García de Nodal expedition

Did You Know?

• The Diego Ramirez Islands were the southernmost land reached by man for one and a half centuries.
• The expedition made the first European contact with southern Fuegian people.

Background

The García de Nodal expedition was crucial to the Spanish Empire because the discovery of an Atlantic-to-Pacific route alternative to the Strait of Magellan changed Spanish management of the southernmost American regions, already disturbed by Drake's emergence through the Strait in 1578. The brothers Bartolomé and Gonzalo García de Nodal led the expedition, with cosmographer Diego Ramírez de Arellano Chamás as chief navigator. Two similarly constructed vessels were used to prevent one ship from waiting for the other, a common hindrance in other expeditions. Sailing from Lisbon on September 27, 1618, they entered the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados in January 1619, naming it Estrecho de San Vicente. They spent weeks exploring and naming southern Tierra del Fuego and its islands, including Cape Horn, which they called Cabo San Ildefonso. They sailed south to 58º30'S, discovering the Diego Ramirez Islands and going farther into the Drake Passage. Turning north into the Pacific, they entered the Strait of Magellan from the west on February 25 on their first attempt, passed into the Atlantic on March 13, and returned to Spain on July 7, 1619.

Results and evaluation

The García de Nodal expedition delivered crucial charts and data to the Spanish Casa de Contratación, which remained classified for hundreds of years. Their voyage is regarded as exceptionally well-conducted for its time. The brothers both died on 5 September 1622 when a hurricane destroyed the fleet they were commanding as it sailed from Havana to Spain. Their legacy endures in Cape Horn geography: numerous points, rocks, and the highest peak on the Brunswick Peninsula bear their name. In the Diego Ramirez islands, the two main islands are named Bartolomé and Gonzalo, with the channel between called Canal Nodales. The Nodals confirmed the accuracy of Schouten’s account and demonstrated a genuine danger to Spain’s South American colonies. They also identified an alternate shipping route, but the Spanish government never acted on their findings, then or later.