close enough?

In the Royal Navy, you can be court martialled for errors of navigation. A few hundred yards will do it. Luckily for him, Christopher Columbus sailed under the flag of Spain, who aren't so choosy.

Despite landing on the wrong continent and returning without even suspecting his mistake, he's still seen as a hero. Hey, what's plus or minus a hemisphere between friends?

Columbus' error is unequalled in naval history. It is perhaps however rivalled by the fictional Scrooge McDuck, who on one occasion delivered a letter addressed to Venus to the planet Mars, having landed on the wrong planet by mistake. In absolute terms, McDuck's error dwarfs that of Columbus, but relative to the lengths of the voyages they are quite similar.