What discovered elcano. Juan Sebastian del Cano (Elcano): biography. Significance for the present

Juan Sebastian Elcano is the first navigator in history to have traveled around the world, whose name is not well known to anyone outside of Spain. Elcano is not usually mentioned in history textbooks - only occasionally, as one of the members of the Magellan expedition. Meanwhile, the Portuguese himself went only half of his planned route. And it is not known whether at least one of his companions would return home if not for Juan Elcano. We dedicate to him the current issue of the joint project frigate "Standart".

People of steel. Part 5: Juan Sebastian Elcano - the Basque who first circled the Earth

It was a time when ships were built of wood,
  and the people who ruled them were forged from steel.

Juan Sebastian Elcano was born in 1486 in Getaria, a small port town in the Basque Country, near San Sebastian. He early linked his own destiny with the sea, having made a career that was not uncommon for an enterprising person of that time - at first changing the work of a fisherman to a share of a smuggler, and later enlisting in the navy in order to avoid punishment for his too free attitude to laws and trade duties. Elcano managed to take part in the Italian wars and the Spanish military campaign in Algeria in 1509. Basque mastered the maritime business quite well in practice when he was his smuggler, but it is in the navy that Elcano receives the “right” education in the fields of navigation and astronomy.

Having left military service, never seriously seducing a young adventurer with low earnings and the need to maintain discipline, Elcano decides to start a new life in Seville. It seems to Basque that he will have a bright future ahead of him - no one in his new city knows about his not-so-perfect past, the navigator atoned for 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 trade enterprises, of which Elcano becomes a member, are all at a loss. In 1517, on account of paying debts, he sold the ship under his command to Genoese bankers - and this trading operation determined his whole future fate. The fact is that the owner of the sold ship was not Elcano himself, but the Spanish crown, and the Basque, as expected, again has difficulties with the law, this time threatening him with the death penalty. Elcano again finds a way to get away from punishment. He is recorded as a volunteer-helmsman on one of the ships in 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. Eight months later, shortly before the expedition left for 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 approaching the end of the world, the Spanish officers were annoyed by the command of the “Portuguese upstart”. Juan Elcano, who joined the rebels, had his own reasons. The riot 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 who Magellan saved his life. It is not known what the Portuguese was guided by, what the Basque helmsman could convince him of, but it is this decision of Magellan that will become one of the most successful during the expedition.

Elcano saved his life, but not freedom. He will spend the next five months in chains until Magellan releases him, feeling the need for officers. Thanks to his knowledge and talents, Elcano soon becomes the captain of one of the ships of the expedition. Basque did not participate in the ill-fated skirmish with the local population on the island of Matan, which claimed the life 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 leaving Seville, the Victoria, was able to continue on its journey, taking on board a valuable load of cloves and cinnamon. The captain of the ship, and in combination - the head 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 in the history of mankind, which lasted three years, has ended. King Charles I worthily thanked Elcano for the service - from the hands of the monarch, whose ship he had sold to the Genoese several years earlier, the former smuggler, rebel and traitor received a noble title and personal coat of arms depicting the globe and the phrase above it: “Primus circumdedisti me” (“You were the first to go around me”). Elcano also got a part of the profit from the sale of spices brought by him.

In 1525, Elcano went on a new expedition along the same route, and again took over command of the fleet after the death of Admiral Garcia de Loays. But he will not be destined to repeat his success - Juan Sebastian Elcano will die of illness on August 4, 1526, aboard his ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Of the more than 450 members of this expedition, only five will return home - eleven years later.

In the history books, Juan Sebastian Elcano undeservedly found himself in the shadow of the glory of Fernand Magellan, but he is remembered and respected in his homeland. The name Elcano bears a training sailboat as part of 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 by:

Svetlana, volunteer of "Standard"
  Danya, the company "Polvetra"

The main goal of the People of Steel project is educational, and we, the Standard team and the Polvetra company, support and welcome the distribution of our historical series on other online resources and sites. Nevertheless, this project is authorial and unique, and we ask that its creators be mentioned when copying these materials and provide links to both sources - | shtandart.ru. Thanks!

Juan Sebastian del Cano   (later surname changed to more harmonious Elcano; Spanish Juan Sebastián del Cano (Elcano) , basque. Juan Sebastian Elkano; /, Getaria, Basque Country, Gipuzkoa Province, Kingdom of Castile, now Spain - August 4, Pacific Ocean) is a 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 go around the earth ball.

Biography [ | ]

In April 1520, he participated in the rebellion of Magellan officers, desperate in search of the strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and about to deploy ships. During the riot received command of the galleon "San Antonio". Nevertheless, he received mercy, like the other rebels, except for the murder of Quesado, captain Cartagena and one priest.

After the death of Magellan at the Battle of Mactan, he led an expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship Victoria from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return trip was risky, because in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he drove Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, not approaching the coast. Although part of the crew began to demand from the captain to head for the Portuguese crown of Mozambique and surrender to the Portuguese, most sailors and captain Elcano himself decided at all costs to try to swim to Spain. “Victoria” hardly circled the Cape of Good Hope and then for two months without stops went to the northwest along the African coast.

