region had become so clouded that it has since generated countless investigations and over the years a voluminous literature has been created in which attempted reconstructions of the voyage often have been conjectural and controversial". Bastimentos was the place where in 1726/7 the British Admiral Francis Hosier with three thousand of his sailors died of tropical disease whilst anchored with his fleet of 20 ships during the disastrous Blockade of Porto Bello. Due to the popularity of Richard Glover's poem and song Admiral Hosier's Ghost (c.1739), which mentions them twice, the Bastimentos became in England synonymous with "foul dishonour" and "shameful doom". The location should not be confused with Bastimentos Island, Bocas del Toro, 270 km to the west, also discovered by Columbus on his 4th Voyage, before reaching Portobelo.