García Jofre de Loaísa

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García Jofre de Loaísa (* around 1490 ; † July 30, 1526 in the Pacific ) was a Spanish navigator and leader of the hapless Loaísa expedition , which was supposed to find a sea route to the Spice Islands across the Atlantic and Pacific by circling the southern tip of South America .

prehistory

Juan Sebastián Elcano , chief navigator of the Loaísa expedition

After Ferdinand Magellan's attempt to circumnavigate the world from 1519 to 1522 was successful and he had found a new sea ​​route to the Pacific (and subsequently to the Spice Islands in the Indian Ocean ) with the Strait of Magellan , the Spanish King Charles I (Emperor Charles V. ) organized another expedition to take advantage of the newly discovered sea route. The noble Loaísa was entrusted with the command, he was subordinate to seven ships and more than 450 men, including administrative officials and traders, as it was planned to take possession of the lands along the route for Spain and use them economically. Juan Sebastián Elcano , who had completed his circumnavigation after Magellan's death (1521) , acted as chief navigator . Subsequently, it turned out to be problematic that Loaísa's squadron consisted of ships of different designs, which differed in size and speed.

Atlantic crossing

Loaísa's squadron left the Spanish port of A Coruña on July 24, 1525 . After a stopover on La Gomera in the first two weeks of August, Loaísa reached the Patagonian coast in January 1526 . At this point in time, the flagship Santa Maria de la Victoria had temporarily lost contact with the other ships in the squadron.

Strait of Magellan

The following months turned into a nightmare for Loaísa and his crew. Much time was spent gathering the ship's formation as the ships drifted apart due to bad weather and currents . Two ships were shipwrecked. The crew of another mutinied and settled in the Atlantic. During the unsuccessful attempt to enter the Strait of Magellan, one of the ships, the San Lesmes, under the command of Francisco de Hoces , was driven so far south that maritime historians believe that Hoces was either Cape San Diego (the most southeastern point of Tierra del Fuego ) or Cape San Juan on the Isla de los Estados and would be the real discoverer of the Drake Passage . In mid-May 1526, Loaísa finally reached the Pacific with the four remaining ships; The ships and crew were in poor condition.

In the Pacific

Hardly arrived in the Pacific, the squadron was finally separated by a hurricane. The San Lesmes caravel under the command of Hoces disappeared forever, its further fate is the basis of numerous speculations of possible Spanish discoveries in the South Pacific centuries before the European voyages of discovery in this area in search of Terra Australis Incognita . Another ship, the small 50-ton Patache Santiago , sailed 10,000 km north and reached the Mexican Pacific coast. It was the first ship to reach the west coast of Mexico from Europe. The crew of the Santa María del Parral managed to cross the Pacific. However , she was shipwrecked off Celebes . The crew members were captured and enslaved by locals. Four survivors of the Santa María del Parral were rescued in 1528 by a later Spanish expedition.

The fate of the flagship

The flagship Santa Maria de la Victoria was the only ship that reached the expedition's destination: like Magellan, they first reached Guam . There, to their surprise, the team met a Spaniard, Gonzalo de Vigo , who had deserted while Magellan's circumnavigation of the world. Via Mindanao in the Philippines and Celebes , the Santa Maria de la Victoria reached the eastern parts of the Spice Islands near Halmahera in September 1526.

Neither Loaísa nor Elcano survived the Pacific crossing. Alonso Toribio de Salazar took command , and then - after Salazar had also died - the Basque Martin Iñiguez de Carquizano . Since there were battles with the Portuguese , Carquizano headed for the Sultanate of Tidore , which had been trading with Spain since Magellan's circumnavigation, and holed up there. From the neighboring Fort Ternate , however, the Portuguese were able to bombard the positions of the Spaniards and devastate their plantations. Carquizano was eventually poisoned.

Saavedra's odyssey

In the meantime, Hernan Cortez had sent three ships with 110 men from Mexico to rescue the Loaísa expedition. The expedition led by Alvaro de Saavedra Cerón reached Tidore in March 1528, but Saavedra had already lost two ships during the crossing and could not intervene militarily in favor of the Spaniards. He took in the 24 survivors of the Loaísa expedition and set sail again on June 3 without having achieved anything. To accelerate the return to Mexico, Saavedra chose a direct east route across previously unexplored waters. Due to adverse wind conditions, it was carried away and reached the north coast of New Guinea , where it discovered some archipelagos, such as the Schouten Islands and the Admiralty Islands . Saavedra continued trying to keep a course to the east, passing through the Carolines . He was driven back to the north coast of New Guinea by strong head winds. Ultimately, Saavedra reached the Marshall Islands , near which he died. Discouraged, the crew finally headed for the Moluccas again. In December 1529 they reached Tidore, where they surrendered to the Portuguese.

Andrés de Urdaneta , one of the few survivors of the Loaísa expedition

Portuguese captivity

The survivors of the Loaísa expedition and the Saavedras crew were captured and had to experience the next disappointment: They learned that in the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529 the Spanish crown had renounced the areas west of the Mariana Islands , especially the Spice Islands.

Andrés de Urdaneta , who had already sailed with Loaísa in 1525, finally managed to escape with some companions. On their return to Spain in 1536, after Elcano and his crew, they had completed the second European circumnavigation of the earth after an eleven-year odyssey.

literature

  • Landín Carrasco, Amancio. España en el mar. Padrón de descubridores . Madrid: Editorial Naval ISBN 84-7341-078-5 (Spanish)
  • Oyarzun, Javier. Expediciones españolas al Estrecho de Magallanes y Tierra de Fuego . Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica ISBN 84-7232-130-4 (Spanish)
  • Snow, Philip & Waine, Stefanie. The people from the horizon . London: Mclaren Publishing ISBN 0-947889-05-1 (English)
  • Lange, PW: South Sea Horizons. Leipzig, Jena, Berlin 1990
  • Buck, Peter H .: Explorers of the Pacific. Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Special Publication No. 43, Honolulu 1953 (English)
  • Urdaneta, Andres de. Narrative of the voyage undertaken to the Molucos or Spice Islands by the fleet commanded by by the Comendador García Jofre de Loaysa written by the captain Andres de Urdaneta in Early Spanish Voyages to the Strait of Magellan Hacluyt Society. Series II Vol. XXVII. London, 1911

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Loaísa, García Jofre de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish navigator
DATE OF BIRTH around 1490
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1526
Place of death Pacific