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This is the first of three issues commemorating the discovery of a sea route from Europe to India by Vasco da Gama and his crew. The fleet of four ships departed on 8 July 1497 from Lisbon and reached India on 20 May 1498. This issue depicts the trip’s first stage, which included the longest journey made out of sight of land at the time: over 6,000 miles on open ocean.
On the top row from left to right:
King Manuel I visit the shipyard.
Departure from Lisbon.
Fleet in the Atlantic.
Cape of Good Hope
This is the second of three issues commemorating the discovery of a sea route from Europe to India by Vasco da Gama and his crew (1497-99). This issue depicts the trip’s second stage, on the West coast of Africa.
After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the fleet passed in December 1497 a stretch of coast that was named Natal (Christmas, in Portuguese). The fleet then landed on various places up to what is nowadays Kenya, erecting padrões (standards) and being the first Europeans to enter Mombasa, but were understandably often met with hostility. It was in the friendlier Malindi that Vasco da Gama was able to find a pilot to guide them to India using the monsoon winds.
On the second row from the left to the right:
Erecting a padrãd in Quelimane (Mozambique.)
Arrival on the island of Mazambique
Arrival in Mombasa
King of Malindi reception.
On the third row from the left to the right: This is the last of three issues commemorating the discovery of a sea route from Europe to India by Vasco da Gama and his crew (1497-9). This issue depicts the third stage of the voyage, the crossing of the Indian Ocean from Malindi (Kenya) to Calicut (India) and back.
The first stamp shows the pilot hired in Malindi telling Da Gama how to use a kamal. Helped by the monsoon winds, the Portuguese took 4 weeks to arrive in Calicut, in May 1498. Negotiations with the Zamorin of Calicut didn’t go well. In spite, Vasco da Gama took some fishermen as prisoners and set sail hastily in August. The trip back to Malindi, against the monsoon winds, took 4 months, with great loss of men.
The ships arrived back in Portugal separately, during July-September 1499, carrying enough cargo to make the expedition highly profitable. Portugal’s dream to find a route to India that avoided the Venetian trading monopoly had become true.
The third row from the left to the right:
Vasco da Gama hiring a pilot in Malinda, the pilot telling da Gama how to work with the kamal. https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=Kl3 ... es&f=false
Storm in the Indian Ocean.
Arrival in Calicut.
Audience with the Zamorin of Calicut.

Portugal 1998 sgMS?
http://michel.wermelinger.ws/postugal/s ... versary-3/

In 1997 Portugal issued four stamps and a miniature sheet for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the seaway to India by Vasco da Gama.

3.15E The MS shows the arrival in Natal.
By Christmas 1497, the squadron was off the hazardous coast of Pondoland, which they named Natal. Three days later, they were enjoying good fishing off a point they called Ponta de Pescaria (Durban bluff). Head winds blew them out to sea and when they managed to reach the coast again, they anchored off Inharrime on the coast of Mozambique. They replenished their water barrels and, finding the iron-working ancestors of the Tsonga friendly and generous, they named the area Terra da Boa Gente ('land of the good people').

49E Erecting of a padrãd in Quelimane (Mozambique)

80E Arrival on the island of Mozambique.
At Mozambique Island, they forcefully engaged two Arab pilots and when the Muslim inhabitants realized the explorers were Christians, they grew hostile. To keep them at bay, da Gama bombarded the town and then sailed away

100E Arrival in Mombasa.
On 7 April, Da Gama anchored off Mombasa. The sultan generously sent them sheep, fresh vegetables and fruit; but when one of the Arab pilots jumped overboard as they were entering the harbour, the Portuguese became suspicious of the sultan's intentions. Da Gama forced some Muslims on board, tortured them with boiling oil, and learned of a plot to avenge the Portuguese attack on Mozambique. Thus forewarned, they were able to stave off an attack and continued on their way.

140E King of Melinde reception.
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama met Malindi authorities in 1498 to sign a trade agreement and hire a guide for the voyage to India, when he erected a coral pillar. Vasco da Gama was given a warm reception from the Shiek of Malindi, which contrasted with the hostile reception he encountered in Mombasa. The pillar stands to this day, though there have been calls by conservationists to take care of it, since soil erosion might make the pillar fall into the ocean. It is a fairly popular tourist attraction for both local and international tourists.

Source: Wikipedia.
http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/vasco ... overy-1497
Portugal 1997 49/140E and 3.15E sg 2592/95 sgMS?, scott 2191/94, ms 2195.

1996 Portugal issued four stamps and a miniature sheet for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of a seaway to India by Vasco da Gama.
The miniature sheet of 3.15 Esq. show King Manuel I dreaming what is given by the poet Luis de Camöes in his poem “Os Lusiades”

47 Esq. show us King Manuel I visiting the shipyard on the Kings Arsenal Ribeira das Naus at Lisbon.

78 Esq. show the fleet of Vasco da Gama sailing from Lisbon, Wikipedia has on this departure: On 8 July 1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was greater than around the equator. The navigators included Portugal's most experienced, Pero de Alenquer, Pedro Escobar, João de Coimbra, and Afonso Gonçalves. It is not known for certain how many people were in each ship's crew but approximately 55 returned, and two ships were lost. Two of the vessels were carracks, newly built for the voyage, the others were a caravel and a supply boat.
The four ships were:
SÄO GABRIEL, commanded by Vasco da Gama; a carrack of 178 tons, length 27 m, width 8.5 m, draft 2.3 m, sails of 372 m²
SÄO RAFAEL, commanded by his brother Paulo da Gama; similar dimensions to the São Gabriel
BERRIO (nickname, officially called SÄO MIGUEL), a caravel, slightly smaller than the former two, commanded by Nicolau Coelho
A storage ship of unknown name, commanded by Gonçalo Nunes, destined to be scuttled in Mossel Bay (São Brás) in South Africa.

98 Esq. show us the fleet underway in the Atlantic, The expedition set sail from Lisbon on 8 July 1497. It followed the route pioneered by earlier explorers along the coast of Africa via Tenerife and the Cape Verde Islands. After reaching the coast of present-day Sierra Leone, da Gama took a course south into the open ocean, crossing the Equator and seeking the South Atlantic westerlies that Bartolomeu Dias had discovered in 1487. This course proved successful and on 4 November 1497, the expedition made landfall on the African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than 10,000 kilometers (6,000 mi) of open ocean, by far the longest journey out of sight of land made by that time.
By 16 December, the fleet had passed the Great Fish River (Eastern Cape, South Africa) – where Dias had turned back – and sailed into waters previously unknown to Europeans. With Christmas pending, da Gama and his crew gave the coast they were passing the name Natal, which carried the connotation of "birth of Christ" in Portuguese.

1.40 Esq, show the passing of Cape of Good Hope and the Portuguese legend Adamastor: Adamastor is a Greek-type mythological character invented by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his epic poem Os Lusíadas (first printed in 1572), as a symbol of the forces of nature Portuguese navigators had to overcome during their discoveries and more specifically of the dangers Portuguese sailors faced when trying to round the Cape of Storms. More is given on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamastor

Source: Wikipedia.
Portugal 1996 sg 2544/47 sgMS 2548, scott 2136/2139, MS?