And when the Portuguese discovered the Cape of Good Hope for the Europeans, their larger and more ocean-worthy ships ended up dominating the Indian ocean itself.
Chastened, they sailed on, but en route word reached them that Sumatra had fallen to the French and so they observed the transit inconclusively from the Cape of Good Hope.
By deciding to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal, ships operated by many of the world's biggest freight companies fate a much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.