LogoCmadeira2020

LogoSRTC2020

PT EN
Today, Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho (b. S. Brás de Alportel, Faro, 17/2/1869; d. Lisbon, 18/2/1959), geographer, cartographer, historian, is marked today. navigator and distinguished officer of the Portuguese Navy. An expert scholar and interested in navigation issues, he joined the Navy as an aspirant in 1886, and was successively promoted to midshipman (1890), to second lieutenant (1891), to first lieutenant (1895), to captain- Lieutenant (1907), Frigate Captain (1915), Sea Captain (1920), Vice Admiral (1922) and Admiral (1958).

He mapped Timor, Niassa, Congo, Zambézia, Barotze and São Tomé e Príncipe, having also signed several works in the field of ​​geography, navigation, nautical history and the discoveries.

Gago Coutinho was one of the pioneers of Portuguese aviation, having developed the sextant with an artificial horizon, an air navigation device for measuring the height of a star, without using the sea horizon, and together with Lieutenant Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral also invented a "course corrector", which compensated for the deviation caused by the wind. These instruments were successfully tested on the first Lisbon-Funchal air crossing, carried out by this pair on March 22, 1921, in the Felixtowe F-3 seaplane.

This flight was the rehearsal for an even more reckless crossing, which both Portuguese Navy officers made, and which is an indelible landmark in the history of Portuguese (and world) aviation: the first air crossing of the South Atlantic, aboard the Fairey seaplane III D Mkll, baptized “Lusitânia”. The trip, bound for Rio de Janeiro, marked the first centenary of Brazil's independence, and began in Lisbon, on March 30, 1922.

This achievement earned him several distinctions, having been promoted to Rear Admiral and awarded the Grand Cross of the Ancient and Very Noble Military Order of Tower and Sword, Valor, Loyalty and Merit (1922) and the Grand Cross of Ancient, Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Sant'Iago da Espada, of Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit (1922). Throughout his life, he was awarded the following honors: Commander (1919), Grand-Officer (1920) and Grand-Cross (1922) of the Military Order of São Bento de Avis; Grand Cross of the Order of the Colonial Empire (1943); Grand Cross of the Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1947), among other foreign decorations

Credits: Museu de Fotografia da Madeira - Atelier Vicente's.

 
gagocoutinho1
 

VICENT PHOTOGRAPHY
Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, on the right, accompanied by Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, on the balcony of the São Lourenço palace, parish of Sé, municipality of Funchal | 10-21-1922
24 x 18 cm | Simple negative, glass | silver salt gelatin
MFM-AV, Inv. VIC/13255
On deposit at ABM

 
gagocoutinho2o
 

VICENT PHOTOGRAPHY
Group portrait with Sacadura Cabral, seated, to the left, Gago Coutinho, to the right, Roger Soubiran, standing, to the left, and, to the right, Manuel de Ortins Bettencourt | 26-03-1921
21.6 x 16.5 cm | Simple negative, glass | silver salt gelatin
MFM-AV, Inv. VIC/13253
On deposit at ABM

Este sítio utiliza cookies para facilitar a navegação e obter estatísticas de utilização. Pode consultar a nossa Política de Privacidade aqui.