But his life was almost certainly not without direct influence in the improvement of cartography, and the extension of the scientific type of map beyond its fourteenth-century limits--an improvement which we see in the great map of Fra Mauro executed shortly before the Infant's death. Also, he made his nation take a real interest in geographical discovery, broke down their superstitious fear of ocean sailing, and made a beginning in the circumnavigation of Africa. He altered the conditions of maritime exploration by giving permanence, organisation, and governmental support to a movement which had up to this time proved disappointing for lack of these very means. And he certainly improved the art of shipbuilding, which Cadamosto remarks upon as having rendered the caravels of Portugal the best sailing ships afloat. As to the build of these caravels we are fortunately not without data. Cadamosto, indeed, though he describes them as the best sailing ships at sea in his time, does not give any details; but from other sources[228] it is possible to form some idea of their peculiar features. They were usually 20-30 metres long, 6-8 metres in breadth; were equipped with three masts, without rigging-tops, or yards; and had lateen sails stretched upon long oblique poles, hanging suspended from the masthead. These "winged arms," when their triangular sails were once spread, grazed the gunwale of the caravel, the points bending in the air according to the direction of the wind. They usually ran with all their sail, turning by means of it, and sailing straight upon a bow-line, driving before the wind. When they wished to change their course, it was enough to trim the sails. [Footnote 228: See Osorio, _Vida e feitos d'el rei D. Manoel_, i, p. 193; O. Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, p. 75; Candido Correa, _Official Catalogue of the Naval Exposition of 1888 in Portugal_, where was exhibited a facsimile of an old caravel; see also the plans in D. Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, and the article in the _Revista Portuguesa Colonial_, May 20th, 1898, pp. 32-52. In the last-named study, which is specially worthy of notice, we have a detailed account of (1) the _Barca_, (2) the _Barinel_, (3) the _Caravel_, (4) the _Nau_, which are classed as _navios dos descobrimentos_, followed by the _navios dos conquistas_, viz., (5) the _Fusta_, (6) the _Catur_, (7) the _Almadia de Cathuri_, (8) the _Galé_, (9) the _Galiota_, (10) the _Brigantim_, (11) the _Galeaça_, (12) the _Taforea_, (13) the _Galeão_, (14) the _Carraca_. Illustrations of Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 13 are added.]