Jaume Ferrer

Who is Jaume Ferrer?

Jaume Ferrer was a Majorcan sailor and explorer.

Practically nothing is known of Jaume Ferrer, save that he was a Majorcan captain, who set out in a galley in 1346, and sailed down the West African coast in an attempt to reach the legendary "River of Gold". The results of this expedition, including whether Ferrer survived the journey, are unknown. Some recent research tentatively identifies Jaume Ferrer as "Giacomino Ferrar di Casa Maveri", a second generation Genoese immigrant in Majorca.

Nearly the only information for his expedition is the depiction and note given in the Catalan Atlas of 1375, attributed to the Majorcan cartographer Abraham Cresques. In the bottom left corner of the map, there is a brightly painted Aragonese-flagged vessel and a note indicating merely that "Jacme Ferrer" set out in an uxer on August 10, 1346, to search for the "Riu de l'Or".

An uxer is a single-mast, square-rigged and oar-powered cargo galley, with rounded stern and low prow, commonly used to freight horses.

The geographic position of the ship suggest Ferrer probably sailed past Cape Bojador, at that time the non plus ultra of navigation, beyond which European ships dared not sail. If Ferrer survived and returned, then his feat preceded, by nearly a whole century, the famous successful passage of that cape by the Portuguese explorer Gil Eanes in 1434.