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In his youth he was a mercenary and fought in Italy. Having earned money, he settled in Seville and became the captain of a merchant ship. He went broke and faced the threat of prison; To save himself, he signed up for Magellan's expedition.
He is known for leading Magellan's expedition after the latter's death and completing it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship Victoria from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return journey was very risky, since, in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he sailed the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, without approaching the coast. On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give it any name. In addition to him, 17 more people from the Victoria crew reached Spain (later, sailors from the Victoria and 4 people from the crew of the ship Trinidad, still detained by the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands, returned). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the “spice islands,” Elcano deliberately chose a route around the world.
For this expedition, King Carlos I (aka Emperor Charles V) assigned Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted a globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me (Latin: You were the first to circumnavigate me), and awarded him an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transylvanus compiled the first travel report, which became very famous in Europe.
Elcano also participated as captain of one of the ships in the Loaisa expedition, which was heading along the route laid by Magellan to the Spice Islands. The voyage turned out to be very difficult, and the mortality rate on the ships was extremely high. On July 30, 1526, Admiral Loayza died, appointing Elcano as his successor, who by that time was himself seriously ill. But he was not destined to remain an admiral for long. On August 6, his assistant Urdaneta noted in his journal: “The valiant Senor Juan Sebastian del Elcano has died.” On the same day, the waves closed over the body of the deceased.
In the navigator’s homeland, in Getaria, his memory is immortalized with a stone slab with the inscription: “... the illustrious 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, this slab was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave y Azi, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who was the first to travel around the world.”
He had an illegitimate son, Domingo Elcano, born to Maria Hernandez Dernialde.
28 In 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, which later became known as the Marianas.
In the same month, Magellan discovered the Philippine Islands, and on April 27, 1521, he died in a skirmish with local residents on the island of Matan. Elcano, stricken with scurvy, did not take part 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 the Rajah of Sebu and were treacherously killed. Fate again - for the umpteenth time - spared Elcano.
Karvalyo became the head of the flotilla. But there were only 115 people left on the three ships; There are many sick people among them. Therefore, the Concepcion was burned in the strait between the islands of Cebu and Bohol; and his team moved to the other two ships - "Victoria" and "Trinidad".
Both ships wandered between the islands for a long time, until finally, on November 8, 1521, they dropped anchor off the island of Tidore, one of the “Spice Islands” - the Moluccas. Then it was generally decided to continue sailing on one ship - the Victoria, of which Elcano had recently become captain, and leave the Trinidad in the Moluccas.
And Elcano managed to navigate his worm-eaten ship with a starving crew across the Indian Ocean and along the coast of Africa. A third of the team died, about a third was detained by the Portuguese, but still, on September 8, 1522, Victoria entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir. It was an unprecedented transition, unheard of in the history of navigation. Contemporaries wrote that Elcano surpassed King Solomon, the Argonauts and the cunning Odysseus. The first circumnavigation in history has been completed!
The king granted the navigator an annual pension of 500 gold ducats and knighted Elcano. The coat of arms assigned to Elcano (since then del Cano) immortalized his voyage. The coat of arms depicted two cinnamon sticks framed with nutmeg and cloves, and a golden castle topped with a helmet. Above the helmet is a globe with the Latin inscription: “You were the first to circle me.”
And finally, by a special decree, the king granted Elcano a pardon for selling the ship to a foreigner. But if it was quite simple to reward and forgive the brave captain, then resolving all the controversial issues related to the fate of the Moluccas turned out to be more difficult. The Spanish-Portuguese Congress met for a long time, but was never able to “divide” the islands located on the other side of the “apple of the earth” between the two powerful powers. And the Spanish government decided not to delay the departure of the second expedition to the Moluccas.
Goodbye La Coruña
La Coruña was considered the safest port in Spain, which “could accommodate all the fleets of the world.” The importance of the city increased even more when the Chamber of Indian Affairs was temporarily transferred here from Seville. This chamber developed plans for a new expedition to the Moluccas in order to finally establish Spanish dominance on these islands.
Elcano arrived in La Coruña full of bright hopes - he already saw himself as an admiral of the armada - and began equipping the flotilla. However, Charles I appointed as commander not Elcano, but a certain Jofre de Loais, a participant in many naval battles, but completely unfamiliar with navigation.
Elcano's pride was deeply wounded. In addition, from the royal chancellery came the “highest refusal” to Elcano’s request for payment of the annual pension granted to him of 500 gold ducats: the king ordered this amount to be paid only after returning from the expedition.
Thus, Elcano experienced the traditional ingratitude of the Spanish crown towards famous navigators. Before sailing, Elcano visited his native Getaria, where he, a famous sailor, easily managed to recruit many volunteers onto his ships: with a man who has walked around the “apple of the earth,” you will not be lost in the devil’s mouth, the port brethren reasoned.