March 18, 1522 Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give him any name. In addition to him, another 17 people of the Victoria team reached Spain (later sailors from Victoria, who were detained by the Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands, and 4 people from the ship’s crew returned ) Unlike Magellan, who did not intend to continue his journey west after the "islands of spices", Elcano deliberately chose a round-the-world route.

For this expedition, Emperor Charles V appropriated Elkano's personal coat of arms, which, inter alia, depicted the globe with a motto Primus circumdedisti me   (lat. You first circled me), and appointed an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transilvan compiled the first travel report, which received great fame in Europe.

Historical reference

Little information has been preserved about this man. It is known that Elcano was born in 1486 in Castile, in the Basque Country. Youth passed on numerous battles, which the Middle Ages as an era can claim to world leadership.

Returning home, Elcano took up a peaceful craft: he began his career as captain of a merchant ship. In 1510 he again had to lead a warship: the Basque took part in the siege of Tripoli. The team was hired, so the payday came regularly. Fighting for Spain, Elcano and paid for the work of his crew with Spanish money. But this time there was a financial failure and the sailors, for an unknown reason, were left without money.

The young captain had no choice but to borrow money. Lenders soon demanded their loan back, so they had to sell the ship. The very fact of the sale of a military ship, and even if it was peaceful, but to citizens of another country, automatically meant a charge of betrayal.

To save, there was only one way out - to get lost on the deck of one of the many ships. Then the captains were interested not in the biography of the team members, but in their professional training. Thus disgraced Elcano got on board one of the ships of Magellan, setting off for the first circumnavigation.

This legendary expedition began on September 20, 1519. At the beginning of the campaign, Elcano got an inconspicuous position - helmsman on the Concepcion ship.

Significance for the present

The squadron consisted of five ships. The captains on them, like many of the combined team, were Spaniards. In those days there were regular clashes between the two countries - Spain and Portugal. This explains the massive refusal of Spanish sailors to perceive Magellan as a captain: the origin of the Portuguese. Social tension was intensified by a powerful storm that took two ships with the crew.

In the spring of 1521, three ships moored near the Mariana Islands. On this raid, Magellan died, and Elcano became the leader of the expedition. The total number of seafarers was below the minimum value for the safe management of ships. This was caused by losses due to illness and clashes with the natives and the Portuguese. For a guaranteed return, all the sailors were assembled on the Victoria vessel in the national team. Having gone through incredible difficulties, on September 8, 1522, a ship under the control of Elcano reached the Spanish coast.

For the successful completion of the world's first round-the-world cruise on a ship under the Spanish flag, King Carlos I forgave Elcano for a war crime - selling a ship - and imposed a life pension of 500 ducats.

Today, traveling around the world is not available to everyone: it will take a lot of money and time. But the familiar awareness of the sphericity of our planet, even familiar to a student, was first proved in practice by Elcano and his team. Opened on the expedition of Magellan, in which Juan Sebastian del Cano was directly involved, the island of Amsterdam and the Mariana Archipelago today are important places for mankind. Amsterdam regularly monitors the state of the atmosphere and climate in the waters near Antarctica. The Mariana Islands are becoming a popular destination among tourists around the world, including Russia. The most famous of the islands of the archipelago is Guam. It preserved cave paintings of the first inhabitants (Chamorro people), as well as traces of Spanish colonization. The island has the conditions for a comfortable beach and active sea holiday.

Conclusion

Elcano died on August 6, 1526, during another expedition for the wealth of the Spanish crown. In his homeland, in the city of Getaria, a monument is erected. Elcano had an illegitimate son, whose fate was lost in the dashing years of the Middle Ages.

Biography

In April 1520, he participated in the rebellion of Magellan officers, desperate in search of the strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean and about to deploy ships. During the riot received command of the galleon "San Antonio". Nevertheless, he received mercy, like the other rebels, except for the murder of Quesado, captain Cartagena and one priest.

After the death of Magellan at the Battle of Mactan, he led an expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship Victoria from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return trip was risky, because in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he drove Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, not approaching the coast. Although part of the crew began to demand from the captain to head for the Portuguese crown of Mozambique and surrender to the Portuguese, most sailors and captain Elcano himself decided at all costs to try to swim to Spain. “Victoria” hardly circled the Cape of Good Hope and then for two months without stops went to the northwest along the African coast.

March 18, 1522 Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give him any name. In addition to him, 17 more people of the Victoria team reached Spain (later sailors from Victoria and 4 people from the crew of the ship Trinidad who were still detained by the Portuguese on the Cape Verde Islands returned. Unlike Magellan, who did not intend to continue his journey west after the "islands of spices", Elcano deliberately chose a round-the-world route.

