Andres de Urdaneta

Andrés de Urdaneta y Ceráin (Villafranca de Ordizia, possibly in 1508-Mexico City, June 3, 1568) was a Spanish Augustinian soldier, cosmographer, sailor, explorer and religious. He participated in the dangerous expeditions of García Jofre de Loaísa and Miguel López de Legazpi, and achieved universal fame for discovering and documenting the route across the Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to Acapulco, known as the Urdaneta Route or returntrip.

Life

Youth

He was born in the Gipuzkoan town of Villafranca de Ordizia, his parents being Mr. Juan Ochoa de Urdaneta and Mrs. Gracia de Ceráin, both of illustrious lineage. Juan de Urdaneta was mayor of Villafranca in 1511, and his mother must have had a family relationship with the forge sector, since she was a relative of Miguel López de Legazpi, and Urdaneta himself recognized Andrés de Mirandaola as his nephew. Although tradition places his birthplace in the Oyanguren hamlet, it seems more logical to suppose that it was in the town center; Lope Martínez de Isasti reports in his Historical Compendium of Guipúzcoa (1625) the existence of a "house of Urdaneta".

He had studies, although it is unknown where, and excelled in mathematics, apart from the command of Latin and philosophy.

The Loaísa Expedition

In 1525, together with Juan Sebastián Elcano, he was part of the expedition led by García Jofre de Loaísa. When Elcano died, he was one of the witnesses who signed his will. After the campaign of the Moluccas, Elcano and Loaisa dead (1526), he returned to Spain in 1536 in command of the expedition in the only ship reaching Lisbon, where the numerous and important information collected in the voyage of an eleven-year circumnavigation. Already in the court of Spain, he visited the emperor and gave him a recovered memory of his knowledge about the trip and about those long-awaited islands. From his stay in the Moluccas he returned with a daughter that he gave to his brother for adoption.

From Spain it passed to New Spain, at the hands of Pedro de Alvarado who made it an important figure in the province of New Spain since he wanted to include it in new expeditions to the Moluccas and the Philippines. After his death, he continued counting on the projects with the confidence of Viceroy Luis de Velasco. Surprisingly, and after holding notable political positions, in March 1553 at the age of 45, he entered the Order of San Agustín as a friar in the convent of the Augustinians in the Mexican capital governed by Agustín Gormaz, where he spent the next eleven years.

The Turntrip

Fleet and crew

The ships in the fleet were built in Acapulco, New Spain, and were 28 meters long.

The expedition was made up of the Capitana, which included Legazpi and Urdaneta, the galleons San Pablo and San Pedro, and the barges Saint John and Saint Luke.

Urdaneta carefully selected the crew to achieve social cohesion and avoid mutiny. He included 33% of Gipuzkoans elected in New Spain and who already knew each other.

In a report to the viceroy, he specified that:

it is necessary to include fresh foods to look for the health of the crew.

He selected, among others, beans, pineapples and coconuts, to avoid scurvy during the long duration of the trip.

Outbound route

The expedition set sail, under the command of Legazpi, on November 21, 1564 from the port of La Navidad, in New Spain (now Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico). The trip to the Philippines took place in two months with the trade winds in favor following an already known route.

Waiting in the Philippines

They stayed in the Philippines for four months repairing the ships and waiting for favorable weather to begin their return at the beginning of June.

The return route from the Philippines to the West was strategically very important, as it would allow New Spain to trade with East Asia without navigating Portuguese-controlled waters in the Moluccas, India, and Africa. Urdaneta and other pilots were aware of the previous attempts and continued the effort by sailing north seeking to find a favorable current that would take them back to America.

Return route or tornaviaje

Tour of the Philippines to Acapulco, New Spain

For his return, Urdaneta set sail from San Miguel, in the Philippines, on June 1, 1565, and headed northeast taking advantage of the southwest monsoon. He ascended to the 40th parallel, where he found the Kuro Siwo current, which took them across the Pacific Ocean to Cape Mendocino in California, the cape being named that way by Urdaneta himself in honor of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. From there, they coasted south to Acapulco, New Spain, arriving on 8 October, having covered 7,644 nautical miles (14,157 km) in 130 days, averaging 59 nautical miles (109 km) per day.

Upon arrival, Urdaneta discovered that a captain of the expedition, Alonso de Arellano, who had separated from the fleet on the San Lucas, had gone ahead and from the Philippine islands had first reached the He returned to the port of Navidad in August 1565. Urdaneta appeared before the Royal Audience and following in Arellano's footsteps he continued the trip to the King's court, to report the event.

The Augustinian chronicles have highlighted the performance of Fray Urdaneta and, due to his long empirical experience, his name has been associated with the tornaviaje route.

For the next 250 years Spanish ships used this route. In particular, the Manila galleon that traveled the Acapulco-Manila-Acapulco route.

Today it remains one of the main shipping lanes of the modern world.

Death

After personally informing King Felipe II of his discovery, Andrés de Urdaneta returned to New Spain to his convent where he died on June 3, 1568 at the age of 60. Despite his great feat, Urdaneta was practically forgotten, remaining one of the most unknown discoverers of his time. The convent suffered a fire later and the current reconstructed one later became the National Library of Mexico. The remains probably rest under the cloister of the convent.

Legacy

The evangelization of the Philippines, which even today continues to be the only Catholic country in Asia (with the exception of East Timor), originated thanks to Urdaneta and the other four Augustinian friars who accompanied him on the Legazpi expedition, those who instructed them to evangelize in the native language. The founders of the Basque Geographical Institute (INGEBA) (Basque: Euskal Geografi Elkargoa) chose his name to accompany the name of the entity.

Thanks to the achievements of Andrés de Urdaneta, the Augustinian fathers founded a school in his name.

Work

Monument to Urdaneta in his native Ordicia

As for the works written by Father Urdaneta, the following are known:

• La Summary statement of the travel and events of the Loaisa comener since 24 July 1525, delivered on September 4, 1536 to Don Macías del Poyo, in the city of Valladolid.
• La Written statement submitted to the Emperor by Andrés de Urdaneta of the events of the navy of the Comrade Loaisa, from 24 July 1525 to 1535delivered on February 26, 1537.
• The Defeat of the navigation that was to be made from the port of Acapulco for the islands of the west the navy that S. M. sent to prepare for its discovery on the coasts of the South Sea of New-Spain, with the description of the port and the Christmas, and the properties and advantages of each of them; and finally a Memory of what was to be provided for the apprehension and good success of this expeditionwho wrote to the King in 1561.
• Finally, the demonstration before the King of his way of seeing the topic of the Philippine islands, which forced Philip II to conclude that meeting of experts, of what there is a documentary memory that contains all those opinions and views that were given: Eight views given by this and other cosmographers in 1566 and 1567, whether the Philippine islands were understood in the endeavor that the emperor had made to the king of Portugal, and whether the Maluch and others were in the demarcation of Castile.

Regarding the defining situation of the Philippine islands, it reads as follows:

In one of these opinions, which is October 8, 1566, Father Urdaneta said that in his persuasion, Father Martin de Rada, native of Pamplona, priest and theologian, good mathematician, astrologer, cosmographer and great arithmetic, carried with him in the army of General Miguel López de Legazpi, from New-Spain to the Philippines an instrument of median grandeur, to verify the length of Toledo.