In the early summer of 1525, Elcano brought his four ships to A Coruña 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 flotilla sailed in La Coruña it was very lively and solemn. At midnight, a huge fire was lit on Mount Hercules, on the site of the ruins of a Roman lighthouse. The city said goodbye to the sailors. The cries of the townspeople who treated the sailors with wine from leather bottles, the sobs of women and the hymns of pilgrims mixed with the sounds of the cheerful dance “La Muneira”. The sailors of the flotilla remembered this night for a long time. They were sent to another hemisphere, and they now faced a life full of dangers and hardships.
For the last time, Elcano walked under the narrow arch of Puerto de San Miguel and descended the sixteen pink steps to the shore. These steps, already completely erased, have survived to this day.
(1486 )Juan Sebastian del Cano(later the surname was changed to a more euphonious one Elcano; Spanish Juan Sebastián del Cano (Elcano) , Basque Juan Sebastian Elkano; / , Getaria, Basque Country, province of Gipuzkoa, Kingdom of Castile, now Spain - August 4, Pacific Ocean) - Spanish navigator, one of 18 people (participants of the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, who returned to Spain on the only one of the five surviving ships) who were the first to circumnavigate the earth ball .
Biography
In April 1520, he took part in the mutiny of Magellan's officers, who despaired of searching for a strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and were about to turn the ships around. During the mutiny he received command of the galleon San Antonio. However, he received mercy, like the rest of the rebels, except for Quesado, who committed the murder, captain Cartagena and one priest.
After Magellan's death in the Battle of Mactan, he led the expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship Victoria from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return journey was risky because, in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he sailed the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, without approaching the shore. Although part of the crew began to demand that the captain set a course for Mozambique, which belonged to the Portuguese crown, and surrender into the hands of the Portuguese, most of the sailors and Captain Elcano himself decided to try to sail to Spain at any cost. "Victoria" barely rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went non-stop to the northwest along the African coast for two months.
On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give it any name. In addition to him, 17 more people from the Victoria crew reached Spain (later, the sailors from the Victoria detained by the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands and 4 people from the crew of the ship Trinidad returned). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the “spice islands,” Elcano deliberately chose a route around the world.
For this expedition, Emperor Charles V awarded Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted a globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me(lat. You were the first to go around me), and assigned an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transylvanus compiled the first travel report, which became very famous in Europe.
Elcano participated as the captain of one of the ships in the expedition of García Jofre de Loaiza, which was heading along the route laid by Magellan to the Spice Islands. The voyage turned out to be very difficult, and the mortality rate on the ships was extremely high. On July 30, 1526, Admiral Loayza died, appointing Elcano as his successor, who by that time was himself seriously ill. On August 6, his assistant, Andres Urdaneta, noted in his journal: “The gallant Senor Juan Sebastian del Elcano has died.” On the same day the deceased was buried at sea. The new commander, Torivio Alonso Salazar, saw land (one of the Marshall Islands) two weeks later.
In the navigator’s homeland, in Getaria, the memory of Elcano was immortalized with a stone slab with the inscription: “... the illustrious 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, this slab was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave y Azi, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who was the first to travel around the world.”
Elcano had an illegitimate son, Domingo, born to Maria Hernandez Dernialde.
(1486 )Juan Sebastian del Cano(later the surname was changed to a more euphonious one Elcano; Spanish Juan Sebastián del Cano (Elcano) , Basque Juan Sebastian Elkano; / , Getaria, Basque Country, province of Gipuzkoa, Kingdom of Castile, now Spain - August 4, Pacific Ocean) - Spanish navigator, one of 18 people (participants of the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, who returned to Spain on the only one of the five surviving ships) who were the first to circumnavigate the earth ball .
Biography
In April 1520, he took part in the mutiny of Magellan's officers, who despaired of searching for a strait between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and were about to turn the ships around. During the mutiny he received command of the galleon San Antonio. However, he received mercy, like the rest of the rebels, except for Quesado, who committed the murder, captain Cartagena and one priest.
After Magellan's death in the Battle of Mactan, he led the expedition and completed it on September 8, 1522, bringing the ship Victoria from Southeast Asia to Spain. Elcano's return journey was risky because, in order to avoid clashes with the Portuguese, he sailed the Victoria through the southern waters of the Indian Ocean and around Africa, without approaching the shore. Although part of the crew began to demand that the captain set a course for Mozambique, which belonged to the Portuguese crown, and surrender into the hands of the Portuguese, most of the sailors and Captain Elcano himself decided to try to sail to Spain at any cost. "Victoria" barely rounded the Cape of Good Hope and then went non-stop to the northwest along the African coast for two months.
