Everything about Juan Sebasti N Elcano totally explained
Juan Sebastián del Cano, then
Elcano (
Getaria (in the
Basque province
Guipúzcoa,
Kingdom of Castile, now part of
Spain),
1486/
1487 –
Pacific Ocean,
August 4,
1526) was a
Basque (
Spanish)
navigator. He completed the first world
circumnavigation in history.
A son of Domingo Sebastián del Cano and wife Catalina del Puerto, he was the older brother of Domingo del Cano, a
Priest, Martín Pérez del Cano and Antón Martín del Cano.
Elcano was a naval commander subject of
Charles I of Castile and he completed the voyage that the
Portuguese-born (and trained) naval commander and navigator
Ferdinand Magellan inspired, planned, organized and led for
Castile to reach the
Spice Islands sailing westwards from Europe. He brought one of
Magellan's ships, the
Victoria, back to
Seville with eighteen
surviving men, on
September 8,
1522, after a journey of three years and one month.
Elcano led the sailing home to Spain after
Magellan was killed during a fight with natives in the
Philippine Islands on
April 27,
1521. Actually the
Victoria was the only ship of Magellan's original expeditionary fleet to make it back to Europe after crossing the
Pacific Ocean. Hazards that Elcano and his crew faced on the voyage home from the Philippines included crossing the
Indian Ocean and rounding the
Cape of Good Hope and the stormy southern tip of Africa, at a time when
Portugal considered any European ship's entry into these waters to be sufficient reason to sink it.
For completing the first world circumnavigation in History and the unprecedented final sailing from Philippines to Spain, Charles I awarded Elcano a coat of arms with the words
Primus circumdedisti me (Latin: 'You went around me first') surrounding a world
globe, and an annual pension.
Elcano died while attempting a second voyage to the
Spice islands as
sea captain in
Loaísa expedition, which eventually led to the second world circumnavigation.
He never married but he'd a natural son by María Hernández Dernialde named Domingo Elcano.
Biography
An adventurer, he fought under orders of
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba in
Italy and, in 1509, he joined the expedition organized by
Cardinal Cisneros against
Algiers. Later, he settled himself in
Seville and became a merchant ship captain.
After violating Castilian law by surrendering a ship of his to
Genoan bankers in repayment of a debt, he sought a pardon from the Spanish King
Charles I, by signing on, as a subordinate officer, to
Ferdinand Magellan's expedition to open a westward route to the
Spice Islands. He was spared from execution by Magellan after taking part in a failed mutiny in
Patagonia and, after five months of hard labour in chains in
Patagonia, Elcano was made captain of
Concepción, one of five vessels.
Elcano went on to take command of the fleet when Magellan was killed in the
battle of Mactan, the
Philippines, on
April 27 1521. Only three ships of the original fleet survived by then, but there were insufficient hands to man them, so Elcano set the Concepción on fire and continued the voyage with the Trinidad and the Victoria.
They first, confused on what direction to take, sailed west towards
Borneo, where they contacted the Sultan of
Brunei. After a confused conflict with the Sultan's men, they sailed back eastward and then southeast towards the
Spice Islands.
After arriving in the
Molucca islands
November 8,
1521, and loading the ships with spices, he divided the fleet: the Trinidad was to sail back through the Pacific Ocean, while the Victoria, captained by Elcano himself, would risk the passage of the Indian Ocean, a
Portuguese controlled area. The Trinidad was left behind for repairs and was later stripped by the Portuguese and destroyed in a squall.
In order to avoid conflict with the Portuguese, Elcano sailed directly from
Timor through the Indian Ocean without approaching the coast. They discovered
Île Amsterdam on March 18, 1522 and reached
Cape of Good Hope on
May 6,
1522.
After two months without resupplying, on July 1522, the Victoria, without enough water or other necessary supplies, arrived at the
Cape Verde islands, a Portuguese base in the Atlantic coast of Africa. Elcano lied to the Portuguese authorities pretending that he was sailing from the Castilian territories in America. Yet one of the sailors eventually revealed the fabrication and Elcano had to part hastily from Cape Verde.
On
September 6,
1522, Elcano sailed into
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, aboard the
Victoria, after a 78.000 km trip around the world, along with 17 other European survivors of the 240 man expedition, and 4 (survivors out of 13)
Tidorese Asians aboard.
The king
Charles I of Spain conceded him a
coat of arms picturing a globe with the motto:
Primus circumdedisti me (in Latin, "You went around me first"). It may in fact have been
Enrique of Malacca, a
Southeast Asian native and servant of
Magellan, who became the first man to circumnavigate the world when the fleet arrived at his home country. He never married but he'd a natural son by María Hernández Dernialde named Domingo Elcano, whom he legitimized in his last will and testament. In 1572 King
Philip II of Spain awarded the male heirs of Del Cano with the hereditary title of Marques de Buglas.
In 1525, Elcano was a member of the
Loaísa Expedition. He was appointed along with
García Jofre de Loaísa as sea captains, who commanded 7 ships and sent to claim the
Spice Islands for King
Charles I of Spain. Both Elcano and Loaísa, and many other sailors, died of
malnutrition in the
Pacific Ocean, but the survivors reached their destination and a few of them managed to return to Spain, completing the second world circumnavigation in History.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Juan Sebasti N Elcano'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://juan_sebasti__n_elcano.totallyexplained.com">Juan Sebastián Elcano Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |