 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Crown of Spain | |
| Name | Victoria |
| Namesake | Santa Maria de la Victoria |
| Owner | Crown of Spain |
| Acquired | 1518 |
| Renamed | 1519 |
| Fate | Disappeared en route to Seville from the Antilles, 1570[1] |
| Notes | First ship to circumnavigate the globe. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Carrack |
| Tonnage | 85 tons |
| Length | 18 to 21 m (59 to 69 ft) |
| Complement | 55 |
Victoria orNaoVictoria (Spanish for "Victory") was acarrack famed as the first ship to successfullycircumnavigate the world.[2]Victoria was part of theSpanishexpedition to theMoluccas (now Indonesia'sMaluku Islands) commanded by the explorerFerdinand Magellan.
Thecarrack (Spanish:nao) was built at aSpanish shipyard inOndarroa. Along with the four other ships, she was given to Magellan byKing Charles I ofSpain (laterEmperor Charles V of theHoly Roman Empire).Victoria was an 85-tonel ship[a] with an initial crew of about 42. The expedition'sflagship and Magellan's own command was the carrackTrinidad. The other ships were the carrackSan Antonio [es], the carrackConcepción, and thecaravel[5]Santiago [es].
The expedition began fromSeville on 10 August 1519 with five ships and entered the ocean atSanlúcar de Barrameda inSpain on September 20. However, only two of the ships reached their goal in the Moluccas. Thereafter,Victoria was the only ship to complete the return voyage, crossing uncharted waters of the Indian Ocean underJuan Sebastián de Elcano's command to sail around the world. She returned to Sanlúcar on 6 September 1522.[6]
Victoria was later repaired, bought by a merchant shipper and sailed for almost another fifty years before being lost with all hands on a trip from theAntilles toSeville in about 1570.[1]
TheVictoria was named after theMinim convent ofOur Lady of Victory ofTriana (Spanish:Convento de Nuestra Señora de la Victoria de Triana [Convento de la Victoria (Sevilla) [es]]) inSeville, where Magellan took his oath of allegiance to Charles I.[6] The convent was subsequentlydeconsecrated during theFrench occupation of Spain during theNapoleonic Wars and later demolished.
While agreeing on itsBasque origin, for a long period the vessel was thought to have been constructed inZarautz, next to Elcano's home townGetaria. However, research conducted by local historians has revealed that the naoVictoria was built at the shipyards of Ondarroa inBiscay. It was originally calledSanta Maria, owned by Domingo Apallua, aship pilot, and his son, Pedro Arismendi.[7]
According to a notarial document dating from 1518, the ship had been used in previous years for trade betweenCastile andEngland. Royal Castilian officials bought the ship at a set price of 800 goldducats, a figure at odds with the estimation on the ship's real value provided by the accountant of Magellan's expedition, and accepted by the owners only against their will.[7] The ship was renamedVictoria by Magellan after the chapel he frequented on his prayers inSeville, the Santa María de la Victoria.[7]
The voyage started with a crew of about 265 men aboard five ships, however only 18 men returned alive onVictoria, while many others had deserted. Many of the men died of malnutrition. At the beginning of the voyage,Luis de Mendoza was her captain. On 2 April 1520, after establishing a settlement inPuerto San Julian inPatagonia, a fierce mutiny involving three captains broke out but was ultimately quelled.[8]Antonio Pigafetta's and other reports state that Luis de Mendoza and Gaspar Quesada, captain ofConcepcion, were executed and their remains hung on gallows on the shore.[8][9]
Juan de Cartagena, captain ofSan Antonio, wasmarooned on the coast. According to Pigafetta, after Magellan's death on 27 April 1521, at theBattle of Mactan, remnants of the fleet tried to retrieve his body without success. Thereafter,Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese man who had sided with Magellan in facing the mutiny, andJoão Serrão were elected leaders of the expedition. On 1 May 1521, they were invited byRajah Humabon ofCebu to a banquet ashore to receive a gift for the king of Spain. At the banquet, most of the crew were killed or poisoned, including Duarte Barbosa and João Serrão, whom the natives wanted to exchange for Western weapons, but was left behind by the remaining crew. Pilot João Carvalho, who had survived the trap, then became the captain ofVictoria. In August, nearBorneo he was deposed andJuan Sebastián Elcano became captain for the remainder of the expedition.
