Juan Sebastian Elcano

Juan Sebastián Elcano (Guetaria, 1486-Pacific Ocean, August 4, 1526) was a Spanish sailor who completed the first uninterrupted circumnavigation of the world, the Magellan-Elcano expedition, to the remain in charge of the expedition after the death of Fernando de Magallanes.

Biography

Origins

Juan Sebastián Elcano was born on an unknown date, probably around 1486, in the town of Guetaria, province of Guipúzcoa, territory belonging to the Crown of Castile. There are no great doubts about the birthplace of the famous sailor, since Juan Sebastián Elcano himself mentioned his birthplace in his will. Local tradition says that he was born in a now-defunct tower-house that was located on a plot of land on San Roque street in the old part of this town. A plaque near the site commemorates this alleged fact.

His parents were Domingo Sebastián de Elcano and Catalina del Puerto. It is believed that Juan Sebastián belonged to a family of well-to-do fishermen and sailors, who had their own house and boat with which they did business. Firstborn of nine brothers, biographical data of some of them are known. Domingo, named after his father, was a priest and parish priest of Getaria. Martín Pérez, Antón Martín and Ochoa Martín were sailors like Juan Sebastián and took part with him in the García Jofre de Loaísa expedition. Martín Pérez was the pilot of one of the ships of this expedition. He also had a half sister, Maria, the illegitimate daughter of his father. Her mother, Catalina, would survive the death of Juan Sebastián, since he mentioned her as her heir in her will.

He had a first daughter in Guetaria when he was young and a second in Valladolid with his wife María de Vidaurreta, when he went to render an account of the trip to Emperor Carlos I. He also had a son, Domingo del Cano, with Mari Hernández de Hernialde, whom he names heir in his will.

As for his last name, it has been transcribed in various ways; as “Elcano”, “de Elcano”, “de El Cano”, “del Cano” or "el Cano". The sailor's signature, which is preserved in several documents, uses the form "del cano", which can be interpreted in various ways. In many old documents he was named as "Juan Sebastián del Cano", which has given rise to doubts about his real last name. However, the most widespread version is the one that, due to his birthplace, considers that if not Juan Sebastián himself, then at least his paternal family was a native of Elcano, a place near Guetaria, where the his last name Elcano is a modest neighborhood of farmhouses that is currently divided between the municipalities of Zarauz and Aya, located on the border of both together with Guetaria, from which it is only eight kilometers away. “Del Cano” or "el Cano" It would be a transcription error of the original surname by adding the preposition "of" as was usual at that time and confusing it with the much more common surname Cano. In contemporary times, the speakers of Basque or Euskera have also extended the spelling "Elkano", a transcription of the surname to the orthography of modern academic Basque. Regarding his maternal family, it seems that this was a native of the port of Guetaria itself.

From a very young age, he joined fishing and commercial boats, gaining extensive seafaring experience. Around 1509 he had a two-hundred-ton ship with which he took part in the military expedition against Algiers, which was led by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. Later he took part in another campaign in Italy, this time under the orders of the Great Captain.

During this last campaign, Elcano had to mortgage his ship to some Savoyard merchants in order to pay the wages he owed to his crew, who had threatened to mutiny. The Basque navigator awaited the arrival of the financial compensation that the Crown owed him for the services rendered in the military campaign in Italy, but it did not quite arrive, so, finding himself unable to settle his debt on time, he was forced to hand over his ship to the Savoyards. By doing this, Elcano committed a crime, since a law in force at the time prohibited selling armed vessels to foreigners in times of war.

First circumnavigation of the globe

Commemorative tile of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz).

Preparations for the expedition

Around 1518 or 1519 he settled in Seville, where he learned of the project that the Portuguese sailor Fernando de Magallanes was preparing, to discover a route to the East Indies from the west, through a pass or strait through South America, which would lead to the spice islands (the Moluccas) without the need to skirt the African continent or cross Portuguese domains. Magellan's expedition had great difficulty recruiting a crew due to the uncertainty of the trip, so it was formed in good measure with desperate, debtors and outlaws of justice, like Elcano himself.

