This book, researched and especially written to coincide with the 500th Anniversary of Cabot's voyage to the "New-Founde-Land", places its emphasis on the little-recognized fact that New-Founde-Land (or "Terra Nova") was the epicentre for the "Age of Discovery" (from 1497 to the first efforts at settlement in 1610), in the European exploration of North America. More than a dozen well-known explorers, from England, France, Spain, and Portugal (several native to Italy), set their course for the waters off New-Founde-Land - and a hoped-for, shorter passage to Asia. In the early 1500s, much European knowledge of North America was based upon Cabot's first voyage to the New-Founde-Land. Accordingly, each explorer-navigator, sailing out across the "Ocean Sea", made straight for our shores. Given the Island's key geographic position - hundreds of miles closer to Europe than any other part of the continent - the New-Founde-Land became the gateway to North America. For the nations of Europe, this island served as both the principle landfall, and a staging ground from which to explore, and eventually settle, the vast and rich lands of North America. These intriguing adventure-stories deal with courageous and colourful personalities, unsolved mysteries, and tragic errors in judgement. Their all-too-frequently unsuccessful expeditions into the unknown, confronting the powerful forces of nature, reveal the burning determination of the explorers to realize their visions, against tremendous odds. In 100 years of the Age of Discovery, well over half of the masters and their crews died in pursuit of their dreams.