Bruno de Heceta

Bruno Ignacio Vicente de Heceta y Fontecha , also Bruno de Hezeta y Dudagoitia or Bruno de Heceta y Dudagoitia (born February 1, 1743 in Bilbao , Spain , † August 16, 1807 in Málaga , Spain) was a Spanish navigator and explorer. His expedition along the North American Pacific coast became famous .

Life

Bruno de Heceta was born in Bilbao to Juan de Heceta Dudagoitia and Elena de Fontecha Salazar Vozo y Mendibil. His father was a lawyer in the civil service.

In 1758 Bruno joined the Spanish Navy as a midshipman ; In 1759 he drove on the fleet that King Karl III. brought from Naples to Spain. In 1761 he was promoted to frigate lieutenant; In 1767 he was a lieutenant at sea.

From the naval base in Cartagena, Spain , he took part in several punitive expeditions against North African pirates in the Mediterranean. In the summer of 1773 the naval commander of Cartagena informed him that he had been chosen for the planned Pacific expedition, which was to explore the previously unexplored coast from San Blas northwards.

Heceta arrived in Veracruz in late August 1773 , along with other officers scheduled for the expedition, including Juan de Ayala and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra . They traveled overland to San Blas, where Heceta, the senior citizen, was given command of the frigate Santiago . Bodega ran the schooner Sonora . Before the preparations were completed, it was March 1775 before the ships set sail.

In July 1775 they reached the height of Trinidad, California and claimed the bay for Spain's crown. They exchanged gifts for food with the Yurok Indians. From there the ships sailed together to the height of today's Point Grenville , where the local Indians attacked them on the coast and killed or injured several sailors.

There the expedition split up: the Santiago under Heceta stayed on the coast and reached the mouth of the Columbia River on August 17th as the most important discovery . Then Heceta turned south in the face of numerous sick and wounded and reached Monterey, California on August 29th . Bodega drove straight north and hit the Sitka sound in Alaska . In September the ships reunited in Monterrey.

Heceta had planned to hibernate there before starting another voyage north in the spring of 1776, but the lack of equipment and food forced him to return to San Blas, where the expedition fleet arrived on November 20, 1775. In addition to the ship's diary, Heceta also had a number of maps of the new discoveries in its luggage.

In gratitude, he was promoted to frigate captain in February 1776. He then served in the Philippines and was transferred to Cuba in 1785 , from where he returned to Spain in 1787. He received a post as site commander of Roses in Catalonia , where he was used in the coalition wars against revolutionary France. In 1797 in the war between Spain and England , he fought in Algeciras . In 1802 he was appointed lieutenant general of the (Spanish) navy. He died in 1807.

literature

• Beals, Herbert K. (translator), For Honor & Country: The Diary of Bruno de Hezeta , Portland: Western Imprints, 1985, 167 pages, ISBN 0-87595-120-1 .
• Caster, James G., Some Problems in Historical Research Relative to the Pérez-Hezeta-Bodega Expeditions of 1774 and 1775 , in: Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci, No. 50, 1970, pp. 165-168.
• Majors, Harry M., The Hezeta and Bodega Voyage of 1775 , in: Northwest Discovery 1, 1980, pp. 208-252.
• Ovell, Freeman M., The Hezeta-Bodega Voyage of 1775: Its Significance for Spain's Presence in the Pacific Northwest , in: Revision of a paper given at the annual meeting of the Society for History of Discoveries, Vancouver, 1993, pp. 57-65.
• Wagner, Henry Raup, Fray Benito de la Sierra's Account of the Hezeta Expedition to the Northwest Coast in 1775 , translated by AJ Baker, in: California Historical Society Quarterly, IX, 1930, pp. 201-242.

Web links

• Biography (spanish)
• Essay on his expedition (English)