That was how, in 1519, Elcano enlisted in Magellan's expedition. His experience as a seaman earned him a relatively important position in the expedition: he was appointed master (second mate) of the ship Concepción , one of the five that made up the squadron. Its captain was Gaspar de Quesada, and the pilot, the Portuguese Juan López de Carvalho.

Start of the journey

The expedition had begun in Seville on August 10, 1519, the date on which the departure of the squadron of five ships, led by Ferdinand Magellan, was announced, descending the Guadalquivir until reaching Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), port that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. During the following weeks the squadron finished provisioning and other matters were resolved, while Magellan himself made a will in Seville on August 24.

On September 20, the expedition left Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and continued the journey to find the maritime passage towards the territories of the East Indies and look for the path that, always traveling through Castilian seas (according to the Treaty of Tordesillas), would reach the Spice Islands, which was the so-called route to the west, which Christopher Columbus had already searched for.

Arrival in the Moluccas

The expedition was plagued with setbacks and difficulties. Among them stands out the uprising by part of the crew, led by the captains Gaspar de Quesada, Juan de Cartagena and Luis Mendoza during the first winter in Puerto San Julián. It is very likely that Elcano was among the sympathizers of the failed mutiny against Magellan.

After the death of Magellan in the Philippines in 1521, during a skirmish with the natives, Duarte Barbosa, João Serrão, João Carvalho and Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa were elected expedition leaders. After arriving at the Moluccas Islands, the objective of the trip, the return to Spain was undertaken.

Elcano takes command of the expedition

Replica of the Nao Victoria at the Nao Victoria Museum, Punta Arenas (Chile).

The Trinidad sailed poorly and stayed in the port of Tidore to be repaired and return across the Pacific to Panama. Elcano finally takes command of the return expedition. He had the problem of returning to Spain with what was left of the expedition, without knowing the way back across the Pacific, and it seemed crazy to try, so he chose to sail the Portuguese seas to the west, skirting Africa along known routes and with possibilities of watering down. Henry of Malacca (a slave Magellan had acquired on a previous voyage) was still part of the expedition, having been one of the first people to circumnavigate the globe when the expedition reached Malacca.

Arrival in Spain

As Pigafetta narrates, after crossing the Indian Ocean and going around Africa, Elcano completed the first continuous circumnavigation of the globe, since he managed to complete the expedition and reach the port of departure, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, on the 6th of September 1522 on the ship Victoria, along with 17 other survivors, which was the achievement of an impressive feat for the time.

Elcano, eager to reach Seville, barely stopped at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The same day he arrived, he took a ship at his service to tow the Victoria up the Guadalquivir to Seville, due to the poor condition of the ship. The officers of the Casa de la Contratación de Indias in Seville prepared a twelve-oared boat, loaded with fresh provisions. On the pier, the city authorities and members of the Casa de la Contratación were waiting in full, together with a large audience that was watching the arrival of the rickety ship.

Thanks to Providence, on Saturday, September 6, 1522 we entered the bay of San Lúcar... Since we had left the bay of San Lúcar until we returned to it, according to our account, more than fourteen thousand four hundred sixty leagues, and we turned around the whole world... On Monday, September 8, we ran the anchor near the quay of Seville, and we unloaded all our artillery.

Antonio Pigafetta. Relationship of the first trip around the world.

Elcano requested King Carlos I of Spain for his deed the habit of a knight of the Order of Santiago (the same one that Magellan had), the Major Captaincy of the Navy and a permit to be able to carry arms, but these honors went to him denied through his secretary Francisco de los Cobos; However, the king granted him an annual income of five hundred ducats, a really large sum, and a shield with two cinnamon sticks, three nutmegs and twelve cloves (the true objective of the expedition), as well as a sphere of the globe with the Latin legend: Primus circumdedisti me (You were the first to turn me around).

