What Juan Elcano discovered. "Juan Sebastian Elcano" - Spanish sailing ship in Cuba. Significance for modern times
Province of Gipuzkoa, Kingdom of Castile, now Spain - August 4, Pacific Ocean) - Spanish navigator, one of 18 people (members of the expedition of Fernand Magellan who returned to Spain on the only one of the five surviving ships), the first to circumnavigate the globe.
| Juan Sebastian Elcano | |
|---|---|
| Spanish Juan Sebastian Elcano | |
| Date of Birth | (1486 ) |
| Place of Birth | Getaria, Kingdom of Castile |
| Date of death | August 6(1526-08-06 ) |
| A place of death | Pacific Ocean |
| Citizenship | Spain |
| Occupation | navigator |
| Children | Domingo Elcano |
| Autograph |
|
| Juan Sebastian Elcano at Wikimedia Commons | |
Biography
In April 1520, he participated in the mutiny of Magellan's officers, who were desperate in search of a strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and were about to deploy ships. During the mutiny, he received command of the San Antonio galleon. Nevertheless, he received mercy, like the rest of the rebels, except for Quesado, who committed the murder, captain Cartagena and one priest.
After the death of Magellan at the Battle of Mactan, he led the expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the Victoria ship from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return trip was risky, as to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he led the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa without approaching the coast. Although part of the crew began to demand that the captain head for Mozambique, which belongs to the Portuguese crown, and surrender into the hands of the Portuguese, most of the sailors and Captain Elcano himself decided to try to sail to Spain at any cost. The Victoria hardly rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went northwest along the African coast for two months without stopping.
On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give it any name. In addition to him, another 17 people from the Victoria team reached Spain (later the sailors from the Victoria, who were still detained by the Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands, and 4 people from the crew of the Trinidad ship returned). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the "Spice Islands", Elcano deliberately chose a round-the-world route.
For this expedition, Emperor Charles V assigned Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted the globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me(lat. You were the first to circle me), and appointed an annual pension
(1486 )Juan Sebastian del Cano(later the surname was changed to a more euphonious one) Elcano; Spanish Juan Sebastian del Cano (Elcano) , bask. Juan Sebastian Elkano ; / , Getaria, Basque Country, province of Gipuzkoa, Kingdom of Castile, now Spain - August 4, Pacific Ocean) - Spanish navigator, one of 18 people (members of the expedition of Fernand Magellan who returned to Spain on the only one of the five surviving ships), the first to circumnavigate the earth ball .
Biography [ | ]
In April 1520, he participated in the mutiny of Magellan's officers, who were desperate in search of a strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and were about to deploy ships. During the mutiny, he received command of the San Antonio galleon. Nevertheless, he received mercy, like the rest of the rebels, except for Quesado, who committed the murder, captain Cartagena and one priest.
After the death of Magellan at the Battle of Mactan, he led the expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the Victoria ship from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return trip was risky, as to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he led the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa without approaching the coast. Although part of the crew began to demand that the captain head for Mozambique, which belongs to the Portuguese crown, and surrender into the hands of the Portuguese, most of the sailors and Captain Elcano himself decided to try to sail to Spain at any cost. The Victoria hardly rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went northwest along the African coast for two months without stopping.
On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give it any name. In addition to him, another 17 people from the Victoria team reached Spain (later the sailors from the Victoria, who were still detained by the Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands, and 4 people from the ship’s crew returned ). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the "Spice Islands", Elcano deliberately chose a round-the-world route.
For this expedition, Emperor Charles V assigned Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted the globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me(lat. You were the first to circle me), and appointed an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transylvanus compiled the first travel report, which gained great fame in Europe.
Juan Sebastian Elcano is the first navigator in history to circumnavigate the world, a name few people know outside of Spain. Elcano is not usually mentioned in history books - only occasionally, as one of the members of the Magellan expedition. Meanwhile, the Portuguese himself passed only half of the route he had planned. And it is not known whether even one of his companions would have returned home if it were not for Juan Elcano. To him we dedicate today's release of the joint frigate Shtandart of the project "".
People of steel. Part 5: Juan Sebastian Elcano - the first Basque to circumnavigate the Earth
It was a time when ships were built of wood,
and the people who controlled them were forged from steel.
Juan Sebastian Elcano was born in 1486 in Getaria, a small port town in the Basque Country, not far from San Sebastian. He early connected his own fate with the sea, making a “career” that was not uncommon for an enterprising person of that time - first changing his job as a fisherman to a smuggler, and later enrolling in the navy to avoid punishment for his too free attitude to laws and trade duties. Elcano took part in the Italian Wars and the Spanish military campaign in Algeria in 1509. Bask had mastered maritime business quite well in practice when he was a smuggler, but it was in the navy that Elcano received the “correct” education in the field of navigation and astronomy.
