"Offshore Ships" - Bahamas AI Art

 ©A. Derek Catalano

 

The Great Name Exchange: Columbus, Watlings, and the Identity of San Salvador

For over four centuries, the identity of the first land sighted by Christopher Columbus in the New World remained a subject of cartographic confusion and historical debate. Today, the island officially known as San Salvador in the eastern Bahamas bears a name that, for most of post-Columbian history, belonged to its neighbor to the northwest: Cat Island. The legislative "swapping" of these names in 1926 represents one of the few instances where a nation’s geography was officially reconfigured to align with a historical theory.