Christopher Columbus

In 1476 he took part in an expedition of Genoese merchant ships to Lisbon and Flanders.

An excerpt from the article 26 facts about Christopher Columbus
During this expedition, near Cape St. Vincent, a fleet of Franco-Portuguese attacked a Genoese convoy and wrecked it. Columbus miraculously survived and as a castaway landed near Lagos, from where he traveled to Lisbon a few weeks later. There he began working in the Lisbon branch of the Centurioni Bank.