Juan de Fuca

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Juan de Fuca ( Greek Ιωάννης Φωκάς Ioannis Fokas ; * 1536 in Valerianos , Kefalonia ; † 1602 in Zakynthos ) was a Greek navigator who spent 40 years in the service of the Spanish Crown.

Life

The grandfather Emmanouíl Fokás left the city with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 , and after a stay in the Peloponnese in 1470 he settled permanently on Kefalonia. His son Ioannis had several siblings, one of whom called himself Valeriáno-Fokás in order to distinguish himself from his brothers, who in turn partly dropped the family name Fokas.

Juan de Fuca was taken hostage by English pirates on a trip to the Philippines and was only released again in return for the surrender of the cargo from his ship Santa Anna worth 60,000 ducats and his entire fortune. Penniless he moved to New Spain (Mexico) and presented himself to the Viceroy Luis de Velasco there . He offered to organize an expedition and find the Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic , which was called Estrecho de Anián .

The voyage started in Acapulco ( Mexico ) in 1592 , de Fuca believed he had found a strait between latitude 47 ° and 48 ° north, which he said he was driving. However, this is correctly located at the 48 ° latitude, which has been called Juan-de-Fuca-Strasse since 1788 and is located in the Pacific Northwest (today Washington / USA or British Columbia / Canada ). The reports of the trip were kept secret by the Spanish authorities for a long time and gave rise to speculation. a. that the trip never took place or that the person did not exist.

In vain de Fuca went to Spain to ask for funds for another expedition. Through English envoys in Italy, he tried to get compensation for his lost property in the Philippines, but only managed to get the English to start their own expeditions with his know-how. De Fuca returned to Kefalonia, where he spent the end of his life.

Designations

The Fuca Rock (Fuca Pillar) at Cape Flattery, Washington

In addition to Juan de Fuca Street, the Juan de Fuca Ridge , the Juan de Fuca Plate , the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park , the Juan de Fuca Rock and the Juan were named after him -de-Fuca hiking trail on Vancouver Island.

In the 20th century, the Morgan Cigar Company of Tampa, Florida launched a cigar called Juan de Fuca. In addition, Juan de Fuca is the namesake of numerous institutions and buildings, particularly on the north east coast of the USA and in Canada.

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Barry Gough: Juan de Fuca's Strait: Voyages in the Waterway of Forgotten Dreams (no page number), 2015.
  2. ^ New attempt on general history, Volume 1, p. 410, 1794.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fuca, Juan de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fokas, Ioannis; Φωκάς, Ιωάννης (elS)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek seafarer who spent 40 years in the service of the Spanish Crown
DATE OF BIRTH 1536
PLACE OF BIRTH Valerianos , Kefalonia
DATE OF DEATH 1602
Place of death Zakynthos