For this expedition, Emperor Charles V appropriated Elkano's personal coat of arms, which, inter alia, depicted the globe with a motto Primus circumdedisti me   (lat. You first circled me), and appointed an annual pension, noted in his journal: "The valiant lord Juan Sebastian del Elcano has passed away." On the same day, the deceased was buried at sea. The new commander, Torivio Alonso Salazar, saw the land (one of the Marshall Islands) two weeks later.

In the seafarer's homeland, in Getaria, the memory of Elcano was immortalized with a stone slab with the inscription: “... the noble 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, he put this plate in 1661, Don Pedro de Etave i Azi, holder of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who first traveled around the world. ”

Elcano had an illegitimate son, Domingo, born of Maria Hernandez Dernialde.

28   On November 1520, the remaining three ships left the strait, and in March 1521, after an unprecedentedly difficult passage across the Pacific Ocean, they approached the islands that later became known as the Mariana Islands.

In the same month, Magellan discovered the Philippine Islands, and on April 27, 1521, died in a clash with locals on Matan Island. Elcano, struck by scurvy, did not participate in this skirmish.

After the death of Magellan, Duarte Barbosa and Juan Serrano were elected captains of the flotilla. At the head of a small detachment, they went ashore to Raja Cebu and were treacherously killed. Fate again - for the umpteenth time - spared Elcano.

The head of the flotilla was Karvalio. But in the three ships only 115 people remained; among them are many patients. Therefore, the Concepcion was burned in the strait between the islands of Cebu and Bohol; and his team switched to the other two vessels - Victoria and Trinidad.

Both ships wandered between the islands for a long time, until, finally, on November 8, 1521, they anchored off the island of Tidore, one of the "Spice Islands" - the Moluccas. Then, in general, it was decided to continue sailing on the same ship, Victoria, whose captain Elkano had become shortly before, and to leave Trinidad on the Moluccas.

And Elcano managed to lead his worm-ridden ship with a starving crew across the Indian Ocean and along the shores of Africa. A third of the team died, about a third were detained by the Portuguese, but still “Victoria” on September 8, 1522 entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It was an unprecedented, unprecedented in the history of navigation passage. Contemporaries wrote that Elcano surpassed King Solomon, the Argonauts and the cunning Odysseus. The first ever circumnavigation was completed!

The king granted the seafarer an annual pension of 500 gold ducats and knighted Elcano. The coat of arms appropriated by Elcano (since then already del Cano), immortalized his voyage. The emblem depicted two cinnamon sticks framed with nutmeg and cloves, a golden castle crowned with a helmet. Above the helmet is a globe with a Latin inscription: "You were the first to go around me."

And finally, by special decree, the king declared Elcano a pardon for the sale of the ship to a foreigner. But if it was quite simple to award and forgive the brave captain, then it turned out to be more difficult to resolve all disputed issues related to the fate of the Moluccas. The Spanish-Portuguese Congress sat for a long time, but could not "divide" between the two powerful powers of the island, located on the other side of the "earthly apple." And the Spanish government decided not to delay sending a second expedition to the Moluccas.

Goodbye A Coruña
La Coruña was considered the safest port in Spain, which "could accommodate all the fleets of the world." The significance of the city increased even more when the Chamber of Indies was temporarily transferred here from Seville. This chamber was developing plans for a new expedition to the Moluccas to finally establish Spanish rule on these islands.

Elcano arrived in La Coruña full of bright hopes - he already saw himself as an admiral of the armada - and took up flotilla equipment. However, Charles I did not appoint the commander of Elkano, but a certain Hofre de Lois, a participant in many naval battles, but completely unfamiliar with navigation.

The pride of Elcano was deeply wounded. In addition, the “highest refusal” came from the royal chancellery to Elcano’s petition for the payment of the annual pension of 500 gold ducats granted to him: the king ordered that this amount be paid only after returning from the expedition.

So Elcano experienced the traditional ingratitude of the Spanish crown to the famous sailors. Before sailing, Elcano visited his native Getaria, where he, the illustrious sailor, was able to easily recruit many volunteers on his ships: with a man who went around the "earthly apple", you will not disappear in the mouth of the devil - the port brethren reasoned.

In the early summer of 1525, Elcano brought his four vessels to La Coruna and was appointed helmsman and deputy commander of the flotilla. In total, the flotilla consisted of seven ships and 450 crew members. There were no Portuguese on this expedition.

The last night before the departure of the flotilla in La Coruña was very lively and solemn. At midnight on Mount Hercules, on the site of the ruins of a Roman lighthouse, a huge bonfire was lit. The city said goodbye to the sailors. The cries of the townspeople, who treated sailors with wine from leather bottles, the sobs of women and the pilgrims' hymns mixed with the sounds of the fun dance "La Muneira". The sailors of the flotilla remembered this night for a long time. They went to the other hemisphere, and now they were faced with a life full of dangers and hardships.

For the last time, Elcano walked under the narrow arch of Puerto de San Miguel and went down the sixteen pink steps to the shore. These steps, already completely erased, have survived to the present day.