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Out of an initial crew of 260 people, only 18 returned toSeville with theVictoria. This was due to a scarcity in food, and a deadly outbreak ofscurvy.[10] Others had sailed back with theSantiago, which deserted near the Strait of Magellan. Yet others would return in the following months and years after having been made prisoner by the Portuguese.
They were:
| Name | Rating | Nationality | Hometown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juan Sebastián Elcano | Master | Basque | Getaria |
| Francisco Albo | Pilot | Greek | Chios |
| Miguel de Rodas | Pilot | Greek | Rhodes |
| Juan de Acurio | Pilot | Basque | Bermeo |
| Antonio Pigafetta | Supernumerary | Venetian | Vicenza |
| Martín de Judicibus | Chief Steward | Genoese | Genoa |
| Hernando de Bustamante | Barber surgeon | Castilian | Alcántara |
| Nicholas the Greek | Mariner | Greek | Nafplion |
| Miguel Sánchez | Mariner | Greek | Rhodes |
| Antonio Hernández Colmenero | Mariner | Andalusian | Ayamonte |
| Francisco Rodrigues | Mariner | Portuguese | Seville |
| Juan Rodríguez | Mariner | Castilian | Huelva |
| Diego Carmena | Mariner | Galician | Baiona |
| Hans of Aachen | Gunner | German | Aachen |
| Juan de Arratia | Able Seaman | Basque | Bilbao |
| Vasco Gómez Gallego | Able Seaman | Galician | Baiona |
| Juan de Santandrés | Apprentice Seaman | Castilian | Cueto |
| Juan de Zubileta | Page | Basque | Barakaldo |
Three of these survivors left written records.Elcano wrote a letter to the Emperor on the very day of his return with a brief summary of the trip, and provided additional information to authors such asMaximilianus Transylvanus.[11] Francisco Albo kept a log book with the ship's positional data for every day of sailing.[12]Antonio Pigafetta wrote a detailed first-person account of the voyage. His work, which he began compiling in 1522, was partially published in France around 1525 under the title "Le voyage et nauigation".[13][14]
The long circumnavigation began in Seville in 1519 and returned toSanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522, after sailing 68,000 kilometres (42,000 mi), 35,000 kilometres (22,000 mi) of which was largely unknown to the crew. On 21 December 1521,Victoria sailed on fromTidore inIndonesia alone because the other ships left the convoy due to lack of rations. The ship was in terrible shape, with her sails torn and only kept afloat by continuous pumping of water.Victoria managed to return to Spain with a shipload of spices, the value of which was greater than the cost of the entire original fleet.[6]
Victoria was later repaired, bought by a merchant shipper and sailed for almost another fifty years before being lost with all hands on a trip from theAntilles toSeville about 1570.[1]
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TheVictoria was depicted in many sixteenth-century maps such as theSalviati planisphere orAbraham Orterlius's map of the Pacific Ocean.
A vignette of theVictoria forms the logo of theHakluyt Society, a London-basedtext publication society founded in 1846, which publishes scholarly editions ofprimary records of historic voyages, travels and other geographical material. The logo appears on the cover of all the Society's published volumes.
A replica of the ship was built in 1992 for theUniversal Expostion of that year in Seville. It is now operated by the Fundación Nao Victoria. Between 2004 and 2006, this replica repeated the journey of the original Nao Victoria,[15] "though taking a slightly different route".[16] It has continued to be maintained in seaworthy condition.[16]
To commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the first circumnavigation, the Fundación Nao Victoria, commissioned another replica of the nao from the Palmas de Punta Umbría shipyards. It was launched on February 11, 2020, with the destination of becoming a permanent exhibition next to theTorre del Oro.[17] The replica arrived in Seville on March 9, 2020.[18]
In 2006, to celebrate thebicentennial of Chile, an entrepreneur fromPunta Arenas foundeda project to build a replica of the ship.[19] The search for the original plans[clarification needed] ofNao Victoria took longer than expected and the project was delayed from 2006 to 2009. The replica was completed by 2011.
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Little Victoria, the first ship to complete a circumnavigation, had her own curious epilogue. No one thought to preserve the battered vessel as a testament of Magellan's great achievement. Instead, she was repaired, sold to a merchant for 106,274 maravedis, and returned to service, a workhorse of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. As late as 1570, she was still plying the Atlantic. En route to Seville from the Antilles, she disappeared without a trace; all hands on board were lost. It is assumed that she encountered a mid-Atlantic storm that led to her sinking, her wordless epitaph written on the restless waves.