After leaving the military service, which never seriously attracted the young adventurer with low wages and the need to maintain discipline, Elcano decides to start a new life in Seville. It seems to Basque that a bright future awaits him - in a new city for him, no one knows about his not entirely impeccable past, the navigator atoned for his guilt before the law in battles with the enemies of Spain, he has official papers that allow him to work as a captain on a merchant ship … But the trade enterprises, in which Elcano becomes a participant, turn out to be unprofitable as one. In 1517, in payment of debts, he sold the ship under his command to the Genoese bankers - and this trading operation determined his entire future fate. The fact is that the owner of the sold ship was not Elcano himself, but the Spanish crown, and the Basque is expected to again have difficulties with the law, this time threatening him with the death penalty. Elcano again finds a way to escape punishment. He signs up as a volunteer helmsman on one of the ships as part of the upcoming expedition of Magellan to the Spice Islands.
A fleet of 5 ships under the command of Magellan left Seville on August 10, 1519. After eight months of sailing, shortly before the expedition went to the Pacific Ocean, a riot broke out on several ships. There were many reasons for this - the protracted journey began to tire many, the sailors were afraid of the approach of the possible end of the world, the Spanish officers were annoyed by the command of the "Portuguese upstart". Juan Elcano, who joined the rebels, also had his own reasons. The rebellion was suppressed, and most of its participants suffered a terrible fate - they were put on stakes, and their skeletons whitened by the sun. Elcano was among the few to whom Magellan saved his life. It is not known what the Portuguese was guided by, what the Basque helmsman could convince him of, but it was this decision of Magellan that would become one of the most successful during the expedition.
Elcano saved life, but not freedom. He will spend the next five months in chains until Magellan releases him, in need of officers. Thanks to his knowledge and talents, Elcano soon becomes the captain of one of the ships of the expedition. Bask did not participate in the ill-fated skirmish with the local population on the island of Matan, which claimed the lives of Magellan and many of his companions. A few months after the tragedy, the Spanish fleet reached the goal of its journey - the Spice Islands, but only one of the ships that left Seville - the Victoria - was able to continue its journey, taking on board a valuable cargo of cloves and cinnamon. The captain of the ship, and part-time - the leader of the entire expedition - was Juan Sebastian Elcano. He makes a fateful decision - not to go back (as Magellan originally planned), but to continue moving west and return to Spain through the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope.
September 6, 1522 "Victoria" reached the Spanish coast. The first circumnavigation of the world in the history of mankind, which lasted three years, has ended. King Charles I adequately thanked Elcano for his service - from the hands of the monarch, whose ship he had sold to the Genoese a few years earlier, the former smuggler, rebel and traitor received a title of nobility and a personal coat of arms with the image of the globe and the phrase above it: "Primus circumdedisti me" ("You were the first to go around me"). Elcano also got part of the profits from the sale of the spices he brought.
In 1525, Elcano would set out on a new expedition along the same route, and would again assume command of the fleet after the death of Admiral García de Loays. But he will not be destined to repeat his success - Juan Sebastian Elcano will die of illness on August 4, 1526, on board his ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Of the more than 450 participants in this expedition, only five will return home - after eleven years.
In the history books, Juan Sebastian Elcano undeservedly found himself in the shadow of the glory of Ferdinand Magellan, but he is remembered and revered in his homeland. The name Elcano is a training sailboat in the Spanish Navy. In the wheelhouse of the ship, you can see the coat of arms of Elcano, and the sailboat itself has already managed to carry out a dozen round-the-world expeditions.
Material prepared:
Svetlana, Shtandart volunteer
Danya, company "Polvetra"
The main goal of the Men of Steel project is educational, and we, the Shtandart team and the Polvetra company, support and welcome the distribution of issues of our historical series on other online resources and sites. Nevertheless, this project is author's and unique, and we ask you to mention its creators when copying these materials and provide links to both sources - | shtandart.ru. Thank you!
Spanish
In his youth he was a mercenary, fought in Italy. Having earned money, he settled in Seville, became the captain of a merchant ship. Broke and threatened with jail; to save himself, he signed up for the expedition of Magellan.
Known for leading the expedition of Magellan after the death of the latter and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship "Victoria" from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return trip was very risky, because, in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he led the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, without approaching the coast. On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but gave it no name. In addition to him, another 17 people from the Victoria team reached Spain (later the sailors from the Victoria, who were still detained by the Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands, and 4 people from the crew of the ship Trinidad returned). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the "Spice Islands", Elcano deliberately chose a round-the-world route.
