The Nao Victoria
formed part of an expedition, which was commanded by
Ferdinand Magellan
and finalised by Juan Sebastián Elcano.
This five-ship expedition
was the first expedition that was able
to sail around the whole world.
Well it seems that Magellan was quite an unbearable man,
who had a bad temper,
and at a certain point
Elcano said that while Magellan was in charge
he didn't dare to speak to him.
The two of them must have each had their own temperament,
and in any case, Magellan
can't have been an easy man.
It was clear that he had this gift of knowledge,
that he was well-studied and he had great intuition about the Strait,
but he really was a difficult man,
and so finally when they arrived at St. Julían,
where they were going to be for almost five or six months...
...almost at the gates of the Strait,
well, that's where the the Castilian nobles
decided to rebel.
There were two very different parts to this expedition.
The first part was associated with the name, Magellan,
and the second part with the name, Juan Sebastián Elcano,
although neither of them were the sole protagonists of the expedition.
SEVILLE JUAN SEBASTIÁN ELCANO
Juan Sebastián Elcano
took command of the expedition at a very difficult time
and he made a very complicated decision,
because, despite his loyalty to the king,
who had ordered that they were not to bother
his Portuguese relative by navigating through Portuguese waters,
he made the wise decision
to navigate through Portuguese waters to finish the circumnavigation.
There are almost more documents dated after the expedition
than before the expedition and there are certainly
very few documents from the voyage itself
although those that have actually been preserved from the voyage
are incredibly important.
The sailing conditions were very tough,
they navigated based on estimations
and they could only calculate the latitude in approximate terms
and they couldn't calculate the longitude
and they couldn't calculate the speed of the ships.
We don't know the exact figures, but it is estimated that
237 people embarked on the voyage and only 18 came back.
That already gives us an idea of the navigation difficulties.
Five ships went out, one came back.
500 YEARS FROM THE 1ST ROUND-THE-WORLD-TRIP II
MAGELLAN AND ELCANO'S GREAT JOURNEY
On the 20th of September, 1519
the five ships from the Spanish Fleet of the Spices
left from Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
to set off on a journey, which was full of unknowns,
in search of what was considered the gold of the time: spices.
The armada was led by the experienced Portuguese navigator
Ferdinand Magellan who died during the expedition,
and it was formed by five ships, La Trinidad,
which was the captain, La Concepción,
La Santiago, La San Antonio and La Victoria.
The King of Castile, Charles I,
had commanded them to find the Maluku Islands
where clove, cinnamon and other spices
were grown in an abundance.
To fulfil this objective they'd have to find a path that took them
through the south of the American continent
but within the Spanish navigation zone
to avoid conflict with the Kingdom of Portugal.
The voyage lasted almost three years and only one of the ships, La Victoria,
made it back, with Basque navigator, Juan Sebastián Elcano in command.
Despite facing many difficulties
he managed to make it back to Spain
from the opposite side than originally planned,
managing to culminate a historic feat: the first round-the-world trip.
That was not the objective of the expedition,
but several events that took place during the journey
changed the course of this story.
As part of the celebrations of the 500-year anniversary of this feat
more research has been carried out into the events,
the characters, especially Ferdinand Magellan
and Juan Sebastián Elcano, and the ships that participated.
REVEALING HORIZONS THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION
Much research is still to be done on Magellan.
In fact, quite a few books will be published on Magellan soon.
There are few traces of him in the documentation.
We have ideas, that's all, we don't even know where he was born.
It's always been said that he was from Porto.
And the main researchers still believe that he was from Porto,
but there is another group of researchers who believe
that he was from a small town called Sabrosa.
We know about the first part of his life,
we know that he was a naval officer and a soldier at the same time,
because he participated in impressive feats.
For example, he participated in the Capture of Malacca in 1511,
which was an episode of war, but at the same time
an extraordinary episode in world history
as this gave the Portuguese a route of access to the Far East.