On March 18, 1522, Elcano discovered the island of Amsterdam, but did not give it any name. In addition to him, 17 more people from the Victoria crew reached Spain (later, the sailors from the Victoria detained by the Portuguese in the Cape Verde Islands and 4 people from the crew of the ship Trinidad returned). Unlike Magellan, who did not expect to continue his journey to the west after the “spice islands,” Elcano deliberately chose a route around the world.
For this expedition, Emperor Charles V awarded Elcano a personal coat of arms, which, among other things, depicted a globe with the motto Primus circumdedisti me(lat. You were the first to go around me), and assigned an annual pension. Based on his stories, the imperial secretary Maximilian Transylvanus compiled the first travel report, which became very famous in Europe.
Elcano participated as the captain of one of the ships in the expedition of García Jofre de Loaiza, which was heading along the route laid by Magellan to the Spice Islands. The voyage turned out to be very difficult, and the mortality rate on the ships was extremely high. On July 30, 1526, Admiral Loayza died, appointing Elcano as his successor, who by that time was himself seriously ill. On August 6, his assistant, Andres Urdaneta, noted in his journal: “The gallant Senor Juan Sebastian del Elcano has died.” On the same day the deceased was buried at sea. The new commander, Torivio Alonso Salazar, saw land (one of the Marshall Islands) two weeks later.
In the navigator’s homeland, in Getaria, the memory of Elcano was immortalized with a stone slab with the inscription: “... the illustrious 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, this slab was erected in 1661 by Don Pedro de Etave y Azi, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Pray for the repose of the soul of the one who was the first to travel around the world.”
Elcano had an illegitimate son, Domingo, born to Maria Hernandez Dernialde.
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 was spent in numerous battles, in which the Middle Ages as an era can lay claim to world leadership.
Returning home, Elcano took up a peaceful profession: he began a career as a captain of a merchant ship. In 1510, he again had to lead a warship: the Basque took part in the siege of the city of Tripoli. The team was hired, so payday arrived regularly. While fighting for Spain, Elcano paid for the work of his crew with Spanish money. But this time there was a financial failure and the sailors, for an as yet unknown reason, were left without money.
The young captain had no choice but to borrow funds. The creditors soon demanded their loan back, so the ship had to be sold. The very fact of selling a military vessel, and even to civilians, but to citizens of another country, automatically meant an accusation of treason.
There was only one way out for salvation - to get lost on the deck of one of the many ships. Then the captains were not interested in the biography of the team members, but in their professional training. Thus, the disgraced Elcano got on board one of Magellan’s ships, setting off on the first circumnavigation of the world.
This legendary expedition began on September 20, 1519. At the beginning of the voyage, Elcano was given an inconspicuous position - helmsman on the ship Concepcion.
Significance for modern times
The squadron consisted of five ships. Their captains, like many of the combined crew, were Spaniards. In those days, there were regular clashes between two countries - Spain and Portugal. This explains the massive refusal of Spanish sailors to perceive Magellan as a captain: Portuguese by origin. Social tension was aggravated by a powerful storm that carried away two ships with their crew.
In the spring of 1521, three ships moored near the Mariana Islands. Magellan died on this raid, and Elcano became the leader of the expedition. The total number of seafarers was below the minimum acceptable level for the safe operation of ships. This was caused by losses due to disease and skirmishes with the Aborigines and the Portuguese. To ensure a guaranteed return, all sailors were assembled on the Victoria ship into a combined team. After going through incredible difficulties, on September 8, 1522, the ship under the control of Elcano reached the Spanish coast.
For the successful completion of the world's first circumnavigation on a ship under the Spanish flag, King Carlos I forgave Elcano for the war crime of selling the ship and awarded him a lifelong pension of 500 ducats.
Today, traveling around the world is not possible for everyone: it will require a lot of money and time. But the awareness of the sphericity of our planet, which is familiar even to a schoolchild, was first proven in practice by Elcano and his team. Discovered by Magellan's expedition, in which Juan Sebastian del Cano was directly involved, the island of Amsterdam and the Mariana Archipelago are today important places for humanity. 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 all over the world, including Russia. The most famous of the islands of the archipelago is Guam. It preserves rock paintings of the first inhabitants (Chamorro people), as well as traces of Spanish colonization. The island has conditions for a comfortable beach and active sea holiday.
Conclusion
Elcano died on August 6, 1526, during another expedition for the sake of the wealth of the Spanish crown. In his homeland, in the city of Getaria, a monument was erected. Elcano had an illegitimate son, whose fate was lost in the turbulent years of the Middle Ages.