In 2017 the Historical Archive of the Basque Country released a letter from Elcano to Carlos I with the demands for his feat. Also included is the king's response, that he granted little of what was requested except a generous pension for life, although Elcano never received it.

• Letter from Juan Sebastián de Elcano to Carlos I giving news of his arrival and requesting various mercedes. It includes the response of Secretary Francisco de los Cobos on the margins. Original autograph.
• Real Provision of Carlos I in which he makes 500 ducats a year to Juan Sebastián de Elcano. Original signed.

Survivors of the expedition

Second expedition to the Moluccas

After making his will on July 26, already very ill, but sound of understanding and natural judgment, he died of scurvy on August 4, 1526, aboard the ship Santa María de la Victoria, another ship different from the one with which he completed the circumnavigation of the world, but with the same name, when he participated in the expedition of García Jofre de Loaísa to the Moluccan Islands. At that time, among the witnesses who signed his will was another famous Spanish sailor, Andrés de Urdaneta.

There is also a version that states that Elcano did not die of scurvy, but was intoxicated by consuming a large fish, probably a barracuda "with teeth like a dog" (Andrés de Urdaneta), "and all the leading men who ate with him also died, almost in 40 days" (John of Mazuecos). According to this hypothesis, he died of ciguatera. ^{[citation needed ]}

Documents handwritten by Elcano

Two original documents handwritten by Elcano have been preserved, found in the archives of the General Archive of the Indies in Seville and the Historical Archive of the Basque Country in Bilbao.

• One of them is the will written a few days before he died on August 6, 1526 in the middle of the Pacific, during the expedition to the Molucas commanded by García Jofre de Loaisa. In him he details all his goods and heirs, entrusts his soul to God and makes numerous commands to churches of Gipuzcoa, demonstrating his deeply Christian character. The original is located in the General Archive of Indias of Seville.
• The second document is a handwritten letter that Elcano wrote on the arrival of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, in which he asked the king for compensation for the services rendered, and whose original was found in 2016 at the Laurgain tower in the Gipuzkoan town of Aya. This letter is part of the so-called Laurgain papers, which are located in the Historical Archive of the Basque Country in Bilbao. It should not be confused with the letter of notice of arrival of the expedition to the peninsula, of which several coetaneous copies are preserved.

Eponymy

• The School Ship of the Spanish Navy Juan Sebastián Elcano bears his name, in honor of his outstanding role in the first circumnavigation of the Earth.
• The think tank Real Instituto Elcano also takes its name from the Spanish navigator.
• A corporal located in the southwest part of the small island of Amsterdam, at the geographic coordinates 37°52′20.91′S 77°32′10.65′E / -37.8724750, 77.5362917He gets the name of Corporal Elcano.

Monuments

In the year 1800, a sculpture was erected in the main square of Guetaria, the work of the sculptor Alfonso Girardo Bergaz, which was destroyed during the siege that the town suffered in 1836 during the First Carlist War.

He currently has two sculptures in Getaria: one in the square and another near the port.

In the monastery of Santa Faz in Alicante there is a text from 1944 written on tiles, thanking the 24 gold ducats that Elcano donated to the monastery in 1526, although it was not until 1944 that the Spanish Armada donated 15,000 pesetas to fulfill the stipulated in the will.

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  Statue in Guetaria, work of sculptor Ricardo Bellver (1881).

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  I hit the Earth Zero Mill. Seville, (2010).

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  Elcano Monument in Guetaria, Style art decowith the sculpture Victoria alada Victorio Macho at the top. Inside the building an inscription recalls the names of the rest of the crew members who, together with Elcano, succeeded in completing the trip. It was opened in 1924.

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  Monument "Law Zero" in commemoration of the first world circumnavigation. Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Cadiz.

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  Monument to Juan Sebastián Elcano in Seville (Antonio Cano Correa, 1972)

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  Statue J. S. Elcano in Guetaria, near the port.