Juan de Fuca | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ioannis Fokas (1536-06-10)10 June 1536 |
| Died | 23 July 1602(1602-07-23) (aged 66) Cephalonia |
| Occupation | Sailor |
Juan de Fuca (10 June 1536 – 23 July 1602)[1][2] was aGreeksailor and explorer under the patronage ofPhilip II ofSpain. He is best known for his claim to have explored theStrait of Anián—now known as theStrait of Juan de Fuca—betweenVancouver Island (now part ofBritish Columbia,Canada) and theOlympic Peninsula (northwesternWashington state in theUnited States).
"Juan de Fuca" is ahispanicization of theGreek nameIoannis Fokas orPhokas (Ἰωάννης Φωκᾶς),latinized asJohannes Phocas. However, his exact name is somewhat uncertain. Some sources state that his actual name was Apostolos Valerianos (Ἀπόστολος Βαλεριάνος). It is possible that he wasbaptized as Apostolos and later adopted the name Ioannis or Juan becauseApóstol is not a commonSpanish name. It is known that his father and grandfather bore the name Focas, so it seems likely that Valerianos was a nickname orepithet borrowed fromthe village where he grew up on Cephalonia.
De Fuca's grandfather Emmanouil Fokas (Ἐμμανουὴλ Φωκᾶς) fledConstantinople when itfell to Ottoman forces in 1453, accompanied by his brother Andronikos (Ἀνδρόνικος). The two settled first in thePeloponnese, where Andronikos remained, but in 1470 Emmanouil moved to the island ofCephalonia. Ioannis's father Iakovos (Ἰάκωβος) established himself in the village ofValerianos on the island and came to be known as "the Valeriano Fokas" (Φωκᾶς ὁ Βαλεριάνος,Fokas ho Valerianos) to distinguish him from his brothers.[2] De Fuca was born in Valerianos on 10 June 1536. Little is known about his life before he entered the service of Spain some time around 1555.[3]
De Fuca's early voyages were to theFar East, and he claimed to have arrived inNew Spain in 1587 when, offCabo San Lucas inBaja California, the EnglishprivateerThomas Cavendish seized hisgalleonSanta Ana and deposited him ashore. De Fuca was a well-traveled seaman, perfecting his skill as a pilot in the Spanish fleet. He claimed that KingPhilip II of Spain recognized him for his excellence and made him pilot of the Spanish navy in the West Indies (a title he held for forty years), but there is no record in any surviving Spanish archives of his name or position or of his visit to the royal court.[4] Before he made his famous trip up the northwest coast of the North American continent, he sailed to China, the Philippines and Mexico. TheStrait of Juan de Fuca between the United States of America and Canada was named for him by British CaptainCharles Barkley because it was at the same latitude that Juan de Fuca described as the location of theStrait of Anián.[5]
According to de Fuca's account, he undertook two voyages of exploration on the orders of theViceroy of New Spain,Luis de Velasco, marqués de Salinas, both of which were intended to find the fabled Strait of Anián, believed to be aNorthwest Passage, a sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The one voyage saw 200 soldiers and three small ships under the overall command of aSpanishcaptain (with de Fuca as pilot andmaster) assigned the task of finding the Strait of Anián and fortifying it against the English. This expedition failed when, allegedly due to the captain's malfeasance, the soldiersmutinied and returned home to California.[2] (Note that in this period, Spanish doctrine divided control of ships and fleets between the military commander, who was an army officer, and the sailing and navigation commander, who was a mariner.)
De Fuca's second voyage, in 1592, was more successful. Having sailed north with acaravel, apinnace, and a few armed marines, he returned toAcapulco and claimed to have found the strait, with a large island at its mouth, at around 47° northlatitude. The Strait of Juan de Fuca is in fact at around 48° N, although Fuca's account of sailing into it departs from reality, describing a region far different from what actually existed there.[6] During the voyage, De Fuca also noted a "high pinnacle or spired rock", which may have beenFuca Pillar, a tall, almost rectangular rock on the western shore ofCape Flattery at the northwestern extremity of theOlympic Peninsula, in what is now the U.S. state ofWashington, beside the Strait of Juan de Fuca – although De Fuca noted it being on the other side of the strait.[6]
Despite Velasco's repeated promises, however, De Fuca never received the great rewards he claimed as his due. After two years, and on the viceroy's urging, De Fuca traveled to Spain to make his case to the court in person. Disappointed again and disgusted with the Spanish, the aging Greek determined to retire to his home inKefallonia, but was in 1596 convinced by an Englishman,Michael Lok (also spelled "Locke" in English and French documents from the period), to offer his services to Spain's archenemy,Queen Elizabeth. Nothing came of Lok and De Fuca's proposals, but it is through Lok's account that the story of Juan de Fuca entered English letters.[2]
.jpg)
Because the only written evidence for De Fuca's voyages lay in Lok's account — researchers being unable to find records of the expedition in Spanish colonial archives — there was long much controversy over his discovery and indeed whether he had ever even existed as a real person; several scholars have dismissed Juan de Fuca as entirely fictitious, and the 18th-century British explorerCaptain Cook strongly doubted that the strait De Fuca claimed to have discovered even existed[7] (although Cook actually sailed past the Strait of Juan de Fuca without entering it, and did stop atNootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island). With later English exploration and settlement of the area, however, De Fuca's claims seemed much more credible.
In 1859, an American researcher, with the help of the U.S.Consul in theIonian Islands, was able to demonstrate not only that De Fuca had lived but also that his family and history were well-known on the islands.[2] In 2003,Samuel Bawlf posited that "Fuca's story was nothing more than a fabrication designed to extract money from the English government". According to Bawlf, De Fuca story's would have in fact been based onFrancis Drake's 1579 exploration of theNorthwest Passage at its western end. De Fuca would have learnt about the strait from a pilot named Morera, who was part of the Drake expedition. Morera miraculously returned on his own before getting arrested by the Spanish.[8]
When the English captainCharles William Barkley, sailing theImperial Eagle in 1787, (re)discovered the strait De Fuca had described, he renamed it theStrait of Juan de Fuca. TheJuan de Fuca Ridge and theJuan de Fuca Plate, atectonic plate underlying much of the coastline he explored, are in turn named for the Strait of Juan de Fuca.Juan de Fuca Provincial Park onVancouver Island's West Coast is also named for the strait, as is thehiking trail of the same name.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