He then came back and participated
in the Portuguese campaigns on the African occidental coast,
and then came a moment in his life which isn't completely clear,
in which he broke away from
Manuel the Fortunate, the King of Portugal.
There was a discussion, a disagreement,
and as a result of this disagreement, Magellan made the decision
to abandon Portugal and come to Castile,
where he believed, and he was right,
that they would listen to him more than the King of Portugal had done.
The limited documentation on the life of Juan Sebastián Elcano
before he joined the expedition
suggests that he was born in Getaria, a port in the north of Spain,
and that he was an experienced sailor.
Why do we know so little?
Well, there are very few documents, many have been destroyed.
Getaria underwent many attacks with the Carlist Wars, and so on.
And perhaps it was because he was not an important
nor renowned sailor until he came back to Spain.
What happened in Seville?
He could have been in Seville,
we don't know how long for, he may have been looking to go to America,
and he was looking for a fleet as he was a recognised master,
meaning that he didn't have to take any exams,
and so he was immediately appointed as master,
with a monthly salary of 3000 maravedis,
of La Concepción, one of the five ships from the expedition.
In that period they used dead reckoning
as they did not know the longitude.
They were only able to work out the latitude
by calculating the height of the sun or the stars.
They took measurements
either with the quadrant or the astrolabe,
and by using sailing tables
such as Zacuto's table,
they were able to determine the latitude.
However, they did not know the longitude
and they had to use dead reckoning.
They didn't know the speed
because the ship log had not been invented yet,
although it seems as if they used
a system that may have been the precursor to the ship log,
but more than that they used their naval proficiencies
and their experience as navigators.
They also faced supply difficulties
because the water went bad,
and the same happened to the biscuits, which were their basic foodstuff.
The journeys were so long
that they ended up running out of food, and they had to eat
rawhide or rats, or whatever they could find.
There was also an illness that had not been diagnosed yet,
this illness was scurvy and it was caused by a lack of vitamin C,
and all of this massively complicated the navigation process.
The armada set sail on the 20th of September, 1519
after stocking up on the last supplies and navigation tools,
leaving the complicated Bay of Sanlúcar behind
and heading towards the Canary Islands and an uncertain fate.
The journey was very long.
A few specific points are worth mentioning.
When they left the Canary Islands
they could have chosen to go along the Brazilian Coast
to reach the Cape of Saint Augustine,
or they could have chosen to go through this territory
before moving towards the River Plate.
They already knew that River Plate did not flow into another sea
as Juan Díaz de Solís had already attempted this and had failed,
so they had to search for a crack in South America,
a more southerly crack.
Their search had a new reference point, which was Port St. Julian,
A sadly famous place in this story that we are telling,
as an uprising occurred there,
which could be referred to as a mutiny, or a dissent,
in which some of the officials took up arms
and tragic events unfolded,
ending with Magellan sentencing people to death.
What role did Elcano play?
Quesada, who was his captain, asked him to intervene,
telling him what they intended to ask of Magellan.
They wanted him to understand that they were not revolting to seize power,
but to ask him to comply with the orders and fulfil their mission
to discover the route they were supposed to be following,
It was supposed to be a two year trip
and this mutiny took place at the end of August, 1520,
when they'd been sailing for many months, almost a year,
and they hadn't arrived at the Strait, nor had they discovered anything
except for the South of Patagonia,
and they began to discuss the need to go back,
to head towards the south, knowing that if they found the Strait
they'd have to decide whether to go through it, to go via the other sea,
or to return to get more supplies
before embarking on a new, stronger expedition,
with much, much more food, etc.
Magellan managed to overcome this revolt
and shortly after he sent the captain of La Santiago
to check out the most southerly territory.
If La Santiago hadn't been left aground by a storm
they probably would have found the path they were looking for.
PORT ST. JULIAN
The four ships in the fleet abandoned the Port St. Julian
on the 21st of August, 1520
heading towards the south, and finally, on the 21st of October
they found the path they had longed for.
which was later called the Strait of Magellan.
