His first voyage was a failure.

One of the interesting facts about John Cabot is that his first trip failed because he didn't plan it perfectly. But not because of this failure that he gave up or did not plan for the next trip. John Cabot boarded a ship, and the journey had not been carefully planned. John Cabot had to return to England because of water shortages, disobedient sailors, and terrible weather.

Cabot traveled to Bristol to make travel preparations. The second-largest seaport in the UK is Bristol. It sponsored multiple journeys in pursuit of the fabled Hy-Brasil beginning in 1480. The island is said to be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Celtic mythology. The Bristol men were said to have found the island a day earlier but had since lost sight of it, according to port merchants. Ruddock claims in a confidential letter to a coworker (Quinn) that she has obtained proof in the Italian records that the Bristol men reached North America before 1470. Merchants had a financial motive to look for the island because it was thought to be the source of Brazilian wood (from which a rich red dye could be made).