For this expedition, King Carlos I (aka Emperor Charles V) assigned Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted the globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me (lat. You were the first to go around me), and appointed an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transylvanus compiled the first travel report, which gained great fame in Europe.
Elcano also participated as the captain of one of the ships in the Loais expedition, which was heading along the path laid by Magellan to the Spice Islands. The voyage turned out to be very difficult, and the mortality rate on the ships was extremely high. On July 30, 1526, Admiral Loais died, appointing Elcano as his successor, who himself was seriously ill by that time. But he was not destined to be an admiral for a long time. On August 6, his assistant Urdaneta notes in his journal: "The valiant lord Juan Sebastian del Elcano has died." On the same day, the waves closed over the body of the deceased.
In the homeland of the navigator, in Getaria, his memory is immortalized with a stone slab with the inscription: “... the glorious captain Juan Sebastian del Cano, a native and resident of the noble and faithful city of Getaria, the first to circumnavigate the globe on the ship Victoria. In memory of the hero, this plate was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave y Asi, holder of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who first traveled around the world.
He had an illegitimate son, Domingo Elcano, born of Maria Hernandez Dernialde.
"Of all the people living on earth, I love the elderly and children most of all ..." - said Stirlitz. To paraphrase this phrase, I can say that of all the existing transport, I love ships and trains the most. Well, and old cars, perhaps. That is why one of the most vivid impressions that Havana left behind was a chance meeting with the famous training ship of the Royal Spanish Navy "Juan Sebastian Elcano", the third largest in the world after the barques "Sedov" and "Kruzenshtern", the historical sailing ship in the world .
This was our first walk in the capital of Cuba, and it was necessary for circumstances to come to the embankment just at the moment when the famous sailing ship left the harbor of Havana to continue its cruise and head to New York. And as he sailed, he left behind his sides the old Spanish fortifications of the 16th century - the fortress of El Morro and the fortress of San Salvador de La Punta.
02. Fortress of El Morro, or the Fortress of the Three Wise Men (Castillo de los Tres Reyes), built by the Spaniards in the 16th century. 
03. The fortress is located on the other side of the channel emerging from the Gulf of Havana, around which the city stands. 
Barquentina "Juan Sebastian Elcano" was built in 1927 at the Spanish shipyard in Cadiz. And even King Alfonso XIII himself took part in her first sea voyage. True, the Second Republic was soon proclaimed in Spain, and the king was expelled. After that, the barkentina became part of the republican fleet of the Navy. The sailboat got its name from the famous Spanish navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano, a member of the expeditions of Ferdinand Magellan.
It is Elcano who has the honor of being the first person to circumnavigate the globe. For which the King of Spain, Carlos I (who later became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V of Habsburg) appointed the navigator an annual pension, granted the coat of arms and personal motto "Primus circumdedisti me" (lat. You were the first to go around me). The sailboat bears the same motto.
04. Barquentina "Juan Sebastian Elcano" passes near the walls of El Morro. 
05. The 25-meter lighthouse of the El Morro fortress was built in 1845. The fortress also once housed a school for lighthouse keepers. 
06. The ancient cannon of the fortress of San Salvador de La Punta looks at the exit from the bay. But the sailboat does not open fire. Firstly, the Spanish ship sailed to Cuba on a friendly visit, and secondly, the barquentine itself has weapons on board in the form of two cannons and four machine guns, although the weapons are used as ceremonial ones. 
The sailboat set off on a training voyage from Cadiz on April 1, 2012, soon reached the shores of Tenerife and left on April 10, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached Havana on May 4. We just happened to be on the embankment on May 15 in those ten or fifteen minutes when he left Cuba and went to New York to lead the parade of training ships on the Hudson. By the way, "Juan Sebastian Elcano" sailed more than 2 million nautical miles during his maritime career, which is almost four million kilometers, the most in the world.
07. "Juan Sebastian Elcano" 
As for the technical characteristics, then, as I already wrote, this is a four-masted barquentine. That is, the vessel is fully equipped with slanting sails, except for the bow foremast, only it carries direct sails. The length of the vessel is 113 meters, the height of the surface part is 48 meters, the speed when the diesel engine is running is 24 km/h, and under sail 32 km/h. Crew more than 200 people. The sailboat can stay in autonomous navigation for 73 days.
Of the interesting facts, it should be added that in 1958, the future King of Spain Juan Carlos I de Borbón made a training cruise on the ship, who abdicated in 2014 in favor of his son, the current Spanish King Philip VI, who also practiced on this ship in 1987.
08. Watching the barquentine leaving the Gulf of Mexico, romantic images from the novels of Jules Verne, Rafael Sabatini, Mine Reid and Jack London were born in my head ... 