But they had to spend many days going back and forth in the ships
to confirm it.
In one of these movements the Nao San Antonio
turned around, without giving any explanation, and headed back to Spain.
There were now only three ships.
On the 27th of November they caught sight of the "South Sea",
which would later be called the Pacific Ocean.
There they had to make a decision because no-one
knew the South Pacific
and so they had to decide which direction to go in.
Finally Magellan decided to head north,
which wouldn't take them directly to the Maluku Islands,
it would take them to the Mariana Islands and to Guam first.
First of all they named it the Island of the Lateen Sails,
before changing its name to the Island of the Thieves,
because the natives had stolen some things from them,
and that's why they gave it this name.
From the Island of Guam they headed to the Philippines,
and to the San Bernardo Strait, that is to say to the inlet
that divided the two large islands of Luzon and Mindanao,
separating them with a group of smaller islands called the Visayas.
And in the Visayas an encounter took place
between the Indigenous peoples of the Philippines and the expedition.
And this encounter would mark the end of the first part of the journey,
because a confrontation between Magellan
and one of the native chieftains who was called Lapulapu,
led to a great open battle,
and in this battle, the indigenous peoples managed to kill Magellan
and 7 of his captains, and so, as of that moment,
the 27th of April, 1521,
the expedition was left without a leader
and so, what is generally known as the second part of the journey commenced,
given that the captain of the armada was dead
and they had to decide how to continue with the expedition.
It wouldn't be until 8 months later
that Elcano would finally take control of the expedition.
What happened in those eight months?
Well another Portuguese pilot,
who was a friend of Magellan,
who he had brought from Portugal took the command.
His name was Carvalho and let's say, he took the expedition
on an odyssey through the south-eastern seas,
docking in places, such as Brunei to exchange things and so on.
Neither Magellan, nor Carvallo
actually kept records of what they had sold,
what they had been gifted, nor what they had taken on board.
This was an untenable situation so a triumvirate was constituted
to direct the expedition.
This was formed by the captains, Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa
and Juan Sebastián Elcano and the scribe, Martín Méndez.
PORTRAIT OF ELCANO, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SPAIN
The route was clear, they had to go to the Moluccas
because they had set out on this expedition for two reasons:
firstly, to purchase spices from the Moluccas,
and secondly, to determine whether the Moluccas were in Spanish
or Portuguese territory.
They decided to go to the Moluccas, to Tidore and Ternate
to fulfil the mission that they had been entrusted with.
Their mission was to buy spices, and not just any spices,
they were to buy clove because it was the most expensive of the three
and they would make more money from selling cloves.
When they finally spotted the first Maluku islands,
formed by a thousand islets
the armada now had less than half of its original crew
and just two ships, because La Concepción, captained by Elcano
had become very damaged and they'd had to burn it.
SIGHTING OF THE MOLUCCAS
On the 8th of November the armada finally entered Tidore.
There, Juan Sebastián Elcano and Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa
entered into the Maluku pacts with the sultans of Tidore and Ternate.
These were the first official agreements
between the representatives of the King of Spain
and the representatives of the local monarchies.
"Book of peace and friendships made with the Kings and Lords
from the lands and islands where we have come to."
And when they got back to Spain,
Juan Sebastián Elcano wrote to the emperor saying:
"here is the peaceful agreement that we have signed
with the indigenous kings,
with the kings of Maluku, which they have signed with their own hands."
However, this original document was not preserved.
This is a copy that was made by Martin Méndez
who was the scribe for one of the vessels.
This is a notary document and its authenticity is indisputable.
MALUKU ISLANDS
On the 20th of December, 1521,
the captains decided to separate to begin their return journey.
Juan Sebastián Elcano, left first in command of La Victoria
taking advantage of the monsoon winds that took them to Africa.
They had also received news that the Portuguese were close by.
They sought council, and Gonzalo de Espinosa said:
"I'm going to take what looks like the closest route,
arriving to Mexico, crossing the Pacific".
and Elcano said: "I'm going to go the opposite way,
the Portuguese route, the most well-known route,
but, to avoid encounters, I'm going to take a very southern route".
And that's how he became the first explorer
to take the most southerly route in the Indian ocean
that no-one had taken before.
The capitulations stipulated that
once they had discovered something important,
or if they arrived but it had already been taken
they were to choose
the quickest way to get back to Spain
to give news of what had happened.
So, they accepted Charles V's proposition
and Charles V would later have to apologise to his first cousin,
the king of Portugal and his brother-in-law,
as they decided to go along the Coast
in search of the Portuguese route,
part of the Portuguese route, because the other part,
was also a very unknown route,
which was to go down the same parallel towards the South,
towards India, but much lower down,
to avoid being discovered by the boats,
and once they had arrived to the end of the Maritime Southeast Asia
this would be when they would make the master stroke
that would allow them to reach South Africa
and what was known as the Cape of Storms,
or the Cape of Good Hope.
They still had to go up the whole African coast,
and this was difficult because the Portuguese were still there.
The situation was horrific, they had hardly any food
as it had been months since they had docked at a port,
and the water had gone bad, and so on.
But despite all of this, and despite the fact that La Victoria was leaking
they made an extraordinary effort
to reach Cape Verde.
They said that they'd come from America, that they'd been in a storm
and they took the last of the
trinkets they were carrying in the ship,
the last gifts,
and they exchanged these for slaves,
for food and for water.
But in the end they needed more slaves for the pumps,
and so they gave three bags of cloves,
and so it was discovered that they had come from the East
and not from America
and so they had to leave.
They were forced to leave a group of sailors on Cape Verde
who would later be repatriated.
This was one of Elcano's first actions when he got back.
To show he hadn't forgotten his comrades
he asked Charles V to negotiate for these men to be returned.
After Cape Verde and in the next stage
they arrived to Sanlúcar with these foodstuffs,
some of them...
...wanted to stop
on the Canary Islands for a period.
But he said no, and his will was imposed
and they arrived to Sanlúcar de Barrameda,
and two days later
they arrived to Seville, having made the first trip around the world.
Elías Salavarría's painting
which belongs to the holdings of the Naval Museum of Madrid,
immortalises the arrival
of the exhausted expeditionaries.
Only one ship returned,
only 18 crew members returned with their captain in command
and they had also brought back 600 hundredweights of clove.
And the clove was worth so much that they were able
to compensate all of those who had participated in the expedition.
When the expedition arrived to Sanlúcar in September, 1522,
one of the first things that Elcano did
was write a letter to the emperor telling him:
"Your Majesty, we have sailed all the way around the world
and we have arrived at the Orient..."
and he explained about making peace.
This letter wasn't actually preserved
but we were aware of its existence,
and in 2014 or 2015,
a copy of this letter in Spanish
appeared in an auction house,
and so the ministry bought it and
this copy has been preserved in the archive.
Principally three things occurred.
One was related to Elcano,
as they had a feeling of...
What has actually happened here?
and the Crown were rather baffled
and they demanded to meet Elcano
and so two friends, two people,
one was Albo, and the other was Bustamente, who was a scribe,
went to Valladolid and they were interrogated.
And from this interrogation, the king and emperor discovered
that Elcano really was an honourable man, a naval man,
and that he hadn't really cheated them.
And that the amount of cloves,
which was the first thing that they held against him, was only less
because they'd come back with fewer hundredweights
as some of the produce had aged, or it had dried up,
and so instead of the 600 hundredweights that they had loaded,
and which were recorded, only 534, 535 had arrived,
and in any case this was enough to be able to pay for
the whole expedition to Maluku.
And they were given monetary earnings,
and he was given the famous coat of arms
with the inscription: "Primus Circumdedisti Me",
which was a beautiful coat of arms because it had fields full of cinnamon,
and clove etc.
All of the species that had been so sought-after.
Thanks to his experience, he was appointed as the second-in-command
for the next expedition to the Spice Islands,
commanded by García Jofre de Loaisa.
In the course of this voyage
and in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
the captain of the armada died first,
and then a few days later
Elcano himself died, leaving a long and detailed testament
before dying of scurvy.
His cadaver was thrown into the sea in a melancholic ceremony
as was typical in such cases.
The document, which was quite long
for a testament
has been studied paleographically by Professor Romero Tallacido
of the University of Seville
who reached the conclusion that it was written by Andrés Urdaneta,
a young man in Elcano's service,
and Manuel Romero demonstrated that
that the copy was made by Urdaneta
who, as we all know, discovered the return route,
as they had known how to arrive, but not how to return
because the currents were adverse.
The news of the first round-the-world trip
spread fast around Europe.
Castile was obsessed with the idea of going to Dorado,
which was what the Spice Island was known as,
and they prepared new expeditions.
I think it is important to note that the first news that reached Europe
about the expedition did not come from people who had been on it,
but from people retelling their story.
One was Maximiliano Transilvano, the emperor's secretary
who had the chance to talk to Elcano
and some of the others who had arrived from the first round-the-world trip.
And he wrote a letter
that he sent to Italy and that was published very quickly.
That was the first news to reach Europe
of Magellan and Elcano's trip.
And a short time later, Peter Martyr d'Anghiera,
an intellectual who belonged to the Court of the Catholic Kings
and then the Court of King Charles,
and who had also been in touch with those who
had returned from the voyage, wrote his book, "Decades",
which was a chronicle of what he had heard, and of what he had been told.
And then, on the other hand, of those who returned
well, one way or another, many of them,
well five or six of them related their journey.
And the most important, well maybe not the most important,
but the best known narration was the one by Antonio Pigafetta.
Antonio Pigafetta was an Italian
who was enlisted as a supernumerary
and he wrote a truly magnificent account,
which included silly anecdotes,
and he even created glossaries.
He created three different glossaries for the different places
where the fleet berthed,
for example for Brazil, the Moluccas and Patagonia.
So this was a very important document.
He wasn't a chronicler, but this is the most-known account.
THE PATH OF MAGELLAN'S JOURNEY IN PURSUIT OF THE STRAIT
Francisco de Albo,
although it is thought that Elcano was behind this work,
as when they arrived at the Cape of St. Augustine
they decided to create a pilot chart
where they would note down all of the astronomical calculations
for their location.
And this is notebook, which may seem rather dull,
was in fact extremely important
because it was an exact control,
I don't know whether mathematical or astronomical,
of where the expedition was heading.
And it ended said: "We are looking at the Cape St. Vicente."
And the declarations made by
those who went on this journey were also very important.
As soon as they got back
the crew were called to Valladolid
where the Emperor was at that time
and there they made a set of declarations,
relating details about the voyage
Generally speaking,
they all told the same thing,
adding details to what the others had said.
But not everyone told the story in the same way,
nor did they see it in the same way, but generally speaking they did.
There were discrepancies, especially on more delicate matters,
such as Magellan's death for example
but these were not exaggerated discrepancies,
we can still reconstruct the journey with certain ease,
although many points
are unclear, because the declarants declared what they wanted to.
We cannot forget the other great protagonist
of the first circumnavigation of the globe,
a small boat built in the Basque Country,
typical of the high seas sailing of this period.
Its seems that its name was chosen intentionally: La Victoria.
We are still studying the characteristics of this ship
to better define it,
but this ship is 27 metres in length
and it has a breadth of approximately seven metres.
very similar to the dimensions of the original Nao Victoria.
Five ships went out, only one came back.
This goes to show the difficulties that they had to face
that made the Nao Victoria's adventure
even more of an accomplishment,
and they accomplished this feat by going around the whole world,
and that is why so much importance has been placed on this
by the researchers,
by the naval constructors
and by the Nao Victoria association itself
to try to commemorate and to allow
both specialists and the general public to truly appreciate
the magnitude of this feat and the magnitude of this